Just Too Clean

[cberkeley]

The carbs on my bike are Clean .....I mean Clean, as in inside and out, polished covers and bowls and stainless steel allen head bolts throughout ...the whole 9-yards. They're pretty, but I've been fighting with these suckers for the past six months to get them to work right, it's always one cylinder too lean or too rich or some problem. I've been through them over and over and can find nothing wrong with them.
It's a long weekend here so I been wrenching on the bike today and decided to throw on this nasty set of carbs which I had laying in a Junk box. No cleanup, no carb-spray, just dirty and complete with dinged-up philips head screws. The airscrew adjustments are still sealed. Fired up the bike and she started up after a few tries, running rough and would not idle right. I mounted the bike and went for a spin she backedfired a couple of times then, amazingly she settled right down, smooth as a baby's bottom, idle spot on 1100rpm, pulls and decelerates nicely, no hesitation, no backfire. Pulling the plugs, I find all four plugs burning a perfect tan color.
Guess what? .....now I have the dirtiest looking carbs on my bike and it's staying that way ....go figure! \\/
Later folks I'm going for a ride :-D

[Billyboy]

Cool! Just hose down those ones and rock on it!

[cberkeley]

I'm not even going to look at them too much!
Just came back from riding a bit, they work great.

[Mike_H]

I've been contemplating this too. I picked up a set for spares off Ebay for like 20 bucks. When I got them, I could tell they have never been opened up. Air screw covers are still on. I may just replace the bent choke rod, and see what happens.