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Good morning peoples,
I picked up this bike about five weeks ago for $800. It was running when I bought it but running pretty rough. It was obvious the carbs were out of sync b/c you could actually hear them hitting the different fuel circuits at separate times. This made for a rough idle but something i thought I could work with given a set of vacuum gauges and afternoon of rebuild. I was even able to get in a short ride with it before trailoring it home.
After getting it home and pulling the carbs for rebuild I quickly find one of my idle issues. The idle adjust screw/needle on carb#2 was broken off in the small passageway leading from the carb throat. Add to that the fact that one of the posts which holds the float pin had been broken and relashed to the carb body with a piece of wire (pics of this coming later), and I decided it was time for some replacement parts.
While awaiting a new set of carbs bought off Ebay for $160 I moved on to some other items on the restoration checklist. Changing the oil/filter also revealed the oil cover studs were completely worn off and needed replacing. Another couple of days for these to come in but no big deal to replace them.
Did an inspection of valve clearance. All but one were found to have absolutely little to no clearance, measuring at .003 or not at all. Another week for new shims to come in..but the second time going through the procedure was significantly faster. After I had the shims in hand it wasn't more than 45 mins to replace 7 out of the 8.
Fast forward to this week. I replaced the damaged #2 carb after full disassembly and cleaning (no soak this time since there wasn't much sediment in the bowls and they looked pretty clean inside and out) of the three other carbs as well as my new/used #2 carb from ebay. Installed a new set of o-rings across the board thanks to Robert B and www.Cycleorings.com while I had them out, and got them back on the bike after some huffing/puffing and cajoling to get them back into the worn intake boots (need to replace these next).
But it was a full bike again for the first time in a few weeks! Reinstalled the tank, primed the carbs and hit the start switch. It turned over but wasn't catching at all. The PO had installed an inline fuel filter so I could see fuel was flowing to the carbs. Pulled #1 and #2 plugs and saw no spark.
Checked fuses; looked good. Checked coil resistance; looked good. Double checked all electrical connections from stator to R/R since I had earlier unplugged to inspect the stator resistance, seemed good but i have a feeling one of the old bullet connectors wasn't fully seated. After this I got some spark back but a weak orange one. Checked battery voltage, measured at 12.6v so pulled and put on the charger. A few hours later its measuring at 13.6v and after reinstalling I get a nice blue spark off each plug.
Pull the choke, hit the starter and after a few tries i hear it starting to catch. Staying on the starter for another 10 seconds or so and it roars to life sounding better than ever. I only did a bench sync so far but it already sounds so much better than it did when I got it.
I want to thank every person that's contributed to this forum. If it wasn't for all the detailed write-ups and even the clueless, shot in the dark questions that actually get answered instead of ridiculed like on some forums, I don't think I would have made it this far.
Next up is new tires and hopefully diagnosis of my non-working headlight. Wish me luck with the electrical peeps!
I picked up this bike about five weeks ago for $800. It was running when I bought it but running pretty rough. It was obvious the carbs were out of sync b/c you could actually hear them hitting the different fuel circuits at separate times. This made for a rough idle but something i thought I could work with given a set of vacuum gauges and afternoon of rebuild. I was even able to get in a short ride with it before trailoring it home.
After getting it home and pulling the carbs for rebuild I quickly find one of my idle issues. The idle adjust screw/needle on carb#2 was broken off in the small passageway leading from the carb throat. Add to that the fact that one of the posts which holds the float pin had been broken and relashed to the carb body with a piece of wire (pics of this coming later), and I decided it was time for some replacement parts.
While awaiting a new set of carbs bought off Ebay for $160 I moved on to some other items on the restoration checklist. Changing the oil/filter also revealed the oil cover studs were completely worn off and needed replacing. Another couple of days for these to come in but no big deal to replace them.
Did an inspection of valve clearance. All but one were found to have absolutely little to no clearance, measuring at .003 or not at all. Another week for new shims to come in..but the second time going through the procedure was significantly faster. After I had the shims in hand it wasn't more than 45 mins to replace 7 out of the 8.
Fast forward to this week. I replaced the damaged #2 carb after full disassembly and cleaning (no soak this time since there wasn't much sediment in the bowls and they looked pretty clean inside and out) of the three other carbs as well as my new/used #2 carb from ebay. Installed a new set of o-rings across the board thanks to Robert B and www.Cycleorings.com while I had them out, and got them back on the bike after some huffing/puffing and cajoling to get them back into the worn intake boots (need to replace these next).
But it was a full bike again for the first time in a few weeks! Reinstalled the tank, primed the carbs and hit the start switch. It turned over but wasn't catching at all. The PO had installed an inline fuel filter so I could see fuel was flowing to the carbs. Pulled #1 and #2 plugs and saw no spark.
Checked fuses; looked good. Checked coil resistance; looked good. Double checked all electrical connections from stator to R/R since I had earlier unplugged to inspect the stator resistance, seemed good but i have a feeling one of the old bullet connectors wasn't fully seated. After this I got some spark back but a weak orange one. Checked battery voltage, measured at 12.6v so pulled and put on the charger. A few hours later its measuring at 13.6v and after reinstalling I get a nice blue spark off each plug.
Pull the choke, hit the starter and after a few tries i hear it starting to catch. Staying on the starter for another 10 seconds or so and it roars to life sounding better than ever. I only did a bench sync so far but it already sounds so much better than it did when I got it.
I want to thank every person that's contributed to this forum. If it wasn't for all the detailed write-ups and even the clueless, shot in the dark questions that actually get answered instead of ridiculed like on some forums, I don't think I would have made it this far.
Next up is new tires and hopefully diagnosis of my non-working headlight. Wish me luck with the electrical peeps!
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