Finally Got One! In My Yard!

Not much from me lately, but I haven't been idle. Curious as to why my bike would run, but not idle, I went ahead and pulled the carbs. Let me say, I'm glad I did.

Not gonna lie- I'm not feeling bad about these carbs whatsoever. I've dealt with Mikuni's before (on my XS11). Compared to the Kei Hein carbs on my Goldwing, these things are a snap! Screw jets, only one primary air and fuel circuit (and one for the idle as well), rubber cv diaphragms.... I love it.

Sure enough, though, I found telltale traces of the consequences of no fuel filter...

Nothing gunked on, but a lot of that fine rust and particulate that loves to clog up idle jets. And clogged they were, at three of them. I found the best way to get them out of their home is to actually take a small screwdriver and grind it to shape- that way, they can come out, you can inspect them visually, and those passages can be blasted out much easier.

As far as the actual teardown- Carb 1 was great, carb 2 gave me some issues (float valve screw was frozen, and I accidentally bent the housing with my vice grips), and carb 3 was a nightmare. The PO had jacked up the pilot jets, so while I could get them unscrewed, they wouldn't fall past the threads for the cap. Ended up having to destroy them with an easy-out to remove them. So now I'm waiting on jets.

In the meantime, I turned my attention to some cosmetic issues. The main switch cover always annoyed me. It's a great idea, but after 30 years of use the plastic pin was wore down so much that the push nut couldn't keep it tight enough to the rest of the sidecover- it was so bad it would skip the stop and twist too far.

My solution? Cut off the post, carefully drill out what was left, epoxy in a bit of threaded rot (actually a bolt with the head cut off), and re-attach it to the sidecover with a washer and nut. So far, it seems to be working very well.

Next up was the headlight bucket. I was able to pull it from the fairing, but in addition to both of the light mounting holes being broken out, the PO had drilled a pair of holes in the upper back of the bucket to physically screw it into the fairing headlight adjuster. Faced with the choice of a $100 replacement bucket or $10 worth of JB PlasticWeld (which, BTW, is AMAZING), Bondo and Krylon, I chose the Bondo.

As stated, my jets should be arriving this week, so hopefully by the weekend I should have a runner. I really hope so, anyway. Along with powdercoating the headlight ears and blinkers AND painting my GL1200, this should be a busy (and hopefully productive) weekend.

If you want to see a complicated carb, check out the Suzuki RE5 carb, that thing is nasty! Your project is looking great, good luck!
Gareth

Ah, the RE5. A bike I would love to own, but NOT want to have to work on (or buy parts for).

Idle jets are set to show up today. Would love to say I could get them back on the bike by today, but I still need that goofy adaptor to check the fuel level. Much as I would love to just throw them on and hope for the best.... yeah, I know better.

hitchz1300 wrote: If you want to see a complicated carb, check out the Suzuki RE5 carb, that thing is nasty! Your project is looking great, good luck!
Gareth

Arrggg RE5 carbs now I will have nightmares for weeks, I thought I had managed to forget all that stuff :ohmy:

Got the carbs back together and back on the bike. This is with no adjustments whatsoever (save for the idle setting).

(Sorry about all the revving. It was dying before this vid was taken).

Not gonna lie. This thing sounds BEASTLY. The crap sound doesn't do it justice.

It ran well enough to take it up and down the road a bit. You can tell there is a LOT of weight there, especially when you're turning it a slow speed. But when you get on the gas? HOOOOO boy!

There's still issues. Cylinder 4 or 5 wasn't idling with the rest of them when I first started it, but it was firing at speed. I'm getting some popping out of it, possibly both sides, but definitely the left. I'll break out the colortune, but I'd like to switch the coils first. I've got a replacement set waiting.

Overall? I'm excited. Got a lot of adjusting to do, but this is a GREAT place to start at.

Been a LOOOOONG time since I was on here, but suffice to say I've not been just twiddling my thumbs...

Got everything back from the powdercoater and installed. I'm still working on various minor bits and pieces, and I still need to dig into the engine tuning in earnest, but I'm really liking the way this is shaping up. I'd love to do more, but this is only one bike project out of three- I have an '84 GL1200 Goldwing Standard that needs clear coat and some more pinstriping and a '77 GL1000 Goldwing that keeps eating head gaskets. Still- making progress.