Another Carburetor Project.

We got WAAAAAAY off topic here. This was Bill's (KZQ's) topic on sorting out the carbs and rejetting on a buddies bike, so how about an update Bill? Are you making any headway??

Hi Kawboy,
It's been too long since I've posted but I've made some real progress and just now hit a snag.
When I first loaded up this bike I noticed that the main harness entering the headlight nacell was getting pinched between the right side fork tube and the frame. It turned out that in attempting to reinstall the wiring harness it got misrouted in several places. Correcting the routing into the headlight required disconnecting and reconnecting EYERYTHING in there.
As I took the air box apart I realized that there was no functional seal between the upper and lower sections. I ended up fashioning a seal with EPDM foam glazing tape and silicone sealant. I hope I can get it open if I need to pull the carbs again.
The carbs themselves were straight forward with all three have a wet level above the bowl gasket. I used Scotch's cleaning tool and installed a DYNO Jet kit. I used the 100 mains and third notch as my first try.
Just as I got to road testing I had to drop back and sort out a charging problem which turned out to be loose connections at the three yellows coming from the stator, easy fix.
Of course, now that I was into the back end of the harness I couldn't understand why there was a jumper in a disconnected plug from something mounted under the battery shelf. That something turned out to be the Reserve Lighting Device. A quick trip into the FAQ section of this site informed me what the reserve lighting device was supposed to do and how it can be defeated with a simple jumper connection. Somebody's been down this very road before me.
Back to the road testing. The bike runs great. I had guessed that the exhaust system on the bike would be pretty open and I was correct. The bike is loud and a bit too sharp for my taste, but man does it go. It pulls evenly from 1200 through 5000 at which point the power was really coming on so I shut it down. I took it out for a 30 mile ride with new plugs so I could read the mixtures.
Unfortunately, while removing the plugs the number two plug never came loose, this after it went in fine. By never came loose I mean that I needed a wrench to turn it every turn until it came out. Once I got it out I found the first thread to be crushed. I put another plug with good threads into the same hole and it came out with the same damage. It left me wondering what could be down in there that's hard enough to damage the last thread?  I filed the damaged portion of the thread away but when I tried to reinstall it I couldn't get it in to the seat. The threads were destroyed.
So now I'm into a Time-Sert, Oh Well It could be/get worse.
Any way back to the plug readings. Numbers 1 & 6 are as clean as new out of the box with 2 through 5 showing different levels of soot. I've currently got the idle screws at 3 1/2 turns each so once I fix the spark plug threads I'll get to individually adjusting the idle screws.
Thanks for listening.
Bill
 

To cook that thousand words down to just a few. Plug #1 had previously been running foul and after wet setting the fuel level, the plug is clean.
Bill

Just food for thought Bill. Lisle makes a spark plug thread chaser which cleans up the threads without removing hardly any material.
I've  used heli- coils in the past for repairing a completely knarled hole but when replacing a plug that had been in a heli-coiled hole, the coil usually came out with the plug.
I  haven't seen tap inserts for sparkplug holes but tap inserts tend to be beefier than a heli-coil.

www.lislecorp.com/specialty-tools/spark-plug-hole-thread-chaser
Good luck

Thanks Kawboy,
I purchased a 14 by 1.25 plug tap which cleaned up the threads well enough to hold for now. Eventually it'll need a Time-Sert but for now that problem is behind me.

When I last pulled the plugs I found 1 & 6 to be too clean, sounds like a coil issue doesn't it. I know they were firing, at least at higher revs because the bike really came on at 5K. Plugs 2 thru 5 all read too rich. I took a guess and decided that I must have not done a proper cleaning of the low speed circuits on 1 & 6 and that 2 through 5 were telling me that the 100 mains were too big.
I pulled the carbs again, went through them again and swapped the 100 mains for 96s.

I rode it again today and found that the throttle response was quicker and that the power was more smoothly spread around. The big surge at 5 K is gone but the midrange is much stronger, also the bike launches better. I'll pull the plugs this evening to see what they have to say.

I'm thinking that I'm closer to the end of this project. I noticed that one of the screws that hold the faceplate onto the speedo/tach has vibrated out of it's hole.


 

Do any of you know how to disassemble the speedo/tach?

Thanks in advance
Bill

185633510157 is my eBay item number for the needles. There I show with photos and give instructions on how to open the gauge cover witout removing it from the bike.