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Ledkz1300 wrote: I'm not sure if I trust my patience to try it but I have a spare assembly to hone my skills if I wanted to.

I'd just as soon send it down to you and pay you to do it....

Trust yourself you can do it and you need to know how, experts are getting harder to find and next time you will say oh this shite again and fix it. Ask heaps of questions and remember there is no such thing as a stupid question here.
And remember after all it is just nuts and bolts.
It will give you a grear deal of satisfaction and confidence

Yes McZed... I am a bit chicken.

I was never good with mechanical things. I think most of my problem stemmed from a lack of patience but I am getting better with it as I age.

You guys are absolutely right. I should learn to do this myself. Good mechanics are becoming harder to find... as I've been finding out the hard way. My lack of tools was an issue but I've been buying them as I go. I really need to get a good bench vice.

Now that I've been through the engine installation process once, I figure I could do it again on my own next time... with help for the heavy lifting of course. My installation was particularly aggravating with the missing parts and all. Fortunately I had the donor bike to draw on. If I had pulled it out myself, I would have organized all the parts in bags with labels. I got all of my parts back from the asshole mechanic in 4 boxes. ALL the fasteners, bolts and small parts were thrown into a rubbermaid tub, I kid you not. In the days before we started, I did my best to organize and separate all the parts I recognized. The ones I didn't recognize I'd check for the comparable bolt or whatever on the 81 or in the manual, then paw through the oily box to find one that looked the same. A bunch were missing completely.

I don't know how this guy intended to put it back together. Did he have it organized and deliberately chose screw me? I paid him in full for his work so I have no idea why someone would do that. My friends told me I shouldn't have paid him a dime but I'm just not like that. No one can ever say I don't pay my bills.

I've taken the bike on a few runs and at first it worked great its developed a miss under load. The throttle is also not ramping down as fast has it had been. It is also running VERY rich. I pulled the plug boots off one by one and determined that they are all firing at least at idle. Tomorrow I'll pull the plugs out to try and locate which cylinder it isn't firing on. I'm guessing a fouled plug or possibly a plugged main jet. Probably both.

I'm learning

Scotch... the fit of my rubbers into the airbox is pretty loose. It was much easier than trying to slip them over the carbs after. This is probably not helping my carb problem either. I'll bet it leaks air like an old barn.

I know its been asked but I will ask again.... any good pod filters or other setups?

I don't know why I can't get pics to post but I'll try it again.

It worked this time.

As you can see, my outside pipes are turning blue and gold. The 4 middle ones aren't bad at all. Sucks to be me.

Starting turning blue minutes after I started it. Obviously the mixtures are screwed up. Tomorrow I'll pull all the plugs and see what is going one with them.

The blueing could be a couple things. If the exhaust is stainless it will do that anyway. If not, those two cylinders are running overly lean and burning too hot.

It may be worth getting an IR temperature gauge. You can kind of judge mixtures by header temps (hotter is lean, cooler is rich) and get a sense of where your mixtures are at, and what cylinders are firing.

As for the carb boots, I wouldn't worry too much about them if they are "upstream" of the carbs. All that's happening is a bit of unfiltered air is getting mixed in with the filtered. The carbs will sort out what they need. It's the air leaks "downstream" that you really have to worry about.

Thanks Lucien.

I pulled the plugs today. Number 1 cylinder was wet and black. The rest are dry with whitish ash. Hopefully this picture posts as sometime it won't work for me.