New member here, just bought an xs1100 special

[Aches n Pains]

This worked great for me. Removed octy. Set up with a T to feed from both sides of the tank to all four carbs. Added a shutoff on each side so I don't need to sweat the petcock leaking into the carbs. Always shut off the fuel line and ran the carbs dry if I wasn't going to be riding for a couple of weeks.

[TheNannerpus]

Thanks for sharing this. I like the crossover setup, to avoid starving fuel from one side of the carb. I'm going to incorporate that in my setup.

I have those exact same shutoffs that I was contemplating using. Which end do you have running into the carb? I like the idea of putting that valve as close to the carb as possible, to minimize the amount of fuel that could potentially leak.

[wbw750]

Here's the Youtube Link to the Aussie fella Steptoe.. site is Steptoexs11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsJ3xWA4V7g&ab_channel=Steptoexs11

He makes the carbs off/on job look easy!

[TheNannerpus]

So I've had several successful starts and idles and revs over the past couple of weeks without issue. Bike sounded great since I carbtuned.

I went ahead and ordered a Colortune from eBay, which arrived a few days ago. I had to get the 10mm version and an adapter off Amazon to make it work. But this was my last step before I put her back together and take it for a ride.

So I went to start up the bike on Monday and guess what? Gas leaking out of airbox. Again. I thought the colder temps here in eastern WI got a float needle stuck, so I tried tapping the bowls lightly with a wrench. I decided to keep it running and see what happens and eventually it stopped leaking. I'm pretty sure it's not float height since I set them all at 23.5mm.

Once it warmed up, I still couldn't take it off choke without it dying, and every time I restarted, gas leak again. I got a little (a lot) worried when the gas was leaking on the warmed up tailpipes. Shop towels and an extinguisher on standby kept my sanity.

And man, was it running rich! I couldn't believe how much gas was used up just from idling for a bit. There was a haze in the garage and I smelled of gas the rest of the night.

Just for fun, I hooked the Colortune up to #1 and it looked all right. But #2 was yellow even after turning the mixture screw all the way in. I wasn't sure if this was because I was still on half-choke, or the gas issue. Either way, I knew I had to pull the carbs again.

Super-bummed about it. I felt confident I'd get a ride on it before winter. I am not sure it will happen now.

From what I've read here, I should check if my new gaskets interfere with the floats at all. I also wonder if I should switch #2 and #3 main jets from 120 to 110. Any thoughts on that?

Also, is there supposed to be a drain tube out of the airbox? It's seems like a bad design for overflow in the airbox to drip onto a hot exhaust.

[cajun31]

So I've had several successful starts and idles and revs over the past couple of weeks without issue. Bike sounded great since I carbtuned.

I went ahead and ordered a Colortune from eBay, which arrived a few days ago. I had to get the 10mm version and an adapter off Amazon to make it work. But this was my last step before I put her back together and take it for a ride.

So I went to start up the bike on Monday and guess what? Gas leaking out of airbox. Again. I thought the colder temps here in eastern WI got a float needle stuck, so I tried tapping the bowls lightly with a wrench. I decided to keep it running and see what happens and eventually it stopped leaking. I'm pretty sure it's not float height since I set them all at 23.5mm.

Once it warmed up, I still couldn't take it off choke without it dying, and every time I restarted, gas leak again. I got a little (a lot) worried when the gas was leaking on the warmed up tailpipes. Shop towels and an extinguisher on standby kept my sanity.

And man, was it running rich! I couldn't believe how much gas was used up just from idling for a bit. There was a haze in the garage and I smelled of gas the rest of the night.

Just for fun, I hooked the Colortune up to #1 and it looked all right. But #2 was yellow even after turning the mixture screw all the way in. I wasn't sure if this was because I was still on half-choke, or the gas issue. Either way, I knew I had to pull the carbs again.

Super-bummed about it. I felt confident I'd get a ride on it before winter. I am not sure it will happen now.

From what I've read here, I should check if my new gaskets interfere with the floats at all. I also wonder if I should switch #2 and #3 main jets from 120 to 110. Any thoughts on that?

Also, is there supposed to be a drain tube out of the airbox? It's seems like a bad design for overflow in the airbox to drip onto a hot exhaust.

I have three Midnight Specials which basically are the same as your bike other then the color scheme. With that said... I run 110 main jets and 42.5 pilot jets in all of them. I also set the floats to exactly 23mm. One other thing I always do when I clean carbs is to manually take a drill bit about the size of the float pin and use that to clean the float where the float pin resides. That and carb cleaner to be sure the floats are not hanging on the pins. Doing away with the Octi is your decision but might help alleviate some of the flooding. Of course if the floats are set right, and the needle valve and seat are working correctly the gas should still not flood at the level you are experiencing. One other .. maybe stupid question... You do have the bike on the centerstand while you are doing all of the tuning etc..? As for the bike only running on choke indicates to me that you are still having a problem with the pilot circuit. Are all your parts genuine Mikuni? As for the Colortune if you had the choke fully engage all readings should be in the yellow range with all the extra fuel the choke is providing. You will not be able to tune them properly until you get the bike running normally on idle. Keep us posted.

[TheNannerpus]

cajun31

This thread is the latest news on my progress. The other thread (https://xs11.club/forum/idle-talk-fo...ing-from-carbs) is earlier.

Which means I'm pulling the carbs and parking the bike for the winter. 🙁