Bike finally running and on the road!

[manshack_one]

How far out do you have to turn it to get to 1K rpms or so if you have it screwed all the way down?

[manshack_one]

I'm bumping this because I tired pretty quickly of taking my tank on and off because I couldn't find a screwdriver long enough to hit that knob. Could someone give me a starting point? How much out from all the way down do you have yours?

[JWSanders]

On mine, the Idle knob is pushing the arm on the carbs up about a 1/4 inch or so to get 1100 RPM's. I can adjust the idle down to around 800 with it all the way out and not touching the arm.

If you have it all the way down and are still getting high RPM's then you need to sync for sure.

The easiest way I've found to sync them is to remove the seat and put the tank on backwards where the seat would normally be, then connect the fuel lines. Easy access to the three adjustment screws after that.

This tech tip has a good method for synching them afterwards. It also describes in more detail how to set it up.

[manshack_one]

Originally posted by JWSanders


If you have it all the way down and are still getting high RPM's then you need to sync for sure.

Are you sure about it being all the way down? The manual says to turn it out to lower the rpms? And in an earlier post you said it pointed down but according to my manual it points right up at the driver. Just curious before I get into pulling the tank again.

[DiverRay]

The '79 idle screw is up, the 80 is down. This is the screw head, and you still turn "lefty loosy, righty tighty". If you loosen the screw, the idle SHOULD go down. I've found about 950 RPM to be best.

[manshack_one]

Haven't had time to reset the idle but I have noticed that since I ran it off and on for a day I now have a little puddle of oil next to the kickstand. Over about 2 days it got a stain on the garage floor about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. I moved the bike forward and overnight I have a puddle about 2 inches round. My mechanic buddy mentioned draining some of the oil so I guess it's possible he didn't seat the cover back right or something and the pressure pushed some of the oil out.

On another note, while I've been working with this bike the side covers have been off and both my feet touched the ground. I put them back on the other day and now I have to tiptoe because of the extra width the covers add. Is there a link to dropping the front end an inch or so somewhere? I can handle taking off from a lean if I have to but it feels good to have both feet on the ground.

And one last note, I bought some citrus engine degreaser to try and clean this thing up. Other than the airbox and electric, is there anywhere I shouldn't spray it? I want to clean it up good so I can try and identify where the oil leak is coming from.

[manshack_one]

Well I got her to start idling, albeit really roughly. And I've got a lot of smoke coming out when it warms up. I've dropped the idle mixture screws down to 1 turn and its still smoking.

I also got the front tire replaced, balanced and mounted. All for the price of a BBQ lunch. Dunlop D404 at Bikebandit for $54 shipped.

I figured out what the puddle was. Turns out when I was fiddling with it the day I got it running I didin't tighten down the #4 carb float bowl drain screw enough and it dripped down and to the left washing off some oil at the bottom. Tightened it up and put it on the center stand in the garage and didn't have any leaks over the next few days.

I finally found a place that carried the oil filter but can't get the drain plug off (glad I didn't see any jb weld on it . PO must have really worried about it leaking. A 3/4 socket is a little too big and I don't seem to have a metric that fits it. 16 is too small and 17 seems to loose.

It looks like I'm down to fine tuning. I'd really appreciate a visit if someone would like to help me sync the carbs and take a look at this smoking problem. (the bike, not me) I'll have a BBQ plate for you too! Oh, and watching a little football on my bigscreen can be fun too!


Sorry for the quality of the pic. Camera phone. Aren't those things handy?

[manshack_one]

Here's a jetting question:

Since my bike has a body of an '80 special and the engine of a '79 special, what size jets should I be using? I was looking at the chart in the tech tips but there's a big difference between 79 and 80. I believe the exhaust is factory for 1980.

[DiverRay]

The jetting AND float height depends on the CARBS. If you have the '80 carbs on the bike, set them up as an '80. If you have '79 carbs, or an early '80 that used the '79 style carbs, set it up as a '79. The jets are different because the early carbs used the mains for the pilot AND the mains. The later models used two separate jets, so the mains are smaller.
Is the smoke blue or black? Blue is oil, black is fuel, from running rich. If it's black smoke, check the float height, and the jet sizes, to see what needs to be adjusted.

[egsols]

If your idle adjusment knob points up and your carbs have only a drain in the middle bottom of the floats they are probably 79 carbs. If your float bowls have a drain screw with a tit that you can put a fuel line on then they are probably 80-81 carbs, unless someone changed float bowls. Also 78-79 carbs had brass floats, 80-81 had plastic. IIRC 78-79 had float vent tubes (2) which ran to the airbox, 80-81 didn't. Since you said you didn't tighten the drain screw on 4 I'm assuming your carbs are probably '80.

[manshack_one]

No they sound like 79 carbs because the idle adjustment knob does point up and I should have said the drain bolt was loose, not a screw.

I was just wondering if the stock exhaust from an 80 special would interfere with jetting the carbs stock for 79 special. I guess I'll find a minute somewhere to pull the carbs and take better notes this time.

[egsols]

If it is running stock 80 exhaust you are probably okay with the jetting on the 79 carbs, however, some of the more experienced members may offer more insight. If I remember the 80's were tuned down slightly from the '79s so if my noggin is working right that means that the 79 might actually run a little on the rich side with 80 exhaust.

[manshack_one]

Well, rich is the problem I'm fighting right now so that would make sense. Don't you just love re-doing all the work the PO did because they didn't have XS11.com to point them in the right direction?

[egsols]

Just curious Manshack... when you were first fiddling with the idle did you touch any of the screws at the front side of the carbs? Doing that will throw them way out of sync. (if they were in sync before) Also you mentioned that you had played with the idle mixture screws. I believe factory specs for 79 are to turn them all the way in until lighlty seated then back out 1 1/4 turns.

Best bet before re-jetting is to check float heights on all 4 (25.7mm) and then try syncing. If no good you may have rejet.

[manshack_one]

The PO did all the fiddling. I'm trying to adjust everything back to stock specs. The idle mixture screws were all the way out so I turned those back down. It still tries to idle too high after warming up. The choke will flood it almost instantly and I only have to pull it out for about 2 seconds then start it and immediately push it back in. I haven't touched the sync screws yet.

I'm just going to pull the carbs and recheck everything, take lots of pictures, write down all the jet sizes and bench sync with the bread wire then see what it runs like.