The Un-Syncable Carb Contest

[manshack_one]

Do Lee,

Thanks for the offer. that's tremendous.
Everything on the engine (including carbs, airbox, etc) is from a 79 special. everything else is off an 80 special.

What are you doing this weekend? Feel like meeting halfway in Houston? My sister lives over by 249 and Huffmeister. They don't have a garage but plenty of driveway space. I've also got a buddy in Sugarland that I could borrow some garage space from. haven't seen him in a while and have been wanting to drive his old corvette he restored. that would be even closer to you and you wouldn't have to get all the way in to Houston. he's in a subdivision I think almost out to grand parkway but I'd have to double check. haven't been to his house since he moved in about 4 yrs ago.

I could go into detail trying to explain what the bike feels like and what sounds it makes but I don't think it would take the place of a set of experienced eyes and ears. You'll be able to tell more in 30 seconds of listening than I could write down in 30 minutes. I'm only a mechanic in respect to replacing a part. But, I'm not a good enough mechanic right now to know which part to replace. i've learned a lot though and have a small troubleshooting repertoire.

Plus if we're around houston on the weekend there's always Union Cycle salvage in case we need a part that day.

[manshack_one]

well, i have a few other things to do to my bike thanks to andreas's box showing up today so I'm thinking of pulling the carbs (again) and doing a breadtie sync to start with and reset my floats. might as well because the tank and seat are already off. maybe by sunday I'll have a report on my progress.

Thanks to the many offers of help on my bike. If I can't get something straightened out this weekend I'll take up Do Lee on his cross shipping offer since I'll be out the weekend after this one.

Then when it's all said and done maybe I'll still take up some of your other offers to have a tech day at your place. with any luck I'll be driving the bike to you.

[mro]

Maybe your XS is just rebelling

with any luck I'll be driving the bike to you.

You can drive a car...
Y'all being in Texas, can drive a cow
BUT...ya ride a bike

mro

[manshack_one]

good gracious, don't start that topic up again.

[manshack_one]

if it ain't one thing it's another......

allright, got the bike running and decided to go for a practice run to a shop here in town. The whole time it's was like the bike was drowning. Hardly any power with the occasional roar to life. Got around the loop (our loop is a complete circle) a little bit and stopped at the intersection to turn right and head up the road to the shop. That's when I noticed the funeral procession heading the other way. Out of respect i pulled over behind another car. Then the bike died. Guess it was paying it's respects too. The bike was being really serious about it's respects because it didn't want to fire back up. I figured it finally flooded itself out so I sat on it a few minutes and waited. Sure enough about five minutes later it springs back to life so I rip down the road to the shop. Talked it over with him and gawked at his new digital carb sync (vaccuum mate something or other) for a little while. Checked the plugs and 2-4 were black while #1 was wet. Ok, so my home made sync officially sucks. I decide it's time to head home and pull the carbs again to get a visual on what all I've screwed up trying to get the carbs synced up.

Now the whole time I'd been having this great loud backfire from the right exhaust when slowing down for a stop and then blipping the throttle a little bit. So I was driving back in to town through a rough little neighborhood when I see a group of about 10 kids gathered in front of the car wash eyeballing each other's 20 inch rims and such. Well, I thought about doing it purposefully but didn't have time to decide to be cruel because the car in front of me tapped their brakes pretty hard so I had to also. The backfire shot out exactly when I was driving by them and I swear they must all run track or owe somebody a lot of money because they hit the ground running my friends. 3 or 4 dove behind their cars and the others either ran into the car wash or back towards the subdivision behind it. I nearly fell off my bike I was laughing so hard. Of course I'll probably have to watch myself next time I pass through there since I'm the only guy with a bike like that around here so I'm easily spotted.

So I get it home and the honey-do's catch up to me so there it sits in my garage again waiting for me to pull the carbs and either fix 'em or ship 'em off. Maybe I'll have another good story tomorrow but I doubt it. I've probably got grass higher than most people's snow banks in my front yard right now. So, I'll probably be fighting that instead.

[Ken Talbot]

Re: if it ain't one thing it's another......

Originally posted by manshack_one
The whole time it's was like the bike was drowning. Hardly any power with the occasional roar to life.

Catch me up here, Manshack - have you done anything with your pick-up coil wires? If you have not had to fix two or three breaks, it's almost a sure bet that this might be part of your problem.

[manshack_one]

Replaced the whole pickup coil assy underneath the cover. Plus it wasn't consistently happening. After my break at the shop it ran like a top until about 3/4 the way home then it started bogging down again.

I think I'm going to find the carbs are just out of whack still when I get them off tomorrow.


Oh, and I was joking about the backfire story. There were some kids there but I was just trying to make a funny with you guys.

The first part about the bike paying it's respects did happen though.

[jeffe]

From personal experience. I replaced the pick up coils with a new set. Complete wiring harness included. The bike started running bad shortly there after, then died completely. This was just a few hundred miles after replacement. After much work checking everything else out I pulled the sidecover. The conection where the wires from the harness outside the cover conect to the "bendy" wires inside the cover had come lose. It was only one of the wires. I repaired this and followed someones from the forums advice to give it a little extra slack. It has been over 20K miles now and no more problems. If you got yours from the same place I got mine it could be a common problem. I just can't remember where I got mine from.

[manshack_one]

And the winner is.....

Do Lee from Texas! He was able to take my poor badly adjusted carbs and turn them into my own personal rocket boosters! Got them back yesterday and it's seriously night and day. The pilots seem to be causing a little stumbling but it takes off like a roman candle at the mains! Plus I was fiddling with the idle while it was warming up and now the engine dies whenever I pull in the clutch and come to a complete stop. So, it would appear the idle and fuel mixture screws need a little tweaking but other than that those carbs are synced up and running free!!

Of course one thing being fixed means another breaks down. My speedo crapped out on me. I think that's my fault from trying to line up the tire between the rotor slots "just right". May have let the speedo assembly pull away from the hub a little too much. So much to do, so little daylight after work.

[John]

Check the tangs on the clutch meter (Yamaha's name for it, not mine) that is set into the wheel bearing cavity. I have installed the speedo drive improperly, and bent these tangs so that they will not engage the drive. Just take the wheel off, remove the 'clutch meter' and rebend the tangs to engage the drive unit.

[manshack_one]

"just take the wheel off" he says. You make it sound so easy. Just kidding with you. Last time i took it off parts went rolling everywhere and I spent an entire day trying to discern what order they went back on. To be honest I'm not sure I actually did it right. The rotors were real close to the slots on the forks so I re-adjusted it and that seems to be when my speedo died. I took the cable off the axle last night and manually spun it and can see the needle jumping so I'm sure it's something with my "adjustment". By the way, is the end of that cable supposed to be pointy or square? I'm just talking about the part that slides in side the little clutch assembly.

I'm still tinkering with my carbs and if anyone can stand a visit from me or if you're passing through town this weekend I sure could use a seasoned rider's opinion on how my bike handles/sounds, etc. I'll buy the beer!!