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Forum Members,
For those of you not familiar with my posts I traveled to Loomis, Calif.from Noxon, Mt. to work on my brothers house. While here I bought myself a garaged 79 special with low miles that needed parts and refurbishing. This is the first thing in twenty years I purchased that wasn,t a neccessity. I wanted a bike with enough power to pull me out of a jamb but compact enough to manuvere on the endless unpaved roads of Montana. I have been pretty excited about my choice. I had a local mechanic put new tires, battery, fuel lines, rebuild carb, octy, and petcocks. He also timed and scyned the carbs. I took the bike out the night I picked it up from the mechanic and it ran beautifully for about 10 miles, then started missing and farting in firsrt gear from a stop. When I pulled back up on my brothers lawn the bike died and the engine seemed awfully hot. The next day I left for salt lake city to help my nephew with a job installing industrial rack. I left the mechanic a note before I left explaining how the bike acted up. I thought maybe he should 0rder a new pilot screw to replace the short one he showed me during the rebuild. A week into my three week job at salt lake the mechanic took the bike on a forty mile run, mostly freeway, open roads. He said the bike ran perfect, he wouldn,t hesitate to ride it to Mt. After returning from S.L. I took it for a ride through traffic. I made it about 10 stop lights and the bike started missing at low rpm. It then stalled every time I slowed for a stop and finally was only running on two cylinders. If I could get the bike to about 4000 rpm all cylinders kicked in. When I checked the plugs # 1and #2 were fouled with thick black stuff from running rich. Three days later I recieved a new pilot screw, installed it and adjusted the pilot screws down to 1 1/4 as he had them adjusted higher. I also added inline fuel filters and routed the fuel lines through the octy according to clymers as the mechanic had routed them another way. I took it out that night and for the first time I made a run, say 10 miles, through traffic and it ran strongly. The next day I took it out in the heat for another run through all types of roads. This time it started missing above 4000 rpm's and finally fouled two plugs and I was on two cylinders. This happened in about ten miles. This time the plugs were coated with a black mohair sweater, my oil level increased and fuel was running out my filter. I pulled the carb bank and watched the mechanic bench test the floats with gasoline. The #4 float was stuck and fuel ran out a small port higher in the throttle tube. He removed all the float bowls, checked the valve seat assembly and said they were as in good a shape as the best he has seen. He couldn't determine why the float stuck. He reset the float height to the same 25.7 and bench tested with gas. #2 and #4 floats were stuck and he seated them with a wrap on the sides. I tested the octy as per clymers instructions. I un-capped the two front primer ports on the petcocks and turned the right one to on. Gas ran out of the left petcock primer port. So, I plugged off the primer port petcocks and vacumm port on #2 intake boot and bypassed the octy straight to the carb banks. I took it out last night and again today numerous times. Each time upon returning checking the plugs and slightly turning the pilot screws down until what I figure is the black rich fouling residue hasn't appeared on the plugs anymore.
I'm writing this lengthy article for several reasons. One is that I am no mechanic. Everything I know or think I know about this bike I have learned from this forum. Thats remarkable in itself. Secondly, my son is flying in from spokane washington tommorrow with intentions of helping me alternate between my old van and this 1100 to get back home to Montana. It's about 1050 miles. I still have some concerns about the dependability of the bike at this time. I ask for any and all advice as regards what I have written and the following questions.
1. For some reason I feel this bike is still running to hot. when I stop, the heat radiating from the engine feels to hot. Is it normal for the pipes to pop or clink like a fat metal windchime when I turn the bike off. I can tell you that the mechanic checked the temperature of the engine at the doughnut pipe connection after his forty mile ride with some sort of remote pointing device. He told me the temperature was 550 degrees at all cylinders plus or minus 10 degrees.
2. I've changed the oil three times now because I'm pretty sure that once the plugs fouled and the float stuck I was dumping gas through the rings into the oil. One thing I've noticed with this bike is that if you put the recommended amount of oil in the engine, with or without filter change the oil level rises above the view window on a level surface. So it's difficult to gauge by the level. Is it correct to deduct that when a plug won't fire gas is spilling into the cylinder and entering the oil?
3. Are the stock pipes on the 79 special designed to emitt a popping sound when letting off the throttle while coming to a stop?
4. I see now that the best way to tell if my bike is firing ideally in all ranges is to examine the spark plug upon returning. To begin with how do I define the different parts of the plug I'm veiwing? There are the threads, the ceramic cone, the tip above the cone and the metal prong above the tip. Should the cone be entirely colored tan or gray or is it normal for part of it to still be white? Will there always be black stuff around the threads? I don't know what to look for on the tip or the prong.
5. My route home tommorrow is interstate 5 from Sacto. to Weed Calif. From Weed right up through central Oregon on 97. 84 west along the columbia river up through pasco/kenniwick and 395 north to 90 east into spokane. It's about 150 miles to my home from spokane through cda and sandpoint Idaho. Is there anyone along this route that might give assistance if I need it, or just to see if my bike is running well? What ever the case I salute you all.
live free, Rob Carroll Hwy 200 Noxon, Montana
For those of you not familiar with my posts I traveled to Loomis, Calif.from Noxon, Mt. to work on my brothers house. While here I bought myself a garaged 79 special with low miles that needed parts and refurbishing. This is the first thing in twenty years I purchased that wasn,t a neccessity. I wanted a bike with enough power to pull me out of a jamb but compact enough to manuvere on the endless unpaved roads of Montana. I have been pretty excited about my choice. I had a local mechanic put new tires, battery, fuel lines, rebuild carb, octy, and petcocks. He also timed and scyned the carbs. I took the bike out the night I picked it up from the mechanic and it ran beautifully for about 10 miles, then started missing and farting in firsrt gear from a stop. When I pulled back up on my brothers lawn the bike died and the engine seemed awfully hot. The next day I left for salt lake city to help my nephew with a job installing industrial rack. I left the mechanic a note before I left explaining how the bike acted up. I thought maybe he should 0rder a new pilot screw to replace the short one he showed me during the rebuild. A week into my three week job at salt lake the mechanic took the bike on a forty mile run, mostly freeway, open roads. He said the bike ran perfect, he wouldn,t hesitate to ride it to Mt. After returning from S.L. I took it for a ride through traffic. I made it about 10 stop lights and the bike started missing at low rpm. It then stalled every time I slowed for a stop and finally was only running on two cylinders. If I could get the bike to about 4000 rpm all cylinders kicked in. When I checked the plugs # 1and #2 were fouled with thick black stuff from running rich. Three days later I recieved a new pilot screw, installed it and adjusted the pilot screws down to 1 1/4 as he had them adjusted higher. I also added inline fuel filters and routed the fuel lines through the octy according to clymers as the mechanic had routed them another way. I took it out that night and for the first time I made a run, say 10 miles, through traffic and it ran strongly. The next day I took it out in the heat for another run through all types of roads. This time it started missing above 4000 rpm's and finally fouled two plugs and I was on two cylinders. This happened in about ten miles. This time the plugs were coated with a black mohair sweater, my oil level increased and fuel was running out my filter. I pulled the carb bank and watched the mechanic bench test the floats with gasoline. The #4 float was stuck and fuel ran out a small port higher in the throttle tube. He removed all the float bowls, checked the valve seat assembly and said they were as in good a shape as the best he has seen. He couldn't determine why the float stuck. He reset the float height to the same 25.7 and bench tested with gas. #2 and #4 floats were stuck and he seated them with a wrap on the sides. I tested the octy as per clymers instructions. I un-capped the two front primer ports on the petcocks and turned the right one to on. Gas ran out of the left petcock primer port. So, I plugged off the primer port petcocks and vacumm port on #2 intake boot and bypassed the octy straight to the carb banks. I took it out last night and again today numerous times. Each time upon returning checking the plugs and slightly turning the pilot screws down until what I figure is the black rich fouling residue hasn't appeared on the plugs anymore.
I'm writing this lengthy article for several reasons. One is that I am no mechanic. Everything I know or think I know about this bike I have learned from this forum. Thats remarkable in itself. Secondly, my son is flying in from spokane washington tommorrow with intentions of helping me alternate between my old van and this 1100 to get back home to Montana. It's about 1050 miles. I still have some concerns about the dependability of the bike at this time. I ask for any and all advice as regards what I have written and the following questions.
1. For some reason I feel this bike is still running to hot. when I stop, the heat radiating from the engine feels to hot. Is it normal for the pipes to pop or clink like a fat metal windchime when I turn the bike off. I can tell you that the mechanic checked the temperature of the engine at the doughnut pipe connection after his forty mile ride with some sort of remote pointing device. He told me the temperature was 550 degrees at all cylinders plus or minus 10 degrees.
2. I've changed the oil three times now because I'm pretty sure that once the plugs fouled and the float stuck I was dumping gas through the rings into the oil. One thing I've noticed with this bike is that if you put the recommended amount of oil in the engine, with or without filter change the oil level rises above the view window on a level surface. So it's difficult to gauge by the level. Is it correct to deduct that when a plug won't fire gas is spilling into the cylinder and entering the oil?
3. Are the stock pipes on the 79 special designed to emitt a popping sound when letting off the throttle while coming to a stop?
4. I see now that the best way to tell if my bike is firing ideally in all ranges is to examine the spark plug upon returning. To begin with how do I define the different parts of the plug I'm veiwing? There are the threads, the ceramic cone, the tip above the cone and the metal prong above the tip. Should the cone be entirely colored tan or gray or is it normal for part of it to still be white? Will there always be black stuff around the threads? I don't know what to look for on the tip or the prong.
5. My route home tommorrow is interstate 5 from Sacto. to Weed Calif. From Weed right up through central Oregon on 97. 84 west along the columbia river up through pasco/kenniwick and 395 north to 90 east into spokane. It's about 150 miles to my home from spokane through cda and sandpoint Idaho. Is there anyone along this route that might give assistance if I need it, or just to see if my bike is running well? What ever the case I salute you all.
live free, Rob Carroll Hwy 200 Noxon, Montana
You would need to do a proper throttle chop with NEW PLUGS to see how it's running during the cruise rpm range. The plugs don't necessarily color like they used to with these newer cleaner fuels. You should see a thin film of black around the base of the plug...the end of the threaded part, but the electrode should be fairly clear. There is a tech tip with photos and descriptions..
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