screwed up my idle mixture screws

[jamiem753]

I accidently moved the idle mixture screws on my 1978 xs1100 while atempting a carb sync does anyone know how i should reset them to factory settings i looked in the manual and all it says is set by factory do not move. Im guessing you close them all the way and set them to a certain amout of turns out?

[DGXSER]

Realistically, they need to be adjusted individualy to make each cylinder mixture correct. You can use a colortune, or tune by ear as described in the tech tips.

A good starting point is typically about 2 turns out from seated. You could also check how far each of the others are out from seated. Just count the turns to LIGHTLY seated, and then put them back. You should see they are all within a 1/2 turn to a turn form each other.

I emphasized lightly, because on the earlier model carbs, those mixture screw tips are tapered such that they can get stuck if turned in to far or to hard. So just tighten until you feel a touch extra resistance and then back it out again.

[Ken Talbot]

I emphasized lightly, because on the earlier model carbs, those mixture screw tips are tapered such that they can get stuck if turned in to far or to hard.

Make that VERY lightly - the tips of the early model screws are so fine they don't only get stuck, they break off and get stuck. There's a write-up in the carbs section here about getting out a broken tip. If you use the words broken tip removal in the search button at the top of the page, you'll see lots of horror stories about this.

This is intended to scare you into being very careful with those screws - VERY VERY careful.