80 SG carbs doing MUCH better...

[Bonz]

Update on my 80 SG... After taking a long, hot ride a couple weekends ago (180 miles, 95+ degree temps), and sync'ing the carbs a couple days later, #3 was dumping fuel into the airbox.

Everything looked good in the carbs, needles seating well, etc. Well, got 4 carb rebuild kits from GeorgeFix off of Ebay, and when I installed the new needle seats, I quickly discoverd my problem, and I believe someone alluded to this as well on another thread I started in regards to the problem.

Not knowing how tight of a fit is a good fit for the push-in type seats, I quickly realized that my old seats had very little tension on them from the O-ring, i.e. the fuel was more than likely coming from a leak in the seat seal vs. the needle not seating in the seat. The old seats pulled out with light pressure, the new ones were tighter than tight when I put them in...

CaptonZap cruised down to Palmer Lake from Denver yesterday, we spent the afternoon getting the SG put back together, and she runs like a watch.

SO, what I want to emphasize in this is I was chasing the right problem (fuel leaking in because of bad sealing) but wasn't aware of how loose the o-ring fit was in the seat, so my problem was that and not the needle itself seating poorly.

All of you oldies but goodies, and newbies alike, if you are dumping fuel into the airbox, check those needle seat o-rings if everything else is good, and I bet a dollar that is your problem as well.

The 4 carb rebuild kit set was $60, plus $4 to ship, so very nicely priced per kit, and the kits come with new airscrews, o-rings,washers and springs for the airscrews, a couple sets of main jets, bowl gasket, pilot jet, and I think that's all.

The floats are spot-on at .875" of height, which I realize is a bit low, and in the interest of time, I put it all back on the bike to make sure she ran well, and she is running like a Cadillac now. Sync'd the carbs up and man, what a fine running machine! Now I'm gonna pull the carbs and raise the floats a bit, as I feel (as does CaptonZap) that the float height is giving me a rich condition, esp. on the low end, and could be the reason for the flat spot I hit, esp. when warming up (when it will just sit there, going blaaaaaaahhhh) and not accelerate, yet not slow down, where I have to clutch it and re-engage to get the bike to pull cleanly.

Anyway, thanks for all the help this forum contributes and happy riding!

[DGXSER]

Nice job finding the problem. Glad she is running top notch for you now!!

[bikerphil]

Glad you got it sorted out.

[Bonz]

Took off timing cover, bogging problem SOLVED!

Took off the timing cover, everything looked good, I'd suck on the vacuum line and that part of the advance would rotate fine.

1) Pick up coil wires are fine, no breaks. I tugged on each wire from end to end, and no stretching of the insulation or anything to indicate a broken wire. As well, looked stock to me, no repairs have been made on them before.

For grins, I put a couple quick shots of graphite spray lube (for car door locks, etc) where the base plate rotates since that handn't seen any lube since Oct 1979 when the bike was built, and it DID seem to rotate just a bit easier by hand after that.

Took her out for an errand down to Colorado Springs, and it does not bog anymore. The on/off throttle transition is where it would bog before, and besides being bog free, the on/off transition is smoothed out dramatically and now feels like any other bike I've owned before.

The bike is NOW officially sorted out. Running like a relative sewing machine to how it was running before (and I thought it was pretty smooth already).

So, for all you guys with light throttle bogginess and/or non-smooth transitions from part to no throttle or no to part throttle, like cruising through town, TRY THAT AS A FIX!