fuel shutoff, replumbing, & individual filters

[Wayne]

I recently read that the indy filters can have problems while riding in the rain. They supposedly will suck water up into the carbs. Have you guys with indys had a prob with this?

[Mike Hart]

I heard that too, but I never heard anyone tell me it actually happened to them. My Bandit has seen lots of rain, and never stumbled once.

Where are your legs? How is rain going to even get in there? Raining sideways? If it's raining real hard, are you going to be at WOT to create some vacuum to pull some moisture in from around your legs?

I suppose you wouldn't want to direct a hard flow at them from your hose when washing the bike...

[crunchbird]

I found that busy traffic on a soggy road kicked up a lot of sludge which clogged the filters in a few hundred miles. Watch for that. Water doesn't get sucked into the carbs through the foam filters, though, and I haven't noticed that they get soggy either.

[xjguy]

mike took the words out of my mouth- my lines run below carbs and fuel flow seems to be fine- even when the floats were frozen to the shafts- fuel just flowed freely all over my garage floor as i rapidly pushed the xj away from the gas hot water heater. the challenge is what makes it worth while! and like some of you i doubt i'll ever be be ready to accept "WHAT IS" AND LOOK FOR "WHAT COULD BE" instead.

[xjguy]

now that i think of it maybe i neeed to read "zen and the art of motorcyvcle maintenance" again- it's been 30 years since my last visit!
xj guy

[Jdwags]

Mike,

Mine are still pretty dark, all stock.. and im gonna get indy's when i can.. maybe we even out each other????

Just a thought..

Jeff

[Mike Hart]

the saga continues...

Tried 117.5 mains today - they are just as white as the 115's!!!

Hope to take a 'real' ride tomorrow, and look again. It runs real nice, feels strong, but I didn't really get a chance today to see if it feels 'thirsty' over 7000rpm...hmmm sounds like fun!

[tsears]

plug tests

Hi Mike,

I am doing these same tests on my '81 right now. My question is: do you clean the plugs after each test (wire brush, ...)? Do you have more than one set of plugs?

Thanks in advance,
Tim

[Mike Hart]

Tim, right now, the motor is cleaning the plugs for me

As long as the plugs are not really fouled (they spark and run good), they will get recolored by the result of your mixture changes. Sounds like you are running rich then?

[tsears]

reading plugs

Hi Mike,

Sorry, couldn't look at the bike today. I recently cleaned the carbs on this bike and put in carb kits. The mains are now 110's and the pilots are ??? (unmarked pilots that came in the kit.) This bike ran great (with 128 mains and 42.5 pilots) before I let it sit for a looong time.

How much effect at freeway speeds do the piots have?

The bike runs ok-ish but the plugs are black except between the electrode and tip, which is gray (even after a 30 second 6k rpm run up a long steady grade - and sut down with kill switch). But I never cleaned them from a prior over-rich situation, hence my question.

Thanks,
Tim

[Mike Hart]

Sid Clarke had been battling a rich condition for a while, until at tech day at the Vancouver Island rally, someone noticed he had non-stock pilots. Put in stock 42.5's and it ran better than it ever had before! Your old pilots should be cleanable (unless they had to be ruined to get them out). Worth a try!

[Mike Hart]

unbaleebable

I'm going nuts here! The good news is, I can now change a set of main jets, from running to running, in 22 minutes. The bad news is, I've gone up to 120 mains (from 112.5, 3 sizes) and am still running too lean - spark plugs are white as new.

It idles great, starts easy, will even idle at 800 rpm after just a minute of choke when stone cold, blip test is fine, pulls pretty darn hard (can't say for sure, it's too close to tell objectively how it's pulling compared to before I did any of this work).

I'm having trouble explaining this to myself - I checked fuel level twice, once before installing the first set of oversize mains, once after, it didn't change, fuel levels are +/- 1mm (spec) and in the right range. Idle screws are 3.5 turns out (adjusted for max smooth idle speed). Besides, it can't be an idle circuit prob, my plug-coloring tests don't allow any idling after a hard run.

I tried riding 'normally' and checking, still white.

What is really weird is, it has run good at each bump up in size, tho it did seem a bit stronger this last time out with 120's.

I'm speculating at this point that the XJ air filter is more restrictive than the XS's, and the exhaust perhaps more free flowing (at least now, it's louder than it was when it was new), and I need to go up bigger yet...

Any ideas, anyone? Now that I'm up 3 sizes, is a bigger pilot needed?

[Ken Talbot]

Just for the heck of it, Mike, try resetting the floats about 2mm higher than they are now (i.e. so you get 2mm more fuel depth in the bowls) while leaving everything else as is. When I worked over Tsunami last spring, I went the other way because I had been running way too rich. 2mm made a world of difference, with no other jet changes at all. YMMV

[Mike Hart]

Probably worth a try at this point, Ken, thanks!

The close-up in your fuel-level tip is right where mine are now, +/- 1mm. You went 2mm down from that height? Okay, I'll go 2mm up, and let you know what happens.

Wish I had your nifty carb stand! I'll have to improvise.

[tsears]

lean running

Hi Mike (and everyone else!),

FYI, on my '80 SG, I run 145 mains, 42.5 pilots, and my plugs are still grayish brown - definitely on the gray side. The bike has 4:1 exhaust, indy filters, and accell coils, and gets 30 mpg. I just got a set 45 pilots that I'll try soon.

And 22 minutes for a main jet change probably will qualify you for a Nascar pit crew spot!

Tim