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Carbs still giving me problems

2672 Views 35 Replies 16 Participants Last post by  johnnynogood
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I ran 3 tanks of gas out with half a can of seafoam in each tank of gas with little change if any. i ordered 4 air cutoff valves and 4 manifold to carb o rings (which were toooo small).

We spent the day putting the valves in and the original air cutoffs looked like new. there was 1 o ring for the carb to manifold that looked bad so we doctored it a bit and put it back in. we fixed the sticking choke on one of the carbs and adjusted the butterflies a bit. the bike runs better now but not great.

it now acts like it wants to idle at about 1000 rpm after its good and warmed up. it does this knocking sound when its idleing low, (sounds like trying to take off in a standard shift car in 3rd gear from a stand still). it will idle for about a minute and then die. you can smell its getting may too much gas. my friend called this spark knock or pre ignition.

after the partial rebuild it no longer revs up 2500 rpm when ya pull the clutch in to switch gears, it revs up about 500 rpm now which shifting. this might improve after riding it some.

my friend seems to think its not getting enough air at idle.

i myself am at a loss here. checked the needle valves and there sharp and not bent. sprayed starting fluid and wd40 around it while it was running looking for it sucking it in...nothing.

i had another card guy look at it a few days back and he suggested it was air cuttoffs and the choke sticking.

im running out of cash to do much more to it and im at a loss.

anyone?
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Have you balanced (synced) the carbs? Usually a knocking noise at low RPM's indicates an unbalanced carb situation.
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I agree. The carbs need to be synced with a vacuum guage. If your float levels are too high even by 2 mm, it will run rich.

The bike should idle at 1000 rpm.

Everything you describe is un ballanced carbs, You are close to running well!
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I suggest pulling the carb rack out again and double checking everything. If you have a compressed air source blow through the idle jets and make sure they all sound the same. Check the float height and make sure they're all the same. You do know to check them with the rack almost standing vertical and the needles closed but with no weight on the little spring in the middle of the needle? Make sure the idle mixture screws are all turned out the same. Last but not least bench synch the carbs. I use a drill bit for this.
From this point on it is just check and double check, measure and measure again. It shouldn't cost you anything but your time.
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k1w1t1m wrote:
I suggest pulling the carb rack out again and double checking everything. If you have a compressed air source blow through the idle jets and make sure they all sound the same. Check the float height and make sure they're all the same. You do know to check them with the rack almost standing vertical and the needles closed but with no weight on the little spring in the middle of the needle? Make sure the idle mixture screws are all turned out the same. Last but not least bench synch the carbs. I use a drill bit for this.
From this point on it is just check and double check, measure and measure again. It shouldn't cost you anything but your time.
Great! sounds like i am close to getting it running right.

K1w1t1m
what height should the floats be typically?
the idle mixture screws are the ones that kinda resemble a flag right?
when you say to bench sync the carbs using a drill bit...i dont understand that. do you mean making sure the butterflies are closing and opening at the same time? we made sure the butterflies are closing at the same time.
(we are not afraid to try just need more explanation)

we didnt do anything in the vertical except with the butterflies.

if you could give me a little more detail i would greatly appreciate it. we are trying to fix it out of a garage with an ordinary set of tools typically just enough to work on a car.

i do know someone with sync gauges but when they worked on the bike they synced them by ear and refused to use the gauges. wonder what it would cost to have them syncd at a shop?
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The float level should be 15.5mm. I use an adjustable square to set mine. http://www.hscripts.com/freeimages/icons/mechanical/adjustable-square-clipart.php?pagenum=2
Do a search for randakk and read his website (DO THIS FIRST). He has tons of info and pics That show how to set the floats. I could explain but a picture is worth a thousand words. There is also a great tutorial on the naked goldwing site but you have to wait for your registration to be accepted.
The idle mixture screws do have the stop on them that looks like a flag, yes. You can remove the flag(stop) with some heat from a propane torch.
The idle mixture screws should be set at 1 1/4 turns out from lightly seated if the idle jet is pressed in (1980/1). '82 and 83s have screw in idle jets and I think the idle mixture screw is set at 3 turns out from lightly seated.
To bench synch assemble the carb rack including the linkages. Adjust the throttle idle screw (you may have to use a paint brush handle or similar) to open the throttle butterflies so that you can slip a drill bit shank or something similar between the #3 throttle butterfly and carb bore. The drill shank needs to just drag. Adjust the idle screw to open or close the butterfly so the shank just drags. Now without touching the idle screw do the same to #1 but adjust this with the linkage locknut and screw. Go backwards and forwards between the #3 and #1 carb and make sure they're exactly the same. Move onto #4 do the same until it's the same as #3, and then do #2 in the same manner. Check and recheck. It is time consuming and a bit tedious but well worth the effort especially if you're like me and don't like spending.
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Use a thin feeler gauge (.002") to bench synch. Set the idle screw to where it drags on #3 then match the rest. Sorry Tim but a drill bit is just too big.
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ty for the info im going to study it and try again.
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Whatever works. :) I used something to space the idle screw so a drill bit will work.
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As an aside, you're simply not going to get those carbs synced within 2 inches of mercury doing it by ear. I know you're running out of money quickly, but if at all possible, I'd suggest picking up a couple vaccume guages at a minimum and doing it right. Besides, you really should be syncing the carbs every year or so anyway, so you'll use the guages again and again. I prefer real mercury guages, but if you calibrate vaccume guages properly, they will certainly do the trick.

Johnny
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hey guys thanks for the great advice! i decided to ride it a little after the partial rebuild and parked it in the garage and guess what? its idling now somewhat stable at 1k rpm!!!! woot!! the longer i let it idle the better it was idling so i kept having to turn down the idle screw to get it to idle at 1k. sounds like it cleaned something out that the last carb guru forgot to clean. the tack needle is jumping by about 200 rpm with the heartbeat of the motor though and theres still spark knock.

aside from that its running better. it still seems to be running a but poorly until you lay on the gas while riding it though.

so syncing and adjusting fuel mixture screws is what i need to do now right?
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Yes, sounds like you just have to dial it in now! Syncing those carbs will have a huge improvement in your bottom end & the knock should be gone!
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ok. i got em synced as good as i could. carb 1 was way out and showing 3 times as high as the rest. i dialed them in close as i could. took me all day.

first thing i noticed is it still spark knocks and almost refuses to idle. i adjusted the idle but its either 3k rpm or 1k rpm and dies soon after...no in between. i took it down the road and it runs a lil bit better but still feels like its running bad at normal throttle. when i get on it boy does it scream and sounds great! its just that. it is still revving up when ya pull in the clutch to shift gears about 1k rpm.

this is what i have done so far.

cleaned the carbs
2 bottles of seafoam
replaced air cuttoffs
replaced manifold to carb o rings in the horns
and synced it

after i replaced air cuttoffs i was able to get it to idle at 1k rpm no problem but with spark knock and feeling like its running on 3 cyl at normal throttle

after i replaced manifold to carb o rings and synced it, it doesnt want to idle at all and im back to where i was when i first got the bike.

during the syncing, (took from 2 to 8 pm and wasnt easy cause it wouldnt idle for me) i did notice a blue flash under the gas tank twice.



whats next to try?
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Looks like the first thing you have to do is locate and replace or repair the bad wire or whatever is causing that blue flash. It will be impossible to tune if it's missing because of something like that.
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Sounds like you still have a vacume leak to me... You guys know I ama new wing owner but no stranger to vacume devices.

Is it possible to be sucking a bit of air in from where it should not that could cause what he is seeing hwere>?
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SeaFoam and recurring problems

SeaFoam is great stuff but can cause some real problems if there is a lot of do-do in the carbs, lines and tank

Low idle jets can easily clog if the SeaFoam is braking the stuff loose and it is staying in the carbs

Crack a drain on the bowl and see if any crap comes out
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Sounds like some good advice been given , but please tell me you checked compression and checked valves. they are vaccum carbs.
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Sounds like some good advice been given , but please tell me you checked compression and checked valves. they are vaccum carbs.
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Find the blue flash. That may not be the problem...but it is a problem...and certainly may be contributing to the problem.
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