Bonehead mistake

[jereme_d]

Okay here is what happened. i bought a 1980 550 earlier this summer and set about cheaning it up and getting it running. took off the carbes disassembled cleaned and reassembled them. Bike wouldn't start afterwards. after much frustration I had my moment of clarity and realized that I had the idle jets set in to far and the bike was running insanely lean. Took the carbs off again and turned them all out 1.5 turns. Reinstalled the carbs and ta-da the bike started right up. but now it was running rich. once more the carbs come off, turn them all back in a half a turn, now 1 full turn out and reinstall again. here we run into the problem. In my vigor to see if I got it right and hear my bike purr i crossed the fuel supply line and the vacuum line from the #2 carb. i realized this as I was creating suction to refill the bowls when I heard and saw fuel dripping out from the gasket from the carb to #2 cylinder. I freak, kill the fuel and pray a little. I try to turn it over hoping I can just run out the fuel and... nothing. it is locked up. so in a near manic state the carbs come off and I can feel the fuel sitting in the head. i get as much out with paper towels as I can and the bike will now crank. Thanking god I reinstall the carbs once again and make sure I get my lines right this time.

NOw comes the mystery. I start the bike and it revs up to 9k. i shut it down and try it again after shutting the fuel off, hoping i can run it lean and all will be right. i do this a couple of times then on a restart i get a backfire and again to 9k.

so my question is this. What do I do now? Do I A. continue to start and let it rev to 9k until it either fixes itself of blows up? B. pull the carbs again and run the starter hpoing it will flush out the fuel in there? or C. foI have to pull the head and clean it out that way?

Now I have a pretty good amount of mechanical ability, but not alot with bikes and a decent set of hand tools. So I really don't want to pull the head if I don't have to but will if I need to. Some guidance wouldbe greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jereme

[Steve]

Interesting story, but this puzzles me:

Now I have a pretty good amount of mechanical ability, but not alot with bikes and a decent set of hand tools.

Does your mechanical abillity not suggest to you that it might be a LOT easier to pull the spark plugs, then spin the engine?

And why were you pulling the carbs just to turn the mixture screws? They are right there on top, where you can reach them with a long screwdriver.

The screaming to 9k is probably because you have a throttle cable pinched somewhere, likely due to all the unnecessary carb removal.

When you "cleaned the carbs", how did you do it? Did you spray off the outsides, then drop the bowls and spritz around some more? Or did you take the carbs completely apart, soak all the metallic parts in carb cleaner dip overnight, then re-assemble them with all-new o-rings from cycleorings.com?

If you went the first route, get ready to do them AGAIN, using the second route.

.

[jereme_d]

My mechanical ability comes from jets. And f-16's don't have spark plugs or cylinders for that matter. I did disassemble the carbs and clean them the right way, but apparently I will be pulling the carbs one more time since I turned out the idle jets from the bottom after removing the bowls, which is apprently not the right way of doing it. I will be pulling the plugs and running it that way to clean out my swamped cylinder. as for the pinched cable I can't see it and the throttle will make a full turn and snaps right back. but since I need to fix the jets I will be able to make sure. Thanks for the input and I will update after I work on it again this weekend.

[Steve]

All the jets (the brass items with holes in them) should be installed snuggly. There should be rubber plugs over the pilot jets before you put the bowls back on.

The only adjustment, other than idle speed and carb sync, is the idle mixture adjustment screws, sometimes called "pilot screws".

This is on an 850, but the concept is the same:


Start with these screws three full turns out from lightly seated. When the bike warms up, adjust each of them for "lean, best idle", meaning that you turn them in until the idle speed stumbles a bit, then back it out about 1/8 turn. You may end up in the 2 to 2 1/2 turn range, but starting at 3 turns is a good start.

.

[jereme_d]

That will make life alot easier. It didn't make alot of sense to me to adjust the jet like I did, but like I said after all the frustration I went through trying to figure it out I was more eager than I should have been. All will be returned to normal and hopefully tuned and running right so I can start to enjoy the bike while there is still some summer left.

[Badooka]

I'd check that oil for gas too-

[tkent02]

Just like working on an F16, it pays to read about and understand what you are going to do before pulling **** apart. Again like an F16, there are a lot of goofy little pieces that need to be in there correctly for the thing to work as it should. Unlike an F16, there is no adult supervision, just you. You are going too fast and screwing things up. Don't do anything if you don't know what you are doing. Take it one step at a time, but do all the steps. Have you spent a week perusing Basscliff's welcome yet? There is a TON of information there. Don't even think about riding it more than around the block until all of the items on his list are at least checked.

[jereme_d]

I took the carbs off one more time and retightened the pilot jets. put it all back together, made sure my throttle cable wasn't pinched and pressed the button. Good news was no more running to 9k. Bad news is now it isn't running at all again. My frustration level is climbing once again.

[7981GS]

You are going too fast and screwing things up. Don't do anything if you don't know what you are doing.
Take it one step at a time, but do all the steps. Have you spent a week perusing Basscliff's welcome yet?
There is a TON of information there. Don't even think about riding it more than around the block until all of the items on his list are at least checked.

Eric

[JEEPRUSTY]

You tightened the screws?
All the way in?

Golly gee gosh! they are supposed to be a few turns out the number being peculiar to the model and located in the manual.