No effect with choke

[ChicagoRob]

Well, after having the 1100 sitting the in garage in pieces all spring and summer, I finally have it back together and got it on the road yesterday.

After it's warm, it pulls hard and smooth throughout the entire rpm range. (I only had the stones to take it to 8500 and I doubt it'll see that again soon. Boy was she screaming.)

This summer I've been riding the boy's '80 550L and to start it it's been give it a little choke, start it without touching the throttle and as it warms up, slowly back off the choke. Worked great and seemed to be the right way to do things.

The 1100 isn't doing that. The choke has virtually no effect. To get it started, I have to give it a little throttle and then keep bumping the throttle until it's warm. Giving it some choke doesn't make it rev like the 550, it just kills it. After it's warm, it idles smoothly @ 1200. (I've made sure that the chokes where sliding out when I pull the lever.)

Just did a carb soak, rebuild and vacuum sync and the valves are all between .06 and .08. New intake pipes with Bob Barr orings. New copper washers on the sync ports.

Stock carbs and airbox but a V&H 4-in-1.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[tkent02]

Possibly the choke feed passage in the float bowl is clogged. Did you dip the bowls as well as the carb bodies? Shoot spray carb cleaner in one end of this passage, it should come out the other. Also the small brass tube sticking out of the bottom of the carb body is the actual fuel intake for the choke circuit, it can have it's fuel holes plugged. Squirt the spray cleaner in from where the choke plunger goes, the spray should come out all of the holes in that tube in a uniform pattern. There is one hole in the end and four on the sides, two up near the top and two near the base of the tube. If either of these is clogged using the choke adds more air but not more fuel, or at least not the correct amount of fuel. It is very common to have these clog as they are the lowest passages in the carb, they can get gooped up the quickest.

[ChicagoRob]

Nope, I didn't dip the float bowls. I'll give your suggestion a try.

Thanks!

[slow_heavy_750]

If something is clogged, alot of times just soaking or spraying with carb clean may not be enough to completely clear it. Compressed air works great.


I really wish the ethanol fuel would go away

[tkent02]

That's why you spray it until the pattern comes out uniformly. Compressed air does help push the crap through but it will not tell you when the passages are clean, you can't see it come out.

[Steve]

Compressed air does help push the crap through but it will not tell you when the passages are clean, you can't see it come out.

When I lived in the Los Angeles area many years ago, you could have seen compressed "air" come out.

.

[ChicagoRob]

Success!

I pulled the bowls off and found that three of the gaskets had deformed into that slot underneath them so they were at least partially blocking them.

I carefully cut off the gaskets and threw those bowls into the Berryman's. Luckily I have a spare rack, so I put those bowls on and now it's working as it should.

Thanks for the excellent advice. This makes me wonder, what did people do before the interwebs? I never would have been able to restore this bike had it not been for this forum...


Thanks again,

Rob

[Big T]

Success!
Thanks for the excellent advice. This makes me wonder, what did people do before the interwebs? I never would have been able to restore this bike had it not been for this forum...
Thanks again,

Rob

They parked the bike so we could find it years later