carb sync, quick question

starting to sync carbs, i can reach vac tubes & adj screws with tank raised at mount end. ? is to sync 3 & 4 you must remove vac line from #3, to pull fuel from tank must have line connected, can u set fuel valve to prime & do it that way. do not have aux. fuel supply. any assist will be appreciated as always.

 

boy what a Kodak moment; yes you can use "PRI" or connect the vac line elsewhere. (It really doesn't matter which port it's attached to, #3 seems traditional on the bigger bikes, it's on #2 on the 550s.)

 

Can be done ...
IF, ... Fuel Line is long enough.

But, you are goin to want to concentrate on doing some TUNING ... Not, worrying about the Tank being loose and heading for the floor.

So, lift the Tank and put a towel on the frame up-front to steady the Front End.
Make a "Tank-prop" out of a piece of wood to hold-up the Back end.
Have a kid hold the tank ... anyway!

 

Thanks Fitz, RickO. i thhought that would work. i didn't think about changing the location of the vac line to fuel valve, duh. didn't think that one thru to good. o well, live & learn. i can't wait to see what a difference syncing does. if it runs any better than it does now i'm gonna need a seat belt to stay on the thing. thanks again for your input.

 

Park the bike next to the bench / table, put the tank on there & get a longer length of fuel line, if you tip the tank, unless it is full you are tipping it away from the outlet, petcock on prime.

 

I use a bar stool. Set the fuel valve on PRI and don't worry about supplying vacuum to it.

 

And I thought Gregg had a photo op for us...

 

For those of you who will be doing this in the spring. Find an old truck fuel filter and cut one end off and remove filter media. Add some fuel line to the other end and now you have a portable fuel tank that you can hang from your handle bars with a coat hanger. The coat hanger just needs two holes in the open end of the filter. The fuel line needs no vacuum, just the right size fuel line to attach to the fuel inlet and it will gravity feed the carbs.

 

Fitz, here is your kodak moment & a question. after sync is it probable you need to readjust mixture screws? i took it out this evening for a couple of miles trial. it wanted to back fire on throttle up at first, then i ran it up hard to approx. 60. backfire/miss went away, ran smooth. oh, by the way, it friggen screams. yee haa! here's the pics. sorry it took so long, but this is a first for me & it took a while to get them sync'd.

 

Nice pics! In answer to your question, yes. Now it's "tweaking" time, not more than a couple degrees (the thickness of a dime) at a time.

 

Take the bike for a run, pull the plugs, number them & post a nice close up picture.

 

Fitz, Wiz, here are the chop fotos. 1st photo is start point, i adjusted all 4 screws 1deg lean before 1st run. 2nd photo how they looked after 1st run, again adj all 4 screws 1deg lean. 3rd photo how they looked after 2nd run, again adj all 4 1deg lean. 4th phot after 3rd run. i believ #3 may be ok, i think i could use another deg lean on 1, 2 & 4. ready for your input.

 

maan.. see how you're "sneaking up" on it? First photo was a better pic, but based on it, #3 sure looks close and it also looks like 1 and 2 are nearly there and 4 is still a bit fat but not too awfully much.

Once it looks good doing this, go for a nice 20-30 mile ride, then check them. I suspect it's running a damn sight better than when you started?

 

Great job - +1 on Fritz's assessment. Your very close.

 

Ummmm............hmmmmm..............well...........but............:

At what RPM's are you doing those plug chops?

Plug chops show you an INSTANTANEOUS image of what combustion conditions are like at the moment you pushed the Kill Button.

So if the chop is at, say, 5,000 rpms, then adjusting the PILOT CIRCUIT MIXTURE SCREW is not going to have much effect, since at that rpm range, your pilot circuit is just not very active.....at all.

And I assume that the plugs pictures are not a result of revving the bike to 5000 rpms under NO LOAD, because unfortunately, that really won't tell you a thing.

Nor will riding the bike hard, at say 5000 rpms, and then crusing back down to 2500 rpms, or idle (as you pull into your "pit area", be that on the side of the road or your driveway/garage!) and then killing the engine....that will again merely tell you what the combustion conditions were like in the last few seconds before you killed the engine, which is at idle conditions.

Plug Chops at higher rpms, under different loads, temps, altitudes, accellerations, grade of fuels, etc. are great for telling you whether you need to increase the SIZE of your main fuel (and/or air) JETS (and if at lower rpms, say 1200-2500, the pilot fuel and/or air jets).

The pilot MIXTURE SCREW SETTINGS are really for adjusting IDLE and off-idle (transition from idle to LOAD) settings. They allow the fine-tuning of an already fixed fuel circuit parameter (determined by the size of the pilot circuit air and fuel jet sizes).


Synching the engine, all by itself, will make the bike run much better, as will adjusting the idle screws on a synched engine (and running through that process a few times). You are using the stock airbox, and as long as you are running a stock EXHAUST system, then your fuel and air jet sizing (if stock) is probably appropriate for your engine (Smyrna isn't up in them Blue Ridge Mountains, is it?).

 

thanx guys, i think i will continue the 1deg lean on all four again tomorrow, weather/temp permiting, until i get them all perfect. i'll post more photos as i go. thanz again.

 

Wow!
Somebody has shown us how they look getting Dialed-in!

Great work!
That's a great look at Tuning.
You can go another (Eyelash)** Lean and be right on-the-money!

Yea ... Rick types "Eyelash" but, we all know he means a different hair!

That's the Outside of >> The Window << of Fine Tuning.
You have Smoothness and coolness dialed-in right now.
As you TWEAK the Mixture to be more LEAN ... the Plugs will get light brown and beige looking.
KEEP COLOR ON THE PLUGS ...

As you experiment with Leaner Mixtures ... the Bike will run GREAT!
You will find the Throttle Response to be incredible.
But, if you run too lean ... You'll be creating a Burn that it too HOT for the Aluminum Piston Crown to handle.
If the Plugs are CLEAN ... its TOO LEAN!

 

Yeah you're real close, #4 is still a bit fat but like Rick says, keep color on the plugs. Rideability is the key. If you can keep more color but the bike runs great, you're there. I like to err on the side of rich because I like my piston crowns the way they are, intact. If you're getting good throttle response both off-idle and rolling it on at highway speed, then just concentrate on getting them to match; re-check your sync and you're good. Nice work, congratulations.

 

Just an idea or suggestion,
Since digital cameras compensate for background colors, and sorta make up their own colors,
Why not shoot our plug chop pics on brown paper bag, or cardboard?
This will offer a better comparison to a tan insulator - IMHO.

 

I'll have to wait until May to try it.

 

I just pulled these WRONG plugs out of my 900, shot a bunch of pics with the plugs in the same orientation, and re-sized :

 

Now on a grocery bag :

 

thanx guys, hey Time you have a good idea on the bag thing. picture clarity on the insulators are much better. if i get out today & do some more tuning i'll try the brown bag background.

 

They look a little scarily lean.
Not much.
One or two hairs ... but, critical.

 

here are day 2 results. see last photo previous post, is where i started b4 1st run, adj all 4 1deg lean. 1st photo after 1st run, #1 & 3 are good #2 close, #4 not so close, adj both 1deg lean. 2nd photo after 2nd run, #1, 2 & 3 good, #4 is close, adj 1deg lean. 3rd photo after 3rd run, all 4 look good. please comment. with all of your help i have created a screaming monster. YaHoo.

 

Amazing how well it runs when dialed in isn't it?

They look great IMHO

 

thanx bill, i think they are spot on as well. #4 might go 1 more deg but it's to close to call. so, i'm gonna leave it alone. it runs like a rocket, instant throttle response, it is incredible.

 

Chacal, no Smyrna isn't in them Blue Ridge Mountains, we are just south & east of Nashville off I24.

 

Run it like it is and take a look in a week. Doesn't it run SUHWEET???

 

fitz, it sure does. it is amazing how fast these bikes really are when they are tuned to the nuts. i love this thing.

 

You are ON THE MONEY.
Bingo.
Them baby's tell the story!
You should be able to pull-up to a light, get of the bike, tie your shoes and get back on without you bike skipping a beat at idle.

You also ought get out of the hole when the light turns green and be one of the first guys at the next light the way that you'll accelerate dialed-in like that!

 

Rick, you are correct my friend. I took her for about a 35mi ride today & it idles like a kitten at the lights & growls like a tiger off the line. Awesome. It did scare the heck out of me today though. I was almost back to the house 1-2 mi out and it started missing, running on less than 4 cyls. After all that tuning what the heck is this. Well, check the inline fuel filter, no gas. Thank goodness for that. Flipped it to res & off to the nearest station for a fillup. I am one ecstatic camper. It is a beautiful machine.
Thanks again to you, Fitz & everybody else for your help & comments.

 

Congratulations man, it is awesome isn't it? I love having a like-new 28 year old motorcycle.

 

Thanks Fitz, it is awesome having a new/old bike. I took it by the bike shop where I have bought most of my parts to let them see what the finished product looked like. They were shocked. they even said it looked like new & when I fired it up they just said SWEEEEET.