Cabs cleaned, had to start.

Greetings to all,

So I am still having trouble with my bike after a thorough cleaning of the carbs, in fact it's worse than before. It used to idle with some choke, but now, barely at all.

The story: carbs cleaned, meticulously, broke the rack, soaked bodies and other parts in Pine Sol (didn't sandpaper the floats and jets...should have).
New plugs put in (old ones, btw,were carbon-fouled). Bench synced, put the carbs back on (PITA) and tried to start it.

Was hard starting, eventually got it to idle...poorly...would die if I tuned the choke near halfway, would die if I gave it to much throttle (it would run with some, but not more than about a 1/5 turn of the throttle). wouldn't stay running. After it warmed up for a while (cold-blooded XJ) it idled steadily, but not well, then would die with throttle or too much choke.
Meanwhile, gas is dripping out of the carb overflows.

Mixture screws turned 2 1/2 turns out.

I suspect it's running rich, and that I have more than one faulty float valve/float needle.

Does this sound about right? I really need a voice of advice, it's getting really disheartening. I thought I had it nailed when I polished those carbs and got them back on. Feeling not so good about myself now.

Mayday.

 

for sure the float needle or sticky float. check the mating hole underneath the needle tip for a good flawless circle and sand the float hinge pin. Also, check that your air jets under the diaphram are not reversed, for the Hitachi's the large hole goes towards the front and is the PILOT air jet

 

I'm thinking it's float related. The give-away is the overflow. Check your floats and make sure they're at the right height and there is very free play.

Careful not to break the float-pin support pillar when pulling the pins out!

 

Thanks, Yamaman, I'm definitely convinced of a float problem.
Probably not a stuck float as I checked them pretty well, measured the float clearance and all before I put them back together. Most likely float valves that aren't seating properly, I think.

I plan on getting a lower end rebuilt kit from Chacal, hopefully that will fix that particular problem.

And I have the Mikunis so the pilot air jet is actually on the airbox side. But I cleaned those out really well (guitar string through the jet and into the hole in the carb body.

 

If the guitar string is thin enough and you bend it, you'd get it to come out the fuel jet hole! but remove the jets first. the clog could be anywhere in that passage

 

Right, Yamaman, and since the carbs have to come off again for replacing the float valves, I'll do some poking into the jets again just to make sure I have them all clear.

Man, those carbs were a pain to get back on the bike, though. Not looking forward to that again.