Pipe on Fire! Who knew carb cleaning could be such fun?

SO - after spending many hours reading up on carburetor theory and how others dismantled and cleaned and put back together their carburetors. After perusing the various horror stories and boob jobs of carb cleanings and re-building and such, I decided I was smart enough to do the job myself. (that and I don't have a few hundred samolians laying around in eager anticipation of disappearing into the local thug, i mean, mechanic's pocket)

Three afternoons of removal, dismantling, cleaning, putting back together, removing again, putting the floats in correctly, re-adjusting the jets to the same turns on each - I got it fired up last night. While I was sitting back and congragulating myself on actually getting the damn things to work in some fashion, noticed a couple of things:

1) couldn't get the idle up. even with the choke full open, the idle would only sit at around 1000
2) when I shut her down, the right pipe didn't stop smoking. quite an interesting grayish smoke that just ever so slowly wound its way out of the pipe and up into the air. (while I stood there with the fire extinquisher waiting for my family's jinx to occur and cause a flash fire to erupt out of the bike that is currently beyond my technical ability to repair)

Eventually, the smoke died down and I had to assume that whatever was smoldering in the catalytic or crossovers was either char or simply ran out of heat to keep it smoldering.

Now here is some background to understand why I took the carbs off in the first place:

1) I forgot to disconnect the fuel lines during the winter, so in the course of 4 months half the tank disappeared into the crankcase, the airbox, and the carbs
2) after draining and flushing, I was still getting a very very rough idle and figured that, considering the state of condition the previous owner had left the bike in, a really good cleaning of the carbs was in order. (technically, it was - not much varnish and debris in the bowls, diaphragms in excellent condition, some deposits on the jet needles)

I figure when I get my forks back from my mechanic, I'm gonna run the bike down to hime to sync the carbs for me as I really don't even want to touch that mess.

My questions are a bit muddled in the story above but I would garner they would be the following:

1) what the hell was in my pipe that was slow burning/smoldering?
2) is it normal during these maintenance exercises for a small puddle of fuel to come out of the carbs during initial firings then to stop once the engine starts to warm up and an idle begins to get established?
3) am I going to be able to get a standard idle prior to getting the carbs synched, or should I better wait for my forks to come back, and take it in to my mechanic and get them synched?

I'm sure some of this is common sense to y'all - so forgive my squidly-ness in asking some of it. When the bike isn't hanging from cargo straps, I'll get a picture up and such.

Muchos nachos,
Greg

 

#1. Unknown, you have a mystery. Could have been oil or a nice wad of spider/wasp nest.
#2. There should only be a slightly richer fuel mixture coming out of the carbs through the intakes when cold (thanks to the choke circuit). Any other fuel seepage/weepage is just that, waste. Now if the bike does not fire up on the first couple of attempts, it is possible for fuel to pool in the exhaust pipes/crossover. This isn't a very good situation, Heaven forbid you have a backfire.
#3. You should be able to establish a reasonable idle at home. If you are unable to do so, I would look at your accelerator cable, choke cable (both of these are rather easy to install incorrectly, we've all done it at one time or another). You should examine your shaft seals as well, you might have a hefty leak there or at the manifolds. Get out the WD40 and eliminate this or confirm this. If you are too put off to attempt your own sync (and I would highly recommend you at least try, you've nothing to loose and might save yourself quite a few of those dollars you like so much, especially if you build your own tools, check out our stickies) the mechanic will adjust the idle as part of the service so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

did you check or adjust the float levels?
did you check the floats for smooth/free movement?
did you check tthe needle valves and seats for overall condition?
did you check the tiny fuel passages for blockage?

I would think that either fuel or oil or spiders or ??? is being burnt out of the exhaust. What did it smell like?

Is the small puddle of fuel constantly coming from carbs prior to starting? If so, sounds like stuck floats and if you have a vacuum operated petcock it's not working or in the wrong position.

You should be able to get an idle, but if float levels aren't equal it may contribute to some problems.

 

When I fired up my X after sitting for 5 years, the fumes were so bad that I evacuated the garage!

It could be oil burning off, or carbon. I wouldn't worry too much about the fumes.

 

Also, if your floats are stuck, the symptom most likely would be fuel coming out of the carbs when you shut it down, or when you are cranking, and the bike doesn't start. Tap on the bottom of the float bowls with a hammer lightly, and MOST of the time, it frees the float.

Mine did this a couple of times, but now after riding it a few hours, it doesn't do it anymore.