First real question, sorry kinda long.

I just bought this bike a few days ago, 82 Maxim 750. It was driven regularly by the PO. I don't think it had much maintenance during the six years he owned it. He did change the oil every season. This season he said he notice a slight miss so he had new plugs installed and added some type of fuel system cleaner added to the tank. He said it helped but still had a slight miss. This is where I bought the bike. I removed the carbs and took off the drain bowls and cleaned the needles and seats(slightly varnished but not terrible). I polished them with Brasso, now they look like new. Everything else was cleaned with Berryman's spray cleaner and compressed air. I did not take them apart yet. Here's the question. Before the cleaning when I started the bike cold if the choke was about 3/4 full the bike would increase rpm up to about 4k or higher until I back off the choke to bring it down. I could very the speed anywhere I wanted to by slightly moving the choke, usually I would get it to about 2k and let it warm up. It took about five minutes before I could get it to idle without the choke. After the cleaning I can open the choke all the way and the rpm never goes above about 1500 rpm. It smokes like it's extremely rich until I bring the choke down to less then half. The good news is now the bike will idle with no choke after less than two minutes. Not really smooth until fully warmed up. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should I take the carbs apart for a more thorough cleaning? The bike runs good once warm, idle is steady at 1100, no hesitation and pulls strong. I did sync with a homemade tool and I've got a Colortune on the way. I'm just concerned since the choke operation is so different and I don't know what normal is. Any advice from the experts? Sorry for the long post. Thanks.

 

Sounds like you went from bad to worse. I'd recommend you finish that carb cleaning before any further diagnoses can be done. Refer to Rick's carb cleaning tutorial for further help. After you've cleaned the carbs, make sure you bench-synch them before reinstalling them. As far as that intermittent miss goes, I'd think about replacing that old oe fuse box with a new ATO style one. The original ones had some issues.

Good Luck!