just bought this bike from a guy who was planning to restore it. well i thought it was going to be a simple fixer upper but i think i may be in for a bit more. i have the bike running but the electrical system is a mess, the wiring harness is all kinds of messed up, but the bike seems to be firing and running like it should. the tachometer does not work and neither does the brakelight. when i have the bike running it will only idol on full choke, and when i put it on no choke i have to hold the throttle about 1/3 open for it not to die. i took the carbs off and cleaned them out completely yesterday but now im wondering if there could be something else wrong with the carbs besides them just being dirty. i cleaned all the jets and made sure they werent clogged as well. im kind of stumped here on the idol situation. any advice would be greatly appreciated.
on a side note, i tried getting the spark plugs out and i couldnt get a socket that would fit down in there, is there a special tool i need to get? and what spark plugs would oyu guys recommend?
also im going to be looking for a wiring harness and a radiator fan for this bike.
It might be that the 1) The pilot fuel jets are clogged. 2) A vacuum leak on the carb holders or a loose or disconnected vacuum line.
[image: View Post]Kookta, on 18 March 2011 - 11:22 AM, said:
just bought this bike from a guy who was planning to restore it. well i thought it was going to be a simple fixer upper but i think i may be in for a bit more. i have the bike running but the electrical system is a mess, the wiring harness is all kinds of messed up, but the bike seems to be firing and running like it should. the tachometer does not work and neither does the brakelight. when i have the bike running it will only idol on full choke, and when i put it on no choke i have to hold the throttle about 1/3 open for it not to die. i took the carbs off and cleaned them out completely yesterday but now im wondering if there could be something else wrong with the carbs besides them just being dirty. i cleaned all the jets and made sure they werent clogged as well. im kind of stumped here on the idol situation. any advice would be greatly appreciated.
on a side note, i tried getting the spark plugs out and i couldnt get a socket that would fit down in there, is there a special tool i need to get? and what spark plugs would oyu guys recommend?
also im going to be looking for a wiring harness and a radiator fan for this bike.
i think it might be vacuum lines, there is a fitting that is plugged on the carbs. where and what is the vacuum line hooked up to and from? im pretty sure i got all the jets cleared out yesterday when i cleaned the carbs but if the vacuum line isnt the issue i will try there.
Sometimes a light spray of something flammable like wd40 around a suspected leak can make your engine speed up. As old as our bikes are, rubbery lines have to be all suspect. Good luck. Maybe you can search for vacuum leak or poor idle. I don't have enough hx here to know what has been said in the past. I doubt if your running problem is something that has not come up before.
My bike has a california sticker on the rear fender and it shows numerous vacuum lines that may or might not be still on the bike. Do you a service manual on your machine?
Even though I have done more than one carb rebuild, it took several "cleanings" on my '86 VFR700 to get it right.
Also...even though I did my very best job on the carbs including the choke passages, be careful because the plungers are easy to break, it took a while of running the bike and standing near it to keep hitting the throttle off of choke so it wouldn't sputter out...then after a few tanks it got better and better and now idles like it should, even though I think it will always be cold natured.
So...if it's running and ridable, I would suggest riding it as much as possible to see if it gets any better...you can pull it anytime if it doesn't....
The carbs on these can be a pain in the rear, I've had mine off no less than ten times, the first time I rebuilt mine I had lost a spring and o-ring out of one of the pilot screws and didn't realize it. No wonder I could never get it to run right. I got that sorted but decided to check everything else out and found my jets were not clean like I thought they were. I had to run a small wire through the jets to get them cleaned out, cleaner didn't work. Now that I did that it runs like new even when cold. It starts up right away with choke and only has to warm up a few seconds before you get instant throttle response. Before it wouldn't run off choke and had to warm up for at least ten min before you hit the thottle or it would bog and die
i do not have a service manual nor an owners manual, is there anywhere i can get one online aside from purchasing one? there are a few other thing i am interested in looking up in the service manual, one in particular is the wiring harness, my current harness is a nightmare.
I think you're gonna have to drop the cash on a manual.
The Clymers and the Honda manual both have the wiring diagrams in them and both should guide you through the carbs and all the things you're going to have to do to bring it back.
I couldn't find a manual online...but also I find it far preferable to have the actual book in my garage whenever I want it.
You can't go far without a manual, I found a used one for $5 on Ebay....
[image: View Post]coffeebrake, on 21 March 2011 - 05:43 AM, said:
I think you're gonna have to drop the cash on a manual.
The Clymers and the Honda manual both have the wiring diagrams in them and both should guide you through the carbs and all the things you're going to have to do to bring it back.
I couldn't find a manual online...but also I find it far preferable to have the actual book in my garage whenever I want it.
You can't go far without a manual, I found a used one for $5 on Ebay....
I have a Service manual for these that i found online a while ago, its in pdf format and is 177mb so im not sure how i could share it, if anyone knows i would be more than happy to do so