It's aliiiiiiive!

I would also make sure none of the float needle and seats are leaking...that would be a main culprit to an overly rich condition and rough running at idle if even one was leaking. Although you would probably get gas out of the vent tube.......

Were they changed?

 

I popped them out and cleaned them really well - how would I know if they were leaking?

I'll actually have that area apart tonight, as I need to take a stab at adjusting the float heights.

 

Usually when they leak, you will get some fuel coming out of the carb overflow tubes but not always depending on the bike. The fact that you have a fuel smell in the oil leads me to think that might be a cause, because when they leak the send a lot of excess fuel into the intake. Just thinking out loud here....

 

I'm going to guess that most of these carb parts are not in stock @ the Honda dealers. Right? :chaingun:

 

Hehe...I am gonna say no....

 

When I took them apart, other than being slightly cruddy, there didn't appear to be anything "wrong" with them....

I've been reading up everything on adjusting the floats, and I guess my question is, these needles/seats... what exactly to they DO? Looking at them, the little wire clip goes up and around the tang on the floats themselves.... so I'm guessing that as the level of fuel in the bowls change, the tang pulls the needles UP (because it's all upside down from the way you work on it, once installed... right?), correct?

So I need to make sure that the needles move freely in the seats.

Also, when adjusting the floats.... I'll actually need to bend that little aluminum tang piece itself, to adjust where it's held in place by the little wire clip in the needle? So all the needle clips should be identical, correct?

I reinstalled everything as it was the first time, not thinking/realizing what they did. Pretty sure it's part of the problem.

These needles have no O-rings, right? just a metal piece with a rubber tip, inside a metal sleeve?


Work needs to be over so I can go home and open this thing back up.

 

And now it sits....

Tore down the carbs again, cleaned them better this time, and the float bowl gaskets were in pretty bad shape. Picked up a set from Ebay. Should be here Monday.

Adjusted the Float heights, they're dead-on now.

Build a homemade manometer (will toss a pic up later), and ordered the Motion Pro 5mm Carb Sync Adapters from Amazon, so looking like next week it'll hopefully be back up and running.

Also, addressed the Petcock leak - sort of. It definitely leaks a little when the valve is "off". I had the tank sitting on table, and left the 1/2" line on, and I'd come back and check, and it'd have gas in the line (or already leaked out and onto a rag). So the Petcock most likely needs a rebuild. For now, I have some gas-resistant liquid gasket mating the metal pieces together to keep the fuel leak contained, I'll need to go about getting a new Petcock now, though. Bummed - but at least the problem is a relatively minor one.

 

Yep, usually just a rubber tip with a brass seat. And yes, you adjust float height by bending the tang. The float level is paramount to keeping the proper fuel level in the carbs. When the float drops, the needle opens and allows fuel in the carb, etc. If you have them apart, I would at least change the needles cause they age and get hard. Hopefully you got it licked...