Carb slides slightly askew

Found the left plug a light tan, that was the cold side. The right plug was black and fouling, the hot side. Wierd, huh? My compression tester is shot and my leak tester sucks. Gonna put the autolites i bought for 2.50 each. If it still fouls, i take the right carb off tomorrow.
I wonder, the float pins on these carbs are very loose. Is that gosher?
 
If you mean by loose that they slide in and out very easily, then yes, that's pretty typical. They can't come out when in use because the sides of the float bowl block them in.
 
Ran it last night with new plugs. No fouling. Still Boggs badly on take off. Blipping the throttle sounds awful in the beginning. Still cold on left and hot on right, but still pull shard and strong above 2500. Blew out all the orifices again and reset the floats. Going back to the 42.5 pilots, so my only changes will be 1 step up on the main and moving the needle clip to 4 from 3.
Kong is climbing the Empire State Building, that is all!
 
It does sound like an idle circuit or idle to midrange transition problem. Did you test/check the spark plug wire connections to the coil and plug cap on that weak side? Better yet, did you swap plug wires side to side to see if the weak running cylinder follows? Are the plug caps original and if so, have they been tested? They can go bad. Swapping the plug wires would be the easiest way to isolate whether the problem is ignition or carb related. Just switch the now left plug wire and cap over to the right cylinder, move the right one over to the left. Don't change or switch the connection up at the coil, just switch the spark plug ends.
 
Well, the only thing I did was put in new plugs. Did a visual on the spark across the gap. Both were strong. Then ran it and no fouling on the new plugs. OK, my eyes aren't as good as they were, guess I need new glasses. But, found the pilot jet end orafice completely clogged. I'm a dooffice. Found while checking the #'s with an eye loupe.
I ditched the original plug ends long ago. I'm using auto plug wires and cut to length. I've changed then twice since 2014. Your above advice will be next. Thanks.
 
My worst fears are over. Works great even without re-syncing the carbs. I kept the 45 pilots in, after cleaning them thoroughly. Putting the filters back on and will sync soon. I am a doofuss . Thank you all for the help and encouragement. All is great and today is my birthday. Happy Birthday dear Doofuss, blah blah blah blah blah blah!
It'd too late to ride to Black Mountain, but my son has figured out his problem as well.
 
Took a short ride to the store for some groceries. My backpack can carry an 18 pack of cans. Anyway, left the store and decided to do a high speed run on 985N, for test purposes only of course. Hitting all gears, all is good, hit 5th and it's pulling like a John Deer tractor at around 5 grand, then suddenly it starts to die. What the phuck, oh, right, forgot to turn the gas back on. Heh, heh! Turned it back on and cranked it up to about a hundred. It had plenty more. And ya know, in my 20's, the Ton, (we didn't call it that, that's a British thing), was easy, not scary. Now it's scary. But the best thing is.... (Pause), NO BACKFIRING! Yahooooooooooo! It's Miller time!
Everyone have a great Thanksgiving! And thank you all!
 
OK, I bought new needles & needle jets, since mine were very worn, and found some time on the 3rd to yank the carbs and re-jet. I cleaned them again and blew out all the holes and orifices with carb cleaner spray. Here's what I've done so far:
1. I installed the original 130 main jet, down from the new 132.5.
2. Installed new needles and needle jets, and put needle to the #3 slot. Also new o-rings for the jets. Tanks 5twins.
3. Kept the larger #45 pilot jets, the originals were #42.5 and set the mix screw to 5/8-3/4.
And with no syncing at all, it started fine and ran great, strong and no backfiring. It actually starts real well with the electric start, but doesn't start well with the kick. When I have more time, I'll sync the carbs and maybe try to strengthen my right leg.

The moral of this story is: "Only change 1 thing at a time!" Again, thank you all and Happy New Year!
 
Do keep an eye on your plug color because you are running the needles a step leaner than stock. Needle clip position has a big effect on plug color because you run in the midrange, "on the needle" so to speak, most of the time.
 
Yes, 5twins, that is excellent advice, thanks. I only rode it a few times because the weather sucks. I still have not replaced the aftermarket float needles and seats. It seems to leak gas every time out when I forget to shut the petcocks off. Possibly the overfilled chamber on one carb is causing the difficulty in kick starting.
I will be ordering the OEM parts from Partzilla, (that you recommended), when I finish these paragraphs. I'm also purchasing the thinner cam seals as both sides are now weeping.
I was thinking about a gadget or really just a piece of jumper wire to attach to the plug wire while still on the plug to perform the dead cylinder idle adjustment. I'm a Pamco guy now, but when I had points, that type of adjustment worked really well.
 
That is great advice Marlin!
Hey, Superjet. Another Canadian! How's it going, eh? And I'm here in Georgia bitching about cold weather. There must be something special about Canada, eh? All the US hockey teams seem to move there. Will you be coming to the Yamaha Rally in September? The beer might not be up to Canadian specs, (in fact it's a dry county), but it's a great place to be with all us XS owners.
 
If you've ever changed spokes and saved any of the old ones, some nifty little "dead cylinder" tools can be made from them. It turns out the threads on spokes are the same as those on the top of your spark plug. That means an old spoke nipple will thread right on it. Add a short section of old spoke to that, snap the spark plug cap on that, and you can run the bike. Using a long screwdriver, you can then quickly and momentarily kill one cylinder or the other by grounding the exposed spoke to a cylinder fin .....

pjhrLGH.jpg
 
If you've ever changed spokes and saved any of the old ones, some nifty little "dead cylinder" tools can be made from them. It turns out the threads on spokes are the same as those on the top of your spark plug. That means an old spoke nipple will thread right on it. Add a short section of old spoke to that, snap the spark plug cap on that, and you can run the bike. Using a long screwdriver, you can then quickly and momentarily kill one cylinder or the other by grounding the exposed spoke to a cylinder fin .....

pjhrLGH.jpg
Dang, only you would know that. That's great!
 
I'm expecting my new float needle assemblies tomorrow from Partzilla. Yahoo! It's still too cold to ride any kind of distance, but I just want it fixed and back to its old reliable self. I just hate having that thought in the back of my head, that it may not start on my way back from a beer run. When I wore a younger man's clothes, I would just find a minor slope, run and push it fast, jump on like Buffalo Bill, bump it and ride away.
Yeah, right. I can just picture me wearing every piece of clothing I own and an 18 pack on my back, trying to run, pushing and jumping on the beast, and the rear wheel locks up because of the extra compression. And I look and feel stupid. Just saying, I don't feel real confident right now and Partzilla is very slow!
 
Hey, Superjet. Another Canadian! How's it going, eh? And I'm here in Georgia bitching about cold weather. There must be something special about Canada, eh? All the US hockey teams seem to move there. Will you be coming to the Yamaha Rally in September? The beer might not be up to Canadian specs, (in fact it's a dry county), but it's a great place to be with all us XS owners.

Yup a maritimer at heart! In New Brunswick and weather has been the shits since early October. Just this week we went from -20 with snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain up to 3 degrees with flash freezing down to -15 in a 6 hour period. Then 2 days later up to 10 degrees with heavy rains and flash flooding. It really sucks and roads are terrible. This intersection was like this suv all day...hung up on a bank lol....very icy. 20190122_115546_HDR.jpg

I wish I could go to the rally in September. With currency exchange it becomes expensive.....and.....My wife and I went to the BRP dealer to look at snowmobiles and she saw one of these. CanAm Ryker. Pretty neat rig. She is thinking and talking about it lots. Fully automatic adjustable bars and pegs. Plenty of optional colors.20190119_105845.jpg

I have been drinking Miller Lite for the last little bit so if you guys have that down there I would be happy lol :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: J-C
 
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