When I got the bike it seems to run fine up to 4k RPM, at which point the bike bogs and it lurches a bit until it hits 5k, then it comes back to life. Not really a problem going to and from work, but theres a couple speeds that are right in that RPM range - 80 and 100 km/h are the worst, so taking it out on the highway has been a no go.
I ordered in carb rebuild kits and new floats, then yesterday I went over to a buddies place to get him to show me how to clean and set up the carbs. Once we finished up and got them back on the bike it was in worse shape than before. We had a hell of a time getting it to idle but it was getting late and I had to get home, so we rigged up the throttle cable to give it a bit extra on idle, I was going to go home and get the bike back today. Driving home ended up being a nightmare. I kept having to give more and more throttle to keep the bike going, if I held my throttle open the RPM would jump up and down, I can't really describe the sound from the exhausts other than stupid loud and sounding like a dying animal, I was getting a darker smoke out of the left exhaust pipe, it was extremely slow responding to giving more throttle, the bike would sputter and jump and time I was decelerating, then it died on me at a stop light and it took great effort to kick back over. Eventually it went, I modified my route home to hit less stops, but the bike died again as I was slowing down to go into a roundabout. Again, it wouldn't kick over and many times there was no resistance at all on the kick lever. I thought about just ditching the bike for the night but I was in a bit of a sketchy area of town and didn't really feel comfortable leaving it there, so I kept trying to get it going which it eventually did, and I limped it home.
Possible problems or notes that came up last night and this morning:
* I had read that removing the cam chain tensioner acorn nut gives you a bit more room to get the carbs down and out, so I took it off. I loosened the chain a bit by accident as I was doing that and was going to re-set it once the carbs were back in, but I forgot
* One of the pilot jet screws was out way more than the other. We set them both back to 3.5 turns
* One of the pilot jet caps was missing. It's maybe possible that it actually was there and dropped out, but we gave a good look and didn't see it anywhere so I'm fairly confident that it wasn't there. We didn't have any on hand, so the guy I was working with quickly cut one out of rubber and we put it in until I could get a proper cap.
* The guy I was doing with showed me what do on one carb then I did the other. Once he had me going he went to do something else on my bike, then this morning he texted saying there was a washer left in the pan we were working in, so it looks like I missed putting the washer back in under the big jet
This morning I re-checked on the cam chain tension which was slightly loose but nothing to be concerned about (I don't think). I included a picture but it's hard to see, but there was a good amount of oil around the left spark plug. Also the plugs were super burnt, although that's not too surprising.
So, I've got a new baby at home and my time to work on stuff is extremely limited, so after work the guy from last night is going to come pick up the bike with a trailer and take it back to his place to get it going. If anybody has some insight on whats going on I'd love to hear it, or if there's any potentially stupid small thing we missed that I can check on before he picks it up. If not, I'll update back when he takes another look.
