Needle supposed to have this many washers?

@5twins appreciate the thorough insight on this as well as commentary from others on this thread. Looking forward to making these adjustments and fine tuning and will report back on result.

Have a set of VM34's begging to get off the shelf and installed but feeling like I have a much deeper grasp on dialing these BS34's for as much performance as they are capable of.

Just out of curiosity, are the VM34's the go-to induction setup for this application because the manual activation of the slides over the vacum diaphragm activation with the BS34's more immediate and the greater number of circuits for fine tuning? Assuming the common "34" in naming convention means they both flow the same CFM?

I recall from my auto hotrod days manual secondary performance 4-barrel carbs like a Holly Double Pumper were choice for hot motors over vacum secondary versions.

If this has already been thoroughly covered in a different thread please advise.

@5twins, one additional question on the fine-tuning effort here for me. For this round of tuning I only have additional 130 Air jets (2 sizes down from stock). You mentioned having to go back up 1 size (132.5) in your tuning to get the smoke ring back down to bottom 1/4 of the insulator.

What running condition of the bike was observed with the 130 air jets installed? Stumble anywhere or flat?

Wondering if the extremely high-flow combination (extra lean) of medium length open velocity stacks and open 36" length TT pipes will support the 130 air jets. I am pretty much at sea level/ slightly above.

Other jetting installed presently:
135 air jets
137.5 mains
45 pilots
mixture screw plug removed - set at 3 turns out
Stock cam/compression

Tuning and then fine tuning carbs is all about experimenting. Every one of these motors responds a little differently depending on it's internal condition. There were no ill running effects with two sizes down on the air jets, just the plug color was off (smoke ring too high). Yours may be fine with it though, so you'll just have to try it and see.

Although I've never tried them, as far as the VM carbs having quicker and better response goes, I'm perfectly happy with my CV carbs. When I whack the throttle open, the bike immediately goes, no lag or balking before it responds. Frankly, I don't see how it could be much better or quicker, but folks say they are. Maybe they just didn't have their CV carbs tuned well enough?

I think you're doing the right thing by trying to dial in the original CV carbs. There aren't all that many variables and tuning items on them to deal with compared to the VMs. With all the tuning parts available for the VMs, you could spend years and probably still not try them all or get them perfect, lol. But thankfully, there is a baseline worked out for them, so to dial them in you shouldn't need to stray too far from that.

Reporting back with “Field” observations with everything buttoned up on the installs. Referenced in another thread, I was chasing a minor exhaust leak at the head that I supplemented the exhaust gasket with some Permatex red - high temp. One side worked as hoped, other pipe seeing some similar leakage pattern which tells me a more thorough reapplication is required.

Regarding the carb tuning. @5twins what I have noticed since the jet changes to richen up the mix across circuits is that the bike is harder to start. It’s a Kick-only configuration. Before changes, would start on 2nd kick, sometimes 1st with choke pulled all the way out preceded by 2-3 priming kicks before turning ignition on.

Now, a lot of kicking and when finally starts, appears to be on 1 cylinder and then both running (about 5-10 seconds later). I push choke off at this time and keep engine running with manual throttle control.

Yesterday switched plugs to non-resistor B8ES’. Bike started the same as described above. Ran strong though enroute to a show. 15 minutes in town roads and 45 on highway. When ran to 7-7200 rpm bike pulled strong. Liked how it felt in 4th and 5th gear (34/17 gearing) at highway speeds.

Now the bad. When leaving the event, after getting a few compliments on the bike and interest, tried to start it and again a lot of kicking and finally started but on 1 cylinder. Cleared for a moment and I let engine warm-up at 1300 rpm. It then died and when tried to restart got 1 cylinder running, would only start with choke out and then would die. Pulled plugs and they were black but not completely trashed. Ceramic was tan colored but plugs overall were a little wet. I swapped in a set of spare B8RES plugs but not improvement. Ended up having bike towed home.

I set the floats early on with updated spec different from Clymers manual you provided. I haven’t pulled the carbs yet to check but can’t imagine the float adjustment would move.

Thinking may lean out the idle circuit with 135 pilot air jet. Recently changed from 135 to 130.

When bike was easy to start, configuration was stock with the 132.5 mains, 42.5 pilots and 135 pilot air jet, 2.5 turns out on idle mixture screws. The concern prompting jetting change was being too lean with switch to open velocity stacks and TT pipes. Prior setup was K&N pleated filters and baffled cocktail shaker slip-ons

Also on prior exhaust config. Head pipes were a Mac-type aftermarket not the stock double walled and slip-ons were a loud, low-restriction sort even with their small baffles in place.

Yes, try the 135 air jets. If it's still too rich, go back to the stock pilots and 130 air jets. The 130 air jets will make it richer than the stock pilot but not as rich as one size up pilot.

I've never run open straight pipes but I've read they can be difficult to jet for.