Pop goes the carb

[bosco659]

Went to start the XS today to take it to a friends for temp storage, while my garage project continues on. For the first time since I’ve had the bike, it wouldn’t fire up right away. Electric or kick starters wouldn't even produce a fart from either side. After trying for too long, I got it running on one cylinder. The right side was dead. Pulled the plug and it was wet so I popped in a new one. Still ran on the left side only. Started poking around for a more serious look and found the problem. Somehow the bike spit the carb right out of the rubber intake. Quickly had a look at the clamp and it was cinched down tight. Wrestled the carb back in, reset the clamps and all was well, other than my voltmeter - see pic. All that cranking must have boiled over the Chinesium in the gauge. Not clear in the photo, but at idle it was 25+ volts. The multimeter confirmed the gauge was fried. Lol.

So what might have caused this? To my recollection it didn’t backfire. The bike is running UNI foam pods so the carbs are “dangling” off of the intake rubbers. Maybe I need to make a support for them this winter?

 

[toglhot]

You said 25 v, and yet the gauge says 5. Which is correct.

 

[bosco659]

You said 25 v, and yet the gauge says 5. Which is correct.

Interesting taking a digital picture of a digital display. The numbers are jumping all over the place when viewed through the device (my cell phone in this case). When I took this picture the gauge was reading 25.1V yet shows as 5 in the picture (My bad - the picture was taken with the engine off, only the ignition switch was on). Maybe an electronics wizard can explain why.

 

[jpdevol]

All that cranking must have boiled over the Chinesium in the gauge.

 

[Kevin Werner]

I have a digital volt guage not unlike that that one. Trailoering in the rain my gauge read 25 volts until a suitable dry out time passed. Just saying...

 

[Jim]

Interesting taking a digital picture of a digital display. The numbers are jumping all over the place when viewed through the device (my cell phone in this case). When I took this picture the gauge was reading 25.1V yet shows as 5 in the picture (My bad - the picture was taken with the engine off, only the ignition switch was on). Maybe an electronics wizard can explain why.

Most (not all) LED displays are multiplexed displays. They only light one segment at a time. The "on" rate is fast enough that to the eye it looks like they're all lit.
Think of your average house light... they run on 50 or 60 cycle AC. That means that 50 -60 times a second the voltage into 'em is zero. We never see it because the rate is too fast for our eyes to notice.

Your camera however, can see the flicker. If a segment is "off", that's what the camera renders.

 

[bosco659]

Most (not all) LED displays are multiplexed displays. They only light one segment at a time. The "on" rate is fast enough that to the eye it looks like they're all lit.
Think of your average house light... they run on 50 or 60 cycle AC. That means that 50 -60 times a second the voltage into 'em is zero. We never see it because the rate is too fast for our eyes to notice.

Your camera however, can see the flicker. If a segment is "off", that's what the camera renders.


View attachment 228369

Thx Jim..

 

[toglhot]

Buy a Chinese digital voltmeter, they are made of Chinesium and only around $4 on ebay. I have a few bile car, caravan, workshop, none of them do that.