I got your email yesterday but it was late.
Before starting anything, do a the basic tuneup on the bike. Nothing will set right without a good tuneup.
Pull the plugs and remove the valve cover caps. Set the valves according to the manual but add .001 to each measurement. You may get slightly more valve train noise but it will breath a bit better and wear less.
If you still have points, inspect the point faces and use a fine file to smooth them out if needed. Get some points cam grease, HD shops still carry it usually since so many old HDs are still on the road. Lube that points cam. Check your advance mechanism and make sure the springs are still strong and snappy.
I would suggest getting a dwell meter. You can find them used sometimes or get a new one for about $60 at sears. Use it to set the point gap, much better than using feelers IMO. After this, set your static timing and then use a timing gun, about $12 at harbor freight, and set your dynamic timing. I got mine from HF and it works good.
Now, use a multimeter and set it to ohms and check the plug caps. Should read around 5000 ohms. If 0 or bumping against 10000, replace the caps. Inspect the coil wires to make sure everything is clean and there are no cracks in the HT wires to the plugs.
Now comes the sucky part. Remove the carbs and give them a good cleaning. Disassemble them things and remove all the fuel tubes and slides and such. Spray things down and wipe them off. Run Qtips or pipe cleaners through the tubes and other holes. Get all the crud off.
When you remove the jets, the mains just unscrew. The idle jets are pressed in BUT can be removed. Crap a bit of cloth around the jet and grasp with pliers. Twist and pull and after a bit they should pop out. Be careful to not wiggle the jets much or you can crack the seat. You will also pull out the fuel screws BUT twist them in lightly and count the number of turns so you can set them back to the same position after cleaning. ALSO, besides the fuel screw, there is a little oring, washer, and spring to watch out for.
Keeps these parts separated according to carb number.
Use a soft wire such as a thin strand of copper wire to clean the jets holes with. Many people just dip the carbs and then still have trouble. Use the wire carefully and it will clean much better. Then spray with carb cleaner. Make sure to also clean the float needle and seat.
The idea is to clean things enough where you could drink through them, gas taste not withstanding.
Now, check your carb manifold boots(the ones between carbs and engine) for cracks. If you have deep cracks, replace them. They are hard to find though but I think david silver spares has them.
Get it all put together and mounted back up.
Now before hooking up the gas line, you should have made sure the petcock actually turns off the fuel. If not, then that needs work or replacement.
This will get you a good base to start from.
Jetting is tricky with pods. At least you have the k&n pods which are a much better quality then the cheap chinese ones. Have you started the bike at all and run it some? First thing would be to determine your air fuel mix. So, clean the plugs or get new plugs. Start and warm the bike up and let it sit and idle for a while with no choke. You can rev some but stay below 4000. After a 10 minutes of that or so, kill the engine and pull the plugs and see what the insulators look like. You look to have the stock carbs so your plugs should be a very light tannish color. If they are white, then try turning the fuel screws out a half turn to start and try again.
Now, if you can, get the bike on the road and run the gears a bit while keeping the rpms above 5000. So you will want a highway for this. Oh wait, you have the A bike so only low and hi.
Run it up to 50 in low and shift and get to about 70-75 and then hit the kill switch. I would tell you to pull the clutch but you don't have 1 I don't think. so kill it and coast to a stop in hi. If you can, let it cool a bit as it will be hot, or have mechanics gloves. Pull the plugs again and see what the insulator looks like. Should still be a light tan. If the insulators are white, then move up a size in jets. I can't remember what the A has for mains but if you had 110, go to 115 to start. Continue on till you have a good mix on both ends.
Now, use a vacuum gauge to sync the carbs. Borrow one if you can as they are about $60 starting.
Your #2 carb is your base carb and cant be adjusted, you adjust the rest of them to get as close as possible to #2. Once you have them synced, hook up that handy dwell meter as it most likely has a nice accurate tach. Use this tach to fine tune your idle mix. Get the bike to running temp and start on #1. Set rpm to about 1200 and put a fan on the engine for cooling.
Tune the fuel screw till you hit the highest rpm and then back it off a bit. Set rpm back to 1200 using the idle knob and repeat for each carb.
Oh, if you do not know the age of the oil, change it. I suggest at least rotella t 15-40 if you have a budget. If not, I use rotella 5-40 synthetic. It works awesome but keep in mind, if your engine seals are bad, the detergents in the synthetic may clean away the sludge and cause leaks. So if in doubt, do the 15-40 or at least a quality 10-40.
i know this sounds like a lot of work and I will not lie. It IS a lot of work. But you will not need to do it more than once avery couple of years, aside from points and oil that is. It will take you a day or so of fairly constant work. When you are done though, you should have a good running bike. I will say though that pods can be difficult to tune and are weak to rain and strong cross breezes.
The ride IS the adventure. The destination is just to get gas!
May 12, 2011; 3:25pm
Locked
You will be cursing yourself.
especially while walking in the 100+ degree heat there in FL.
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