Carb Question

[medicevans]

Good point Steve. No offense intended I assure you. 

I am positive that Steve isn't exaggerating when he says he could pull the carbs off with his eyes closed. After talking me through my botched up exhaust sprocket install, I believe it. Steve described to me what I was seeing like he was sitting next to me instead of 2000 miles away.  Top notch vendor, top notch mechanic, top notch man. 

[Coyote Chris]

Thanks for the good reference for Steve.  He is the only guy I would have work on my Connie's carbs.  Rainy day today in Spokane means no ranch work so I am going to try and pull the bank today.  Oil level seems to have "risen" magically so I will drain that off, pull the plugs and check for hydrolock.  The manual says do not use carb cleaner that might hurt plastics?  Is there still such a critter?

Good article in the Concourier, Fall 2006 by a Mr. Riczinger Cog 5977, on Pulling and serviceing the carbs. "The Carbs...it aint a diet thang."  I dont want to get into the carbs as deep as he did,  so I think if I need to, Steve gets them.

[medicevans]

With the oil level rising "magically" as you say, wouldn't surprise me if there's gas sitting in a cylinder somewhere. I'd take the key and hide it from yourself so you don't accidentally hit the starter button out of habit. Maybe I'm the only one who shuts my brain off like that, but a little prevention goes a long way!

[Coyote Chris]

Thanks to Rev Ryder's  great tip about pushing in the air box boots, and Steve's tip about repositioning the intake manifold clamps, I can now get the carbs on and off with relative ease.  I can't make his zip tie trick work on those boots as my old hands won't work like they used to so I just used stainless  steel hose clamps instead with a nutdriver….they go on and off with ease.  I might even post some pics I took on my photobucket website.  I am writing up a procedure with pics.  Some folks left out a few details like vacuum and vent hoses, etc but no matter.  This isn’t rocket science.  I did remove the Tupperware the first time to reposition the manifold screws and just to make things easier.  The next time I won't need to remove the tupperware.

Anyway, I drained the float bowls into a clear clean glass and there was no dirt, etc.

So I put the carbs on a special bench with the tank over the carbs, turned the gas petcock to prime, and the float bowls all filled with no leaks.  The problem with No. 1 carb had fixed itself for now.
I redrained the float bowls and took off the bowl for number one carb.  There was virtually no dirt in the carb body, and only alittle brown stuff in the bottom of the float bowl.  I took out the needle and float, checked the spring, looked at everything with a magnifying glass.  Nothing.  I held the float submerged  in a glass of gas.  No bubbles.  Everything looked new.

I put the bowl back on after cleaning it and redid the float bowl fill check on the bench.  Perfect.

There is no gas in Cylinder No. 1.

I think what I will do now is change the oil, Check the volume of oil removed,  lube the cables, put it back together and see what happens.  I just have to know.  If it still messes up, its off to Steve in Sunny Florida.  If it doesn't mess up, I will probably wait to the end of the riding season in Sept. to send it to him.  I will let you know what happens.  Thanks to all of you that helped me.
Chris Dallman, COG 5807

(here are some pics...more to come)
http://s1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd385/CoyoteChris303/Connie/