The NTRUDR finally gets underway.
This story starts in November 2009. It was winter in the NW and the weather had turned non-conducive to bike riding. So I did what any Connie rider would do, I started some much needed maintenance on the 2006 Connie, or the NTRUDR as I call it. Valve Adjusts, Coolant Flush, Wheel Bearings, Steering Head Bearing Adjustment, Oil Change, Rear Differential Lube Change, you know all the things we need to do.
As fate would intervene this maintenance evolution would take 20 months to complete. It really didn't take that long, but a couple of eye surgeries to repair genetic defects in both of my Corneas contributed greatly.
So we fast forward to May 2011. Things were moving along nicely when the first snag reared its ugly head. The Carbs had sat for the duration without being properly drained. Engine started but would run for nothing. So I read about the cool things SiSF was doing to carbs and decided to send mine to him. He put the Stage 2 Kit in along with overflow tubes. When I got them back they looked like new. I also got new throttle cables (push and pull with a chock cable) and installed them. Well the day came to put the Carbs back in the bike and it went real well until I realized that I should have installed the cables to the carbs first. So out they came. Cables attached and carbs in the bike. I hooked everything up and started the bike. That was a chore. It took full adjustment of the idle adjuster just to get the bike to run. Any way I got it warmed up and tried to synchronize the carbs. 1 & 2 seemed to adjust OK, but 3 & 4 would not come up enough to get a synch. Carbs came out again. Checked everything over again. Didn't find any thing obvious. Carbs back in still had trouble getting a good synch on 3 & 4. Finally called it good enough. A test ride revealed that the bike stumbled through idle and up until rpm got out of the idle circuits at about 2800 rpm. So I figured that it was only the idle circuits that were bad.
Here it is August 2011. I enlisted the help of a local cogger to give a hand. We swapped out my carbs for a set of unmodified carbs, no changes. We next swapped out an igniter, no changes. We next swapped out the Left Hand Coil to #1 and #4 (they ran great by themselves.) Next we swapped the Right Hand Coil to #2 & #3 (they ran great by themselves.) We came to the conclusion that there was a vacuum leak in either #3 or #4 cylinders.
So back at home I decided to double check things that I had previously completed. I pulled the valve cover off and double checked all of the valve adjustments. They were good. I pulled the cruise control off of the bike just in case it was causing the vacuum leak. I removed the Exhaust Air System from the valve cover and plugged the air intakes. I plugged the hole in the air box where the Exhaust air System plugged in. I also made new vacuum lines to tie #1, #3, and #4 carb vacuums together. Reinstalled the coils and attached the spark plug wire to new spark plugs. This is where KISS should have been obvious. On the cable to #3 spark plug I noticed that the sealing boot had been slid down the cable about a 1/2 inch. This prevented the Spark Plug Connector from making solid contact with the number 3 spark plug. I adjusted the boot and the connecter snapped on properly.
I got the gas tank on and got fuel in the carbs. Started the engine and it sounded better. I let it run for about 20 minutes to fully warm everything up. Shut it off and attached the Morgan Carb Tune II Synchronizer. Restarted the engine and immediately noticed the the vacuum had increased in all 4 carbs. I adjusted 1 & 2, then 3 & 4, then balanced left and right. I went over it again and all was good. Got all of the body work back on and went for a 100 mile ride. All seems fine now.
The moral of the story is check the easy stuff first.
If you have had it apart, make sure it is reassembled/attached correctly.
