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Vacuum leak or something else?

2K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  rerb 
#1 ·
So the weather hit 50 where I was so I decided to give my bike a test run down the street after getting it running. One thing I've noticed is when revved up, the RPMs hang and take a while to go down. The idle is also very spontaneous, especially so when the bike is leaned over on the side stand. Sometimes when starting, the RPMs will shoot to 5k and won't go down unless I crank the idle screw all the way out. on my ride, the bike would instantly lose 90% of its power at around 5k or so and be very jerky. Sounds like an obvious vacuum leak, right?

Well, the odd thing is that spraying around the carbs with carb cleaner yields very little results. The RPMs might increase by around 500, but I also have the intake boots off that goes to the black airbox so it could just be leaking through the intake. But when I spray near the top of the carbs where the diaphragm sits, the RPMs actually drop around 500, almost instantly.

Why is it running so bad? I've had the carbs off 4 times now and it's growing old. There's also a lot of gas coming out of the holes at the front of the rear carb intake right where the slide is. (The big opening you can look into that you would put pod filters on if doing the ear shave.) This gas is going straight into the intake, would a bad float needle cause this? are the carbs in very bad need of being synced?

Thanks for any help.
 
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#2 ·
Diaphragms might not be seated right. There's a sort of tab that has to go into the right spot, a notch. Diaphragms could also be cracked, you can hold them in front of bright light and flex them to check for cracks. Should be no leaking at the diaphragm cover to let the spray in. Don't mix up the slides, the needles on those are different sizes front-rear.

Spraying near open carb intakes can give false results, but a hanging rpm is one sign of an air leak. There are marks on the carb boots for alignment, they need to be fully seated.

If the float is sticking, or the float needle leaking, the air leak will use that extra fuel to make more rpm. You shouldn't be seeing any gas, so sticky float or leaky float valve is my first guess, it's overfilling and the gas is gushing out of the ports.

These carbs usually don't work well with the intake ports open, need the airbox hooked up or pods on there.

In short, sounds like it's flooding, and also has air leaks, along with possible problems with the diaphragms.
 
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