Need help from the carb gurus- please!

Hey all, have a situation. Its not a kawa, its a honda tho, hoping you could stil help. Ran out of gas last week, no problem, got gas, got going. Fri i left work and accidently put in on reserve. Reserve never worked, would only sputter and stall. So as i was going along it started to sputter and i reached down and realized what i did, put it to on, but it never recovered. Did manage to get it home was real close, but having to keep it floored. Pulled it in the driveway, pulled the plug wire off of #1 and it died immediately. Started it back up, took the plug wire off of #2 and no change. Grounded the plug, i do have spark. Dont know about compression, dont have a gauge. Figured the petcock and carbs were clogged. Gas tank was replaced with a junkyard tank last year, didnt have any holes, which was better than what i had. But not what i expected for $200. Anyway, took the petcock apart and saw this..

Sooo, took the petcock apart, took the carbs apart, was like rusty mud everywhere. Cleaned them out ( i thought ) put them back on, tried to start it, same thing. Running on the one cylinder. Im getting gas to and thru the one cylinder but not #2. I didnt have a new fuel filter, so just to see if any change i replaced it with str8 hose, see if its flow from the petcock and same thing. Took carbs back off, check float valve again. **Floats are non adjustable, made of plastic, float valve no tabs**. I also followed the manual and did not remove the "slow jet" and the pilot screws are plugged with a limiter i believe. In the supplement it does describe if the pilot jet needs to reset its 1 5/8 turns out. Im not sure if there referring to the slow jet as the pilot jet.. Slow jet sits between the needle valve assemble and the mainjet, and has a rubber plug. I removed the plugs and sprayed it but didnt remove them.

Oh yeah, there Keihin Carbs, bike is a 82 gl500. (not interstate) This is the float valve, dont believe tabs are adjustable. I did notice that the float bowls were sitting at different heights, and checked the float valves again, and sure enough, the # 2 valve is just not as smooth as the other one. Tried to spray the crap out of it, but still felt sticky. SO, basically, is this the problem, the float valve?

I'm certainly no Carb Guru but I can say that your pic seems to be run of the mill stuff.

The reserve draws fuel from lower in the tank. Sometimes the screen filter on the petcock is damaged and whatever's in the tank ends up in the carb. Sounds like you're going to be disassembling and cleaning your carbs. If you don't want to clean the tank you will be needing an inline fuel filter.

Check out my article on Rusty Tanks in the articles section.

Rusty Tanks

Good Luck

KZCSI


Later:

It's not likely that the float valve is causing the problem. More likely that parts of your idle/slow system are plugged up. Since one side seems to be working you should be able to discern some difference between the carbs by spraying carb cleaner into the various orifices and seeing it spray out elsewhere. Eventually you'll find something that flows on one side and not on the other.

Keep at it, you'll get it.

KZCSI

I personally would take care of the tank problem before cleaning the carbs. They will need to be fully cleaned out as I am sure they are full of the rust/crud coming from your tank. Why not try a fuel filter once you get the tank cleaned?

KZCSI wrote:

I'm certainly no Carb Guru but I can say that your pic seems to be run of the mill stuff.

The reserve draws fuel from lower in the tank.

And gas is lighter than water, so all the water-based slime is at the bottom of the tank.

wiredgeorge wrote:

I personally would take care of the tank problem before cleaning the carbs.

Yep, or else you will just keep loading up the filters and carbs with more gunk.

I did clean the tank out as best as i can. Used the nuts and bolts approach, sprayed it with degreaser until it came out of the petcock hole clean. It wasnt that bad actually, when i took the petcock off most of it ooozed out. I got this tank from a junkyard not even a year ago, and it was the SECOND tank they sent me. The first one was dented and looked like it was sitting in the hudson river for 10 yrs, the second one got "lost" in the mail and took 2 months to get here.
SO i should assume that its NOT the float valve? On each side of each carb there is an accel pump. #1 is easy to get to, right on the side out in the open, but the second the rack would need to be split. Should these be cleaned as well? Now, the pilot screws are sealed, those are for air, correct? And they wouldnt be clogged? Please say no.. And from here I should try to clean out the "slow jet" and thats most likely my problem? Thanks for all the help to everyone, love this place, and again, its not a kawa, but thanks anyway..
This is a pic of the accel pump on #1 carb.

Annnnnnd.. This port is on the same side of the accel pump, and after the first time i cleaned the carbs, i put themn back on, started it, sdame problem, then when i took them apart, there was a STREAM of mud coming from this port. Actually both carb ports. Sprayed the crap out of them until i saw the carb cleaner coming out of a hole in the top. Thought that was going to be my problem actually, but it wasnt.. These are the ports.

Oh and i do use an inline filter, took it off to see if it was affecting the flow.

If a new motorcycle specific slows gas flow, I think you have crud in the tank... I wouldn't run the bike without the filter. The particular type of Keihin carbs you are mucking with are best not split unless you really understand what you are doing, have a manual and are the confirdent type. Those things take about twice as long to disassemble, clean and rebuild as do the normal KZ type MIK carbs.

Imm gonna try and clean them again today, will let you guys know how it works out. Work kicked my ass yesterday i didnt do anything, but im off early today. I was using my bike to get back and forth, we had a spare car, but my nephew who just got his license smashed it, and now with no bike and no car im having a hell of a time getting back and forth..
Kz is still probably another month or 2 away.. :S
WG, thanks, im not the confident type, but thanks to you guys it is coming back to me.. Love this place..