'86' V65 Magna build

[ToolBoxPop]

At around 0130 this morning my wife and I were still pecking away at the bike.  I had to take the dang carbs off the bike again and give it a good lookover.  Luckily we noticed that the backing plate that the #2 carb mixture screw pushes against was bent a little bit.  Because it was bent, the screw had nothing to push against to make adjustments.  We bent it down and ran the screw back in and put the carbs back on the bike.  Suddenly, everything started coming together!  The carbs are now in sync and the bike is running pretty good.  Now I just need to tackle the pilot mixture screws because it seems a bit rich.  I'm just gald I was able to actually ride the bike to base today!

[roboto65]

Awesome news !

[lragan]

All right!  Persistence pays off.  Congratulations!

[John Luttrell]

Good deal! It's always a good feeling when it finally starts coming together.

[ToolBoxPop]

I got the bike nice and warm after running up and down the roads, racing from one stop sign to the next today and then re-sync'd the carbs again just to make sure everything is tuned as best I can.  The amount of HG vacuum seems low from what I'm used to seeing with car and truck vacuum, but at least they are all pulling equal amounts and the bike seems to like it!  I'm gonna take the bike out tomorrow on the highway and see if it runs equally as nice as it is right now on the in-town roads.  I surely appreciate everybody's input on this forum, it really helped out a lot!

[lragan]

That is a nice looking synchronizer set. 

I use a "mercury stick", four tubes of strapped to a board with a common pool of mercury.  The mercury bounces about an inch in each tube at idle, so I adjust by noticing the limits of each column of mercury and adjust so they are as equal as I can get them.

Do these gages have the same issue, or do they hold pretty steady?

[ToolBoxPop]

If you look at the vacuum lines about 4 inches below the guage set, they give you some regulator valves to install anywhere in the line you want.  I put them all right there at the top and then just slow spin them in untill the needle levels out.  Without them the needle goes crazy like you were talking about.  With them turned in a bit the needles only bounce like 1/16 of an inch.  This very set is only 40 bucks on EBAY.  I really am glad I bought them.

[lragan]

Oh, so THAT's what those little white doodads are. 

You paid less for yours than I did for mine, and they are far superior, it would appear.  Good move!

[hootmon]

That is a nice looking synchronizer set. 

OH, that's what that is.. I thought you had a pretty cool dashboard on the bike..!!

[drkngas]

That is a nice looking synchronizer set. 

OH, that's what that is.. I thought you had a pretty cool dashboard on the bike..!!

Too funny..... I was thinking something like that till I enlarged the pic

[ToolBoxPop]

Oh LOL.  Well those gauges are working better than my actual gauges are right now.  I still have no speedometer because that speedo-gearbox is busted and I can't find another one to replace it yet.  I'm really glad I bought that gauge set, I've used them so many times already.  Everytime I do any adjustment to the motor, I just slap those things on and bring the carbs back into sync.  Takes like ten minutes!

[ToolBoxPop]

Well, after EVERYTHING is replaced and new on my bike it still isn't running right.  Don't get me wrong, I've hit 135 on it now, and it's a chore to hold on to it so I'm having lots of fun with it.  At now point, though, is the bike not chuffing out of the pipes and intake.  It's not really a miss because the bike doesn't lurch or stutter but it's a loud, near backfire, chuffing.  The front left exhaust will barely reach 120 degrees at idle, and around 190 at high rpm.  The front right gets about 260 at idle and mid 300's at high rpm.  The back two run evenly at around 400 at idle and then low 500's at high rpm.  My bike now has a new set of valves on the front two cylinders.  Compression is 190+-5 on all four cylinders.  New head gasket, air box gasket, new stock air filter, new NGK plugs gapped at .032, new NGK plug wires, new Dynatek coils.  Pulse generators read out good according to the Honda Shop Manual and so do the spark boxes.  It also a new Honda fuel pump and relay. I've had the carbs apart numerous times and syncronized even more than I'd like to remember.  The jets and float valves have been removed and re-cleaned.  All four floats are in great working order and set correctly.  I have the valves set to .036 at TDC.  Both tanks are perfectly clean on the inside and I've used low to high octane.  The plugs on #1,3,4 are bronze and clean after slow driving and Fast racing around and the #2 plug always has heavy carbon build up and smells like fuel.  It chugs a bit on takeoff then runs smooth except for the chuffing sound, and if I tromp on it, it climbs quickly to about 7k then starts jolting like it's missing to about 8k then clears up to redline in every gear minus 6th.  Any gearheads out there have any other ideas now that I've changed so much out on the bike already?  My biggest concern is why such a large temp difference between each cylinder?  Is this normal, maybe, due to the different size jets in each carb?

Check out my progress pics of the bike on Facebook if you'd like: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.139268109470737.27831.100001626460204

[reaperkeeper]

ToolBoxPop
I am truly sorry you are having such problems!
I have several things for you to consider.
First, it sounds to me like you are flooding cyl #2, this can only be done two ways. Either the float level is set wrong or you have a bad needle & seat allowing the fuel to continue to fill the carb bowl.  I would think that at high rpm it would clear, but I'm not sure.  The one thing I do know is that you will, at some point, toast the motor if there is fuel dilution of the oil (fuel fills the cylinder and leaks past the piston rings into the oil). Please keep a close eye on your oil level and for the smell of gas in the oil, if you are growing oil or smell gas you will need to change the oil. 
Since you have checked the floats several times I would be concerned with the needle & seat.
Is your bike a California model?  Do you have a charcoal canister in front of your engine?  do you know what model carbs you have on the bike?
I have read this entire post but I don't remember seeing this info.......
I will check in tomorrow to see your comments.

Take Care
Robert.

[ToolBoxPop]

I've been checking the oil for the fuel smell and so far I don't think i've bled enough fuel into the crankcase to even leave a scent, but I am for sure watching that.  Very good point.  My bike was a Cali edition with all the extra vacuum lines and canister ect.  but I removed the canister and installed a set of freshly rebuilt Non-Cali carbs.  I pluged the #3 vacuum port that used to feed into the mess of vacuum lines and pluged the tank vent, then installed a venillated gas cap.  The three needles that are in that #2 carb all seemed to be very clean.  Two of them have a flat head groove in them so they came out easy and I've cleaned them several times, but one of them has no grove and the brass is so pliable that I'm afraid to put any pliers on it, but I can blow through it easily.  The float moves up and down equal to all three of the others and the float valve and screen are clean too.  I know that at this point I'm just missing something probably obvious but I surely can't figure it out.  Do the Non-Cali V65 Magnas have the same set up as far as vacuum boxes as the Cali versions?  Mine(orgionally Cali) has two vacuum jugs under the seat.  The big rubber vaccum lines runs from the back of the carb to the top vacuum box then a smaller vacuum line feeds down to the lower box, then a line just empties out to the open air out the bottom of the bike.  I put a pic of the carbs where they sit when they are syncronized, I cannot get them to read close to each other with any higher vacuum than like 9 inches of vacuum.  For a chevy 350, for example,  this would be crazy low, but I'm not sure if it's normal for a magna motor or not.  I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks, Justin.

[reaperkeeper]

Justin.

Your carb sync is very close and not the problem at all!
The needle is the little short fat pointed piece that attaches to the float and is like a shut off valve, as the float rises due to the level of gas it closes off the fuel supply to that carb.  It attaches to the float right at the same area that the float pivot pin is located.  Attached is a pic of the float bowl with the different parts labled, in this pic the needle is called the float valve, which is also correct. The other pic is the vale itself.  I have to go right now (work) but I WILL keep up with you and this so we can get it fixed!

Robert.