Gunner Asch has brought this to us :
More in the continuing saga of Gunner and 2 wheeled iron......

The 1974 Honda Xl 350 that Ive owned, but never started, and left to
languish in the weeds for 10 yrs, has been one of the 3 bikes Ive been
putting with. The Royal Enfield/Indian Chief I started several weeks
ago, after 37 yrs of ownership....chuckle.


I orignally found the wiring had been torn up badly, and the coil not
putting out a spark. I fixed the ignition wiring, and installed a used
6vt AC coil, and condenser from a pickup truck, along with a new plug
and cap (the old cap wouldnt conduct through it), I managed to get a
nice blue spark. But it wouldnt start consitantly or run for any period
of time.

Taking the carby apart, I found it missing a Slo Jet with some ****tards
impromtu jet stuffed into the hole. Tuesday, I found a used jet at a
motorcycle shop in Bakersfield and Wed I reassembed the carby, after
checking float height, replacing all the seals and o rings and so forth.

I installed the carby, put fresh gas in the tank, kicked it 3 times and
she started and sat there idling rather nicely. Gray smoke slowly
cleared out and became a bit of black smoke but it idled pretty fair.

Since the clutch appeared to be frozen, I put it in gear with the engine
off, and rocked it back and forth for a few minutes, checking for clutch
action and suddenly the clutch came free. I went into the house, dug
out a helmet, and puttered up and down the alley way for 15 minutes,
getting used to the bike, changing gears, seeing what it needed . A
quick punch of the rear break pedal did little, so adjusted that. A
quick grab of the front brake caused the front wheel to freeze, so
adjusted that. Sprayed the chain with Kroil, checked this and that.

It idles with black smoke, indicating a rich condition, and the air jet
really doesnt do much of anything when turned in or out. So evidently
there is an issue there. I didnt check the needle clip position, so that
will be done tommorow. There is a hose that comes out fo the carby and
goes back into the airbox (airbox not installed) and that opens and
closes a diaphram on the carby that makes the engine speed up or slow
down...no idea what it does. The Clymer that a neighbor gave me today
gives the carby much of a pass, no details to speak of, not even clip
position, the *******s!!

It leaks badly at the exhaust port, Im not sure if there is a gasket in
there, but it did quiet down after the engine got warm. Valves need to
be adjusted, oil changed, new points installed and so forth.

Anything over an idle, the engine bogs and sputters in a certain range,
then speeds up rapidly while riding when you crank on it. So there has
to be an air leak somewhere, and it pushes out black smoke at any speed
range. And the timing may not be advancing....sigh

But it runs, doesnt push out oil smoke and no Bad Noises come from the
engine... Now its just detail work. Getting the lights and other wiring
fixed up, Replacement or repair the seat etc etc

I didnt want to sink any money in it because I didnt know if the engine
was hosed or not. Now I can feel comfortable putting some time and
effort into it.

Many of the internal seals were flat black rubber disks, which I
replaced with O rings that I had on hand, not having the same rubber
disks or stock to make em from.

Anyone familar with the Keihen carby with the lever that lifts the
slide, rather than having the slide lifed directly by the throttle
cable? Anything I should check to see what the over rich condition is
caused by? Ill drop the needle valve a slot to the recommended one from
the www.oldrice.com website, but the air jet adjustment not doing much
of anything at idle, and the bogging, and sputtering when applying
throttle are the main issues.

After this is resolved, comes the BMW, which should either be the
easiest, or hardest to get running again...sigh

Gunner

"Upon Roosevelt's death in 1945, H. L. Mencken predicted in his diary
that Roosevelt would be remembered as a great president, "maybe even
alongside Washington and Lincoln," opining that Roosevelt "had every
quality that morons esteem in their heroes.""

The bogging you experience could also be a fuel delivery problem.
Make sure the tank is clean, not full of rust floating around.
Add an inline fuel filter (or replace it) if you haven't already.
One of the passages in the carb my still be partially plugged.

When you say bog, does it sound like the engine cutting out
or does it make a burbling type noise. The former is lean, the
latter rich.

As far as jetting goes the pilot jet affects idle & just off idle.
The air screw also, but it is only good for about a half turn either
direction from where the manual says it should be set.
The cutaway on the slide affects off idle. Then the needle and the
needle jet take over. Finally the main jet takes control.

If you see black smoke and hear burbling on all throttle settings,
the maybe there is some other issue. I wouldn't think that all the
jetting circuits would all be wrong.

I had a '78 XL350, 1st dirt bike, which gave off black smoke. I didn't
know nothing about bikes then, and got the dealer to fix it. They
wanted to do a tune-up, standard reply. I told them no, just fix the
problem. They did and it wasn't too expensive. Unfortunately I don't
know what they did to solve the issue.

Wayne D.