Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

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cmyoch
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Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#1

Post by cmyoch »

I finally completed my carb refresh and started my bike for the first time in months. It's running great and pulling hard like it used to and I'm satisfied with that. I noticed a laggy return to idle which I thought this was an issue with the carbs needing to be sync'd. I went around the carbs several times and have them all sync'd together and there's still a lag to return when I blip the throttle. Would this mean that I have a carb or two that need an air/fuel adjustment? I have them all set to factory settings and I don't want to be messing around with them unless it's absolutely necessary.

Anyone else have this issue or have any input??
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#2

Post by Motowalt »

I'd have a look at the carb slides and make sure they move freely up and back down.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#3

Post by CYBORG »

And make sure the linkage isn't hanging a bit. or the throttle cable
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#4

Post by cmyoch »

I didn't think about that. I'll take a look. I'm pretty sure I can service them without having to remove much off the bike.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#5

Post by cmyoch »

CYBORG wrote:And make sure the linkage isn't hanging a bit. or the throttle cable
+1 on that as well. I'll double check that first.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#6

Post by flyin900 »

If you broke the carbs down to individual units and removed them off the bank then there was also a past post that sometimes where the sync adjusters connect into the half moon metal connectors that these can be slightly tweaked when rebuilding the carbs and in need of a little downward pressure to correct on one or two of the sync arm connections.
I would definitely try the above posted suggestions first, yet I recall that someone else had the slow return to idle that wouldn't correct with other efforts to remedy and I believe it was a tip from Pistol Pete that fixed the problem.
I read lots on various sites and all around this site too, yet unfortunately the memory isn't what it used to be so I can't direct you to a specific post or section on the exact details.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#7

Post by cmyoch »

I spent just a couple minutes in the garage tonight and the cable is not the culprit. I'll pick up some 0000 steel wool tomorrow and give the slides a good polish hopefully tomorrow.

When I went through these this time, I did not break the carbs down fully. This was a simple cleaning and refresh of all the ports and jets, adjust all the mixture screws, and reassemble.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#8

Post by robin1731 »

cmyoch wrote:I spent just a couple minutes in the garage tonight and the cable is not the culprit. I'll pick up some 0000 steel wool tomorrow and give the slides a good polish hopefully tomorrow.

When I went through these this time, I did not break the carbs down fully. This was a simple cleaning and refresh of all the ports and jets, adjust all the mixture screws, and reassemble.
Use aluminum foil to polish them. It works great and won't leave tiny pieces of metal on the slides like the steel wool. Plus it is probably already in the kitchen. Doesn't take much.

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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#9

Post by ritalz »

Double check for air leaks around the boots. That will also cause a slow return. A little ball of tin foil will polish the slides nicely. Don't get real aggressive or you will cause more problems than you fix. Steel wool will leave tiny bits of material on the slides.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#10

Post by cmyoch »

robin1731 wrote:
cmyoch wrote:I spent just a couple minutes in the garage tonight and the cable is not the culprit. I'll pick up some 0000 steel wool tomorrow and give the slides a good polish hopefully tomorrow.

When I went through these this time, I did not break the carbs down fully. This was a simple cleaning and refresh of all the ports and jets, adjust all the mixture screws, and reassemble.
Use aluminum foil to polish them. It works great and won't leave tiny pieces of metal on the slides like the steel wool. Plus it is probably already in the kitchen. Doesn't take much.

.
Definitely!!
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#11

Post by cmyoch »

ritalz wrote:Double check for air leaks around the boots. That will also cause a slow return. A little ball of tin foil will polish the slides nicely. Don't get real aggressive or you will cause more problems than you fix. Steel wool will leave tiny bits of material on the slides.
I gave the boots a healthy spritz of ether looking for leaks and everything appeared tight.

Here's an observation I neglected to mention. I use homemade brass tubes to attach my vacuum hoses to. I have a 2 gauge sync gauge instead of 4 so I hook up to one side and leave rubber caps on the other side and move the gauge around to sync. When I pull a cap off of a tube, idle drops due to the vacuum leak. On multiple occasions today, idle would raise only on carb #1 when I'd pull the cap instead of idle dropping. This may be the one with a slow moving slide?? At least this is the one I plan on addressing first.

Thoughts?
1976 GL1000
1978 Yamaha XS650
1984 Harley Davidson XLH1000
1969 Camaro Z28
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#12

Post by cmyoch »

Also, what's the typical method for the buffing of the slides with foil? Do I use a loosely wadded piece of foil or more firmly compacted? I want to do this properly.
1976 GL1000
1978 Yamaha XS650
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1969 Camaro Z28
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#13

Post by ericheath »

I wrap the foil around a dowel (pencil) add until it fits snugly and spin away.

When you have the high idle, push on the linkage to the throttle stop. If it drops down to normal, it's either sticking cables, ( you said no) or I think it can be that the starting sync is too high. Number 3 carb is the base. If it is high to begin with, sun hung just makes the rest too high because they are synced to number 3 carb. I would bench sync them with three as close to closed as can be, then the rest similar. If it's not enough to idle you can always raise it with the throttle stop.

A little flag goes off on the number 1 carb issue as it's the one with the vacuum to the cut off valve. Double check the tube is attached and not cracked.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#14

Post by cmyoch »

ericheath wrote:I wrap the foil around a dowel (pencil) add until it fits snugly and spin away.

When you have the high idle, push on the linkage to the throttle stop. If it drops down to normal, it's either sticking cables, ( you said no) or I think it can be that the starting sync is too high. Number 3 carb is the base. If it is high to begin with, sun hung just makes the rest too high because they are synced to number 3 carb. I would bench sync them with three as close to closed as can be, then the rest similar. If it's not enough to idle you can always raise it with the throttle stop.

A little flag goes off on the number 1 carb issue as it's the one with the vacuum to the cut off valve. Double check the tube is attached and not cracked.
I always fail to mention that I have '81 GL1100 carbs on my '76. This set of carbs received the Randaak overhaul kit several years ago. All carbs were bench sync'd and #3 appears to be adjusted to the proper idle. I'll double check the throttle stop and address the #1 slide and get back with you guys.
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Re: Air/Fuel adjustment or Sync Adjustment??

#15

Post by salukispeed »

Verifying that the slides are free and silky smooth is important. and can have nice improvements in drivability. But the reality is they do not control anything below 1/8-1/4 throttle so it is unlikely they are contributing much to the issue you have. All the idle fuel and air is controlled by the butterfly and mixture screw and pilot jet. The slides only start to lift as the velocity of the air under the slide is high enough to generate a vacuum signal that is ported to the top of the slide causing it to raise.
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