Acceleration anomoly?

[Rat]

These things go to 6000 rpms ??

Gord(sedate rider)Jones

[gltriker]

Thanks for the report Mickster. Seems the idling engine appreciated the extra 1 1/2 turns pilot air/fuel volume. Well Done

[Fred Camper]

Nice pics and great progress. Looks sweet. Time for some miles before further work, weather permitting of course.

[Mickster]

gltriker, the bike runs really nice now so I think I will leave it alone and just ride it like it has been suggested. Maybe some day I'll do a frame up resto, or sell it to someone who wants to do a resto, or just to someone who will appreciate a good running classic motorbike.

However... I really like that trike set up you have.

That right front carb leak is so small that it just seeps a bit, right around the float bowl, and not enough to even drop onto the crankcase.

Regarding the dynamic synchronizing, I'm hoping Pete's did that on their test motor cause I don't have the equipment to do it. Just listening to the exhaust, intake and rpms makes me think it's all spot on.

Sportster seat, Dyna exhaust, HD front turn signals. Collapsed inner header pipe cut out and a new piece of exhaust tubing welded in. Another story.

More pics?

[Lucien Harpress]

Short answer? If it revs smooth and idles steady, you're good.

Long answer? All you need to sync a set of these carburetors are 4 vacuum gauges (pretty common, and cheap), a 10mm wrench and a screwdriver. They may have been synced on a test engine before you got them back, but each engine is slightly different and the carb rack really should be dialed in. Unless you're lucky, the prior sync will realistically get you 90% of the way there. That final sync will get you that last 10%.

[gltriker]

gltriker, the bike runs really nice now so I think I will leave it alone and just ride it like it has been suggested. Perfect
Maybe some day I'll do a frame up resto, or sell it to someone who wants to do a resto, or just to someone who will appreciate a good running classic motorbike.

However... I really like that trike set up you have. Thanks Mickster, I've enjoyed it immensely! It's my only motorcycle. A little over 31,000 miles since I triked it, 2012. Although my riding days are most likely done, (2 1/2 years since last time I drove trike ) I've learned a lot and experienced improvements in its 1975 engine's behaviors and overall performance. Valve lash clearance increased to 0.006 , after riding as a trike over 25,000 miles, was the immediately noted, proverbial icing on the cake.

That right front carb leak is so small that it just seeps a bit, right around the float bowl, and not enough to even drop onto the crankcase. Always turn the fuel valve to the OFF position when parked .

Regarding the dynamic synchronizing, I'm hoping Pete's did that on their test motor cause I don't have the equipment to do it. Just listening to the exhaust, intake and rpms makes me think it's all spot on. Good 'nuff. (Disregard the 90% speculation)

Sportster seat, Dyna exhaust, HD front turn signals. Collapsed inner header pipe cut out and a new piece of exhaust tubing welded in. Another story.

More pics? It's an upcoming BOTM, fer sure

[low-side]

Sometimes you get lucky with the carbs. I rebuilt mine on my '78 bagger, but haven't bothered synching them. It idles at 850 rpm with no clutch or chain rattle. My other '78 needed synched very badly; it wouldn't idle smoothly under 1400 rpm until I did so. It idles smoothly at 950 rpm now. If it idles smoothly at a reasonable speed I wouldn't worry about it.

[redglbx]

One thing I’ll add from my time on my friends dyno is that the rush/on the pipe/on the cam sensation you’re feeling is actually the motor clearing a glut of fuel created when you whack the throttles open and the slides slam open and dump some fuel from the secondary mains when the needles are pulled out of them.

I tried a lot of different things to improve or correct this but never found a good solution, although I changed the jetting around and did find some improvements on my 76.

As some have said the initial 75-77 wings were actually built as hot rods to compete against the Kawi 900 which from a roll they would give them a good run for their money but would get killed from a dead stop. By the time the 78’s came around the Wings were moving more towards the touring mission. Imho the 77’s had the best all round performance, although the 78 & 79’s had better low end performance,they just don’t have the top end performance.

On my 76 and my 76 LTD I changed the jetting to 65 primary mains from 62’s and the secondary mains to 115’s from 120, and the low speed air jet in the brass elbows from 115’s to 110. And I stayed with the stock 35 idle jets. This setup really flattened the fuel curve delivery, keeping it more consistent. This also helped reduced the “glut” a little but didn’t eliminate it. But I found that my bikes and the several customer bikes I’ve done this to seem to run better and get better fuel economy. But it’s your choice. Spotlessly clean and sync’d carbs are a must for a good running 1000 wing.

Typically all stock 75-77 wings made around 50 rear wheel horsepower which isn’t terrible but so many of the “new” bikes push around 100 rwhp while weighing significantly less, so the 1000 wings aren’t rockets but they aren’t slugs either, they just smoothly & quietly build speed, they’re deceptively quick. My.02

[rcmatt007]

and compared to what was available in the 70's they were darn fast. I recall following a brand new HD electra-glide (about 1979) and we both went to pass a car. I had to lay off the throttle on my 78 or I would have run over the HD

[redglbx]

Yep Rodger ! My brother was a Harley guy and just loved them, when I first got my 76 wing it was a total pos with all kinds of issues that started with the stator failing within the first 2 or 3 miles of me picking it up new and having to return to the dealer to have the engine pulled and the stator replaced.

My brother being a HD guy really enjoyed rubbing that in my face and the wings were getting mixed reviews for their weight and automotive similarities. So my brother (I sure miss him) figured my Wing would be easy picking for his slightly modified 75 Super Glide ( I really liked that bike inspite if the very poor quality) but once I had my wing broke-in and we got-it-on , quite frankly it was really ugly on how bad the wing whooped up on that Super Glide, and several repeat endeavors over the years with some of his other Harley’s produced the same results.

As I said earlier these old wings are really deceptively quick, not much sensation of speed but they build speed very effortlessly and even after all these years and all the issues I had with my red 76 it still calls to me regularly. My 76 LTD is a much different animal that is much more refined and it has the jetting I talked about above, it just gets after it and has regularly been over 50 mpg’s and I have personally seen over 125mph with more in reserve easily. By the way, the on-the-cam/pipe sensation went away once I got the jetting right.

Now all that said, I normally ride my 2014 Yamaha FJR which has around 130rwhp which is a stark contrast with the wing , but both have a lot of similarities in that both do things effortlessly and simply and easily build speed. Anyway I’m kinda thinking of getting my LTD out of it’s storage in the spring, they are very special with all the blue printing and balancing of the engine/tranny and pretty much are a complete handbuilt bike which was the draw for Honda doing them. The frame welds on my LTD look like Honda had their best welder do them and then smooth them, just beautiful while my red 76’s welds look like they were teaching newbies how to weld on it, just awful.

Anyway Mick, it looks like you did a nice job there ! Take it out and enjoy it ! By the way, you need to sync the carbs to the bike they are going on as individual valve clearances and sealing along with variances in the cylinder pumping, really any differences cylinder to cylinder affect the sync. Sounds like Pete’s son may have gotten it close so it’s not a rush deal but something that certainly needs done at some point. One other thing I would suggest is that if that bike had been sitting for a length of time you need to recheck the valve clearances periodically as the valves beat any rust or corrosion off the valves and seats, this was a problem on my LTD and the clearances would nearly close up completely, not good so take a look periodically.

[CYBORG]

just a side note, but I always find it interesting that Harley always seems to be the standard that other bikes are compared to. Especially, because in my opinion, they are no where near the top of the food chain.

[Don R]

A few of us have tried 1100 carbs, they used to be considered a speed secret. That's really not a fact but they have accelerator pumps that in theory help with the snap open throttle response. I borrowed a set of 1983 carbs to ride to Sturgis, a (2,000 mile week) and found them responsive and the bike got good mileage too. I cruised on I90 at 90mph all afternoon.
The carb guru's will say don't do it and have a good case for not using them. Personally, I wish I had kept them.

[redglbx]

Cyborg, I think the Harley thing is because of the guy’s that generally ride them think that if they’re loud that they have to be fast and really like to berate the Japanese products when in fact almost all Japanese bikes in all sizes will flat spank anything from Milwaukee.

A few years ago I was on my way home on my FJR and was turning left onto a 4 lane street. There was a guy in front of me on a brand new Screaming Eagle whatever that was really working the exhaust out. He was turning left as well and really checking me out in his mirrors. When the arrow came on and he turned left he went to the outside lane and waited on me to pull along side him so he could blip his pipes at me, rev’d the heck outta the motor and dropped the clutch,,,, I just kinda watched him and thought “idiot” followed by a “hell no” that I heard muttered in my helmet and just rolled the fjr on. I caught him easily, pulled the clutch and blipped the throttle a couple of times, gave him the thumbs up , upshifted and just ran away. At the next light about 2 miles down the road he wouldn’t pull up next to me or even look at me, probably cursing that he spent $35k + to get flat spanked like an unwanted step child, I almost felt bad for him ,,,,, almost !

1100 carbs,,, past the accelerator pump I’m not a fan ALTHOUGH I do run them on my red 76, but on mine I have many, many hours in them machining and modifying them to make them flow better than the 1000’s did, the stock 1000 carbs will just spank a set of stock 1100’s on a 1000 bike. If you run them back to back on a dyno or a measured distance you’ll see the very big difference. I should add that if you spend the time to tweak them and set the jetting up correctly you will be rewarded with some nicely running carbs but you will give up some power to do that.

[gregforesi]

The bike is parked out in front of a place of ill repute off Michigan Ave. near the MIS Speedway. A fella comes up to me and says "Heh, I've got a G.E.M. rear gearset for that." to which I replied "How much". $75 dollars later and a trip to Ohio and I had a brand new still in the cosmolene 3.70 rear gearset. Got a second final drive off ebay for cheap and went to work. It took a while to source the bearings and seals (thanks Old Fogey) and the instructions (thanks SunnBobb) and disassembly and reassembly required special tools and a lot of time. Polishing the final drive housing took a bit of time as well.

Anyway, there aren't many but there are some out there in 3.7 and 4.0 ratios for the 1000 final drive (stock is 3.4). It's more of a brute force approach to getting the bike off the line...I'm good with that.

[CYBORG]

I ran a G.E.M. set in the 78 for a while. Loved the launch, but not a fan of the interstate RPM's