Dirty, Dirty Carbs

The battle of the century seems to be keeping this 28 year old Honda CM400 running. Actually it's not been that bad, but she does take up quite a bit of time every couple of weeks. Right now I'm trying to figure out why my engine is getting so hot, and I mean like skizzle hot. The crankcase is averaging in the 230-250 degree range as far as I can tell, which is a bit on the hot side. Now, there are a list of culprits that could be causing this, the most likely are or were a dirty carburetor, valves out of adjustment, or the timing is off. I don't have a timing light or feeler gauges, so that kinda pushes me into checking the carbs first.
This didn't bother me since I had been looking at the blow up diagram from bikebandit.com for something like two months now. I was able to find some replacement screws for ones that had been stripped before she was mine, so I was ready to tear into them. First thing first, I gotta get them off the bike first. This is not super hard, but does require you to take off the gas tank to get to the throttle and choke cables. After taking off the tank, drain the float bowls, and loosen and detach all cables, except the choke, WHILE KEEPING TRACK OF WHERE THEY WERE!!!! I dunno, take a photo or something, I had 3 cables and marked them 1,2, and 3 to keep em in order. Worked for me, why not you? After you detach cables 1&2, pull the choke out( at the handlebars), and loosen the clamps around the boots. At this point it's kinda by feel to get them out. I straddle the bike, and pull the carbs back to get them out of the boots connecting to the engine block. Then I'm able to kinda wiggle and force them out to the left. If you pulled the choke, that little tab won't get hung on the rear boot, making life a lot easier. With a little finesse, they should pop out. Each time I take them out, it varies in difficulty, sometimes are easier than others? After the carbs are free, remove the throttle cable and viola! A set of carburetors in hand!

After freeing them, be careful with them. Don't shake em or do stupid crap like that. Now you want a CLEAN AND ORGANIZED working area. I can't reinforce this enough, there are lots of tiny parts in there. I lay a cheap towel down and put all my tools and needs on it before I start, this tends to save a lot of time in the long run. All I really use is a can of carb cleaner, a can of compressed air, a phillips head screwdriver, two flat head scew drivers(one large, one small), and maybe some pliers and tweezers. Along with that, I'll use tin cans to soak jets and other parts in and a larger container to soak other parts in. Now it's time to open them up. I start with the bowls, seems logical and it will tell you what you can expect in the rest of the carb. A preview of this is seen when you drain your bowls before taking the carbs off. In my case, lots of particulate rust from a rusty gas tank and a crappy wire fuel filter. This is not a good thing to see. Before you start to spray everything with carb cleaner, remove all rubber pieces, carb cleaner will destroy them. Replace them if necessary, be careful with them if you're not! After cleaning out the bowls, start taking the jets out and looking for clogs and whatnot. It's not recommended that you stick wire through the jet holes, but in the case of heavy varnish, it might be necessary. I like to use the wire out of the center of a twisty tie. They're super thin, so there's no threat of damaging the needle. After checking the jets, throw them into a can to soak in cleaner, and continue to disassemble the body. Remove the floats and the float needle. Check the float and needle for defects.

My cabs are cv type with pistons, so I flip them over next to take the pistons apart. After removing the main screws, slip the body apart to expose the slider and carb interior. Remove the needle jet and toss it into the can with the other jets. The whole body is almost apart at this point. Parts are everywhere, things could get hectic. All that's left is removing the accelerator pump and air cut off valve. The air cut off valve is on the side of the body. Take the cap off slowly, there is a spring underneath it that can be lost easily. The pump itself is a brass piece with a rubber gasket. Check to make sure there are no tears or cracks in the gasket and remove the small o-ring in the small hole to the bottom left of the pump. Next is the accelerator pump. Similar to the air cut off valve except its a brass rod with a rubber gasket. Same drill on this one, look for defects and clean gently. At this point, the carb body is completely apart and its time to clean it. Clean it good, blow cleaner into all it's little holes, nooks, and crannies. Make sure all the paths are clear of obstructions and then blow all the cleaner out with compressed air. The insides should be shiny clean!

Time to reassemble. I put it back together the opposite of how I took it apart. Makes it easier for me to get it back together with all the parts in the right order. I tend to lay pieces out in the order I take them out, so I just have to move down the line to get it back together. After reassembling the first carb, do the exact same thing to the other one. It's best to clean them separately. If you forget how to put a piece together, you can look at the one that's still together, plus, they tend to not like having parts swapped between the two of them. I hope this helps someone who wants to work on their carbs but is hesitant to. It's not that hard if you have some mechanical ability and can stay somewhat organized. In the end, I pulled some nasty crap out of my carbs. LOTS of rust. I plan on resealing my tank this winter. Unfortunately, she is still overheating. I'm becoming more suspect of a small hole in my lower head gasket. It might be blowing back into the cylinder head causing my mixture to lean out, thus causing it to run hot. Sounds like there will be a blow by blow of how to replace most of the gaskets and seals in the engine this winter.

Back From the Dead

So I have finally recovered from the vile bug bestowed upon me by my best friends crotch fruit. 4-5 days of highly unpleasant expulsions, thank god it's over with now. It took a few days, but even my appetite has returned in full force. So what's been going on since then? Not a whole lot! The garden has taken a pretty big hit this week, I think it's been over 2 weeks since we've received any rain. Last week, my only concern was trying not to die, so the garden did not receive it's normal and required waterings, soooo... the garden is pretty well Shermanized. Oh well, I was thinking about tearing it all out to get it ready for a fall/winter cover crop to improve the soil. We'll see, the bike has been taking up a lot of time as of late.

This week on the way to work, she (the bike) started to die on me, on and off. I knew it had something to do with the fuel system, since the carbs sounded starved for fuel. My gas tank has some rust, which there is a fair amount of in the carbs, but this was a new problem and unexpected. I was off on Tuesday, so I tore the fuel system apart. I emptied and drained the tank so I could look at the petcock. Not suprisingly, it's in pretty bad shape, but I could tell it has been that way for awhile, so it should not be the cause of my headache. I checked the fuel lines, changed the fuel filter, and threw the tank back on all the while giving the carbs a dirty look. I've been hoping to avoid dealing with them yet, but it was looking more likely that they were coming off the bike soon.

I had to run into Asheville to get a new rear tire mounted. Sweet! Now I don't see visions of my rear tire exploding at high speeds, now it's only the front wheel! I returned home to remount the rear wheel and take her on an anticipated test ride with the new tire. I hopped on and took off down the road, only to have her start bogging down again and stall. I limped back home frustrated and hoping to find an easy fix online. All the while, I'm still giving my carbs dirty looks. No chance finding an easy fix, so in a moment of desperation, I tore the carbs off my bike and started taking them apart. Cat got to come home to me smeared in grime with a dual carb layed in front of me like a scattered deck of cards.

My only experience with carbs is screwing around with them on boats, lawnmowers, weedeaters and such. As stated before the are dual carbs, so they have to be calibrated. Needless to say, I was not very confident in my ability to do what I was about to attempt. I took most of it apart to clean the jets out and all the rust out of the bowls. After putting the jigsaw puzzle back together, it was time to get it on the bike and see if it worked or I totally screwed my carbs up. After a few attempts to get the carbs mounted in the boots with all appropriate wires attatched, I put the tank back on and it was time.

I turned the key on and hit the starter, as expected, it took a bit for the carbs to refuel and then she started. But she didn't sound right, I took her out for a quick spin and she ran like crap. I limped back home and restarted her in the driveway and revved to 8000 rpm and I think it cleared some crap out of a jet, because she purred at idle after that. I took her for another spin and she ran dreamy, but wanted to stall when I came to a stop and the rmp's dropped.

So, the bike runs great, sounds better than when I bought her, but my idle settings are all screwed up somehow. Sometimes it will die when I'm idling because of low rpm's, the next time I stop they'll shoot up to 2500rpm's at idle.I'm sure one of my cables got stretched out of whack or something. Hopefully I'll get a chance to look into it more tomorrow before work. Other than that, I'm having a great time on the bike. The new rear tire has improved my confidence and feels a whole lot more stable. I found a set of front forks on ebay for $15 I'm going to buy and try to rebuild this month. After putting those on and a new front tire, most of my issues with the bike will be resolved.

Believe or not, I have actually fished in the last week. I ran out to the Pigeon after frustrating myself on the bike in Tuesday. Fishing SUCKED!!! I was calf deep in areas that are normally thigh deep. I caught one fish on a wooley bugger. That was the only hit I had, the only fish I saw. I hate to say it, but I think I'm going to hang up the rods until we get some rain. It just isn't worth the stress in the fish and fishing has been mediocre at best for the last month. Since it has cooled down some, I'll probably start doing more day hikes to get ready for hiking season this winter. So there you have it, the past ten days of my life in a nutshell. Not real exciting by any means.

And Then There Was Light

So, as stated in earlier posts the headlamp on my Honda CM400T is like riding down the road with a flashlight, and not a good one at that. Something had to be done, so I finally went down to WallyWorld and bought a set of cheap halogen driving lights for a quick fix until I can come up with something better. Car lights are not the best option, they have a tendency to vibrate themselves to death on a motorcycle, but for $17, it was a doable option.

I had been trying to decide which way to wire them, either directly in the headlamp or directly to the charging system. Despite being more work, I decided to wire them to the charging system in hopes of avoiding overloading the fuse for the headlamp. The first order of the project was to drill holes onto the headlamp mount to mount the lamps to. Extreme caution had to be taken to avoid drilling into the brake lines or other electrical wires. With that done, I mounted the headlamps into the holes that had just been drilled. Holy Crap! I think this is going to work!

With the lights installed, it was time to start on the wiring. This was not that difficult either. I started with running the individual grounds to the to the screws used for mounting the lights on the bolt side. After that, I disconnected the battery and connected the power wire to the charging system and ran it to the handlebars. I ran the connectors from the lights to the toggle switch on the bars, and then ran a another ground from the toggle switch to the back of the other mount. Mounting the toggle switch was a little more interesting. I ended up getting creative with some zipties and came up with a solid solution.

At this time, everything was hooked up and it was time to give it a try. I turned the key and hesitantly flipped the toggle. VIOLA! LIGHT! 55 watts of clean halogen light spilled into the driveway, I leaned back in satisfaction. It was getting dark out so I decided I would finish it up in the morning since I was off. When I got around to finishing it the next morning, all that was left was splicing some wires to shorten them and then hide them, while locking the lights into position. This didn't take too long, so after a bit, it was time to take it for a test on the road.

I decided to run by and see Cat at work, a nice long trip on a beautiful day. It was a great ride and I felt more confident that I was much more visible to traffic. I'm excited about driving to work on Monday to see how well it does in the tunnels. Later that day, I decided to take her out for a night ride to see if the lights were vibrating or anything. Damn! These things are bright. My charging system is having a little difficulty keeping up with them. When I hit the brakes or a turn signal, they dim a little bit. Something to look into. Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this. Now I should be able to start fishing after work now that I feel moderately safe in the dark.

It only took about 3 hours to do this all together. The most difficult part was connecting everything between the forks and behind the headlight. I'm sure a hour could be shaved off if I had been a little more organized, lots of trips to the basement. So, if you got an old bike that doesn't give off much light and there are no real options to upgrade, try this out. How long will they work? Will it stress my battery? I have no idea the answers to these questions. I'm sure I will find the answers out though. All I do know is that I feel ALOT safer out on the road, and they even look pretty cool on hte bike. SWEET!

Life Goes On

And so it does. It's been a bit of a stressful, hectic, and tiring week. The motorcycle has been dominating most of my time and energy. I was able to start on the rod Cat bought me, but it will probably be this weekend before I'm able to put the finish on. I was able to get all the guides on and so far, only one wrap has come unraveled. Wasn't really that hard, definitely would have been easier than using something other than a box as a rod wrapper, hopefully that will come in the future sometime. All I have left to do is add the accent wraps, put finish on the wraps, glue in the seat, and she's set for a day on the water.

Some milestones have been bestowed upon me as far as the bike is concerned. My headlight burned out, so I've been in a maddening search for a part made for a motorcycle the same age as my wife. This was not the easiest thing to find, but alas, I was able to order one today. It's a shame that the light sucks so bad, now I'll be able to try and rig up a halogen light somehow. I had my first carb issue yesterday. Coming out of Wal-Mart, I saw a large pool of gas under the engine. A result of fuel pouring out of my overflow on my right carb. A condition caused by a float in the bowl of the carb getting stuck open somehow. Oh crap! I'm going to have to rebuild the carbs. I'm totally not prepared to do that yet. No manual, never worked on bike carbs, I was freakin!

I spent about 5 hours looking at alot of different things, trying to avoid the rebuild at all costs. I came across a few fixes that might unstick the float, so it would close again. The first was to start the engine and restrict the air flow to the carbs enough to almost stall it, and then let air return. This is supposed to increase the vacuum in the engine and pop free gunky valves and floats. Didn't work. Next solution was to start the engine with the petcock closed and run it until it almost stalls, and then turn on the fuel. The purpose of this was similar to the first fix and the results were similar ...... at first. Defeated, I went in to change for work and to run by Advanced Auto to get a can of Sea Foam. While riding, I decided to try fix #2 while the engine was under load. While riding, I shut off the petcock and ran her until she started to fade, then I switched the fuel back on. I did this two or three times, and wouldn't you know it, when I stopped at AA, the leaking had stopped, YEAH!!!! I still got a can of Sea Foam to run through the tank and the intake soon. This stuff is amazing, if you're having carb problems, try running this directly into the carbs while the engine is running. I used to do this all the time on my boats to keep the carbs from gumming up. I plan to do this as soon as I can. I planned on doing it tonight, but didn't get home til late tonight due to rain. These carbs will need to be rebuilt, but not today!

I had to ride home in the rain today. Not fun. On the plus side, I stopped at a hotel at Socco Gap, the first cover I could find, and ran into a nice guy from Kentucky that offered me a beer. We chatted for a while as it continued to rain, enjoying a refreshment and conversation. After a bit it quit raining, so I was on my way. I was moving at nice clip trying to avoid more rain I could see moving my way and had a friendly encounter with on of Maggie Valley's finest. Only a warning, thankfully. Along with all this, I almost got clipped by a turkey and I've been stung TWICE by something in the last 4 days that hurt like hell! Still, the bike rocks! So much fun, now that visions of death in every curve are easing.

Now if I can just get my ass back on the water! The garden hasn't been receiving the attention it deserves as of late either. Hopefully life will return to a normal rhythm sometime soon.

Go from 22MPG to 60+MPG for under $1000

Buy a motorcycle. I did, and it's smackey!. Cat and I had been trying to decide what to do about our rising expenses and we had been bouncing around the bike idea for a couple of months. Thanks to Uncle Sam and his rebate check, we decided to go ahead and do it. Now, a little background. I haven't ridden a motorcycle in about, I dunno, 20 years. Been a long time. Being about 12 at that time, I didn't ride on the road, so that's new to me.

Yesterday, I went out and got a hold of an Iwanna as early as I could drag my ass out of bed. When I got home, I flipped through the adds and only found 2 bikes that met my criteria: running, cheap, not a total turd. First one was sold, got ahold of the guy selling the second one. After chatting for a bit about it's condition, I decided it was worth the drive out to Pisgah Forest to check it out. Decided to take 276 out there and couldn't help but notice how dry both the upper Pigeon and Davidson River were. Scary! Not even August yet. Anyhow, I met up with the guy to check out the bike. It was sweet! A 1980 Honda cm400t with about 7000 miles on it, for $1000. No major problems, tires in good shape,.... The only problem is that it cold starts a little rough, takes about 5 minutes to warm up, after that, good to go. I think she only needs to be ridden some, if not, I plan to rebuild the carbs in a month or two.

Needless to say, I bought the bike on site. This necessitated another trip over Mnt Pisgah to pick it up and drop the money. After loading it into the bed of the truck, I took her home in anticipation of getting her on the road. Getting home, I next faced the issue of getting the bike off the truck alone, not fun! After all that, it was finally time to ride! As stated before, I haven't ridden a motorcycle on about 20 years, so I was a bit nervous. I cinched up my helmet and started her up. Instantly, a gentle purr sounded from the engine. I put her in gear, shifted into first, rolled the throtle a bit, and off we went. I screwed around in the driveway for a few minutes to make sure everything was working and that I remembered what I was doing.

Tentatively, I eased out onto the rural roads around my house to put her through the paces, in hopes of retuning home in one piece. Getting used to how 400lbs rolling down the road is taking a little of time. Slowly I am beginning to get more confident that I'm not going to die in a hideous crash and began to enjoy myself. I should have bought one of these years ago! What a blast, when you're going 45, it feels like you're going something like 90. I'm sure it will be more fun once a little more confidence comes, being as how I take the Parkway to work. Not alot of traffic, but tons of curves. Which decidedly made today's ride to work a bit intense! That's fine though, each time I go for a ride, I get a little more comfortable.

So far, I've averaged about 60mpg which is super, I was getting 22mpg on my Colorado. I can get about 115 miles out of a tank, I know this because I ran out of gas today. SWEET!!! Not really. Luckily it happened next to a pretty nice fella who happened to have a gallon of gas. One of my forks is leaking oil out of the boot, so some attention will need to be paid to that soon. Happens that this bike is supposed to be pretty easy to work on and parts for it are readily available. Seems like a good buy to me so far. Hopefully this catagory won't end up with me selling this as a scrap heap from a wheelchair! I'm trying to be super careful, although it is a bit distressing that Cat just upped my life insurance today.?!.