CJ360 Carburettor help

Ive always had good luck setting floats at 19.5. PJ swears by 21. The Honda manual says 18.5. PJ and I agree 18.5 may be a typo.

So its your call where you set them.

trek97 said:

Thats the weirdest thing I ever read. I will have to think about that one.

Once you hit bottom does it cut out?

Just get floats set, check butterflies then sync them.

We will come back to this after those things are done. Sorta Sounding like the needle seat is toast bro. But keep going for now.

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What that means to me is that it is over fuelling, and when the screw is turned in fully, the fuel is restricted enough to get close to a good mix. I also was using my balancing tool and I could see some fuel going into the tube. I also interpreted this as over fuelling from that cylinder.

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With the bowl being over filled. Sounds like youre right.

the vacuum was probably sucking liquid fuel into the circuit like a drinking straw.

I found another good one. This might be my "smoking gun". First of all, I want to state emphatically that I have never removed the butterflies. I was looking at them with a flashlight from behind to look for gaps and they don't look too bad. However I noticed a gap at the bottom of the left carb while the right looks like a tight fit. I opened the butterflies and feel the edge of the plate, and the bevel is on the wrong side. That means the plate is installed either UPSIDE DOWN or BACKWARDS! Now I have to correct that and hopefully I can get on with my life.

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Check your oil level. If the valve seat had a leak past it the fuel may have seeped down into the cylinder and past the rings. Just a worst case but better to check than not know.

Brodie said:

Check your oil level. If the valve seat had a leak past it the fuel may have seeped down into the cylinder and past the rings. Just a worst case but better to check than not know.

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+1 A good man, that Brodie is.
If the overflow tub is clogged up, and it does happen.

Brodie said:

Check your oil level. If the valve seat had a leak past it the fuel may have seeped down into the cylinder and past the rings. Just a worst case but better to check than not know.

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I changed the oil last fall and the oil definitely smelled like gas. Its been a concern of mine since i started working on it. Oil gets changed every 500 mi so far. Only rode 20 so far this year.

Thanks for the heads up, it didn't fall on deaf ears. Oil level was in spec and didn't smell too bad. Checked my overflow tubes for blockage and they both let air through reasonably easy.

I haven't posted about my problem for a while because its been a miserable spring and haven't really wanted to ride at freezing temperatures. Tonight wasn't much better, but the best its been in over a week, so I finally went out and rode around for a bit. She started a bit better, although still slowly. Did a couple laps around the block, got it warm (OPERATIONAL TEMPERATURE!!! I can hear you already, Trek) and then tried adjusting idle mixture screws. Results? Mostly good news!

The left idle mixture screw actually adjusts idle as Honda intended! Local weather is supposed to improve dramatically this weekend and beyond. Throttle response at low rpm/speeds is also better. Very happy with the improvement overall. I didn't even balance the carbs yet! Also there's some not so good news.

When she was at operating temp and the idle mixture screws were reasonably well set, I couldn't lower the idle below 1200 rpm. The idle screw isn't even touching the round throttle thingy anymore. I suspect that means my throttle plates aren't covering the bores properly. Also one of the freeze plug things that was covering the butterfly shaft popped out sometime during my ride. Its the same one that had popped out before and I had replaced with a freeze plug. I believe PJ's got those for sale? I read that somewhere here recently.

Just wanted to let you all know that progress is being made and I will keep updating, even with the final solution!

Sounds like things are starting to go your way.
Yes PJ does make and sell the plugs.
Also, makes an sells the 6mm adapters for the sync gauges. in the event you dont have a pair already, you will need them.

Double check timing w a strobe light. May be part of your hard starting issue.

trek97 said:

Sounds like things are starting to go your way.
Yes PJ does make and sell the plugs.
Also, makes an sells the 6mm adapters for the sync gauges. in the event you dont have a pair already, you will need them.

Double check timing w a strobe light. May be part of your hard starting issue.

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Bought those from pj a couple years ago. I've been trying to get these carbs set for a while. My timing is SPOT ON. I have a Pamco, and I checked it a couple weeks ago for the first time since installing it (and setting it then) and it was perfect. I have to say, very impressed with that little box. I'll get some time Saturday to set the carb balance and then we'll see how it goes.

Carbs were massively out of sync. Just got home after warming her up, put the tools on, got them very closely balanced and then the skies opened up and now I can't even go for a ride! I have an appointment after work tomorrow that should afford a perfect opportunity for a ride. Cautiously optimistic.

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Duchat said:

Cautiously optimistic.

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CAREFUL

Now you need to revisit A/F mix on both carbs.

Got my chance to ride after the balance (and a rudimentary idle screw adjustment), and it runs like a motorcycle for the first time ever since I bought it. Thanks for all your input, especially all your messages trek, in this thead and all the PM's I've bugged you with in the past. Now I need to decide what to do with it. There's a backlog of work to be done on other machines, as well as husband and parenting jobs. I suspect this one will be for riding for now as is.

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Duchat said:

I suspect this one will be for riding for now as is.

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Damned skippy it will be for riding. ;D

Youre very welcome bud. It was quite fun for me to re-hash all that, just to keep it fresh in my head.
If you have anything else arise. Dont hesitate to contact me.

PS if you still got the original diaphragms in her...and she suddenly loses power for no "easily apparent" reason check them for holes.
A tell tale sign of a torn diaphragm (besides inexplicably running like crap) one white plug and one black plug.

Make sure the 2 holes in the slides are on the filter side, as Ive seen slides work themselves around. You can VERY carefully twist the slides in the original plastic ringed diaphragms to get the diaphragm tab to fit the body correctly and obtain correct slide orientation.