RD350 carbs for a first timer

scott s

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This is not my first time rebuilding carbs. However, it IS my first time rebuilding these carbs.
I've done plenty of CB550 and XS650 carbs and been into a few other racks of carbs, too.

I have a manual on order but it's not here yet. I've been reading up and here's what I know so far. Please fill in any blanks to make sure I don't make an expensive or stupid mistake.

-Re-use stock brass or only genuine brass if it needs replacing (learned that the hard way with the Hondas)

- There are left and right bits in the carbs that can't get mixed up. Bowls, slides and....what else?

-Be careful with the oil injectors/nozzles. Parts aren't available(?). Any tips on dealing with this part?

The bike runs well but one carb pees if I leave the gas on when it's not running. The gas is old and smells of varnish, too. Otherwise, I wouldn't even bother messing with them.
What's the best way to sync them? I'll count the turns on all mixture screws, etc., and return them to the current position since it performs well otherwise.

What else should I know?
 
They're very simple carbs, you'll get it easily. Synching is done with the cable adjustor on the caps. Several ways of doing it. Look inside the mouths and watch for simultaneous movement as you open the throttle, stick your fingers in and feel for the same, or what I always did was hold the throttle wide open, stick fingers in each carb, slowly close the throttle and feel for which starts to drop first, also feeling and looking to see that both slides are equally as far up in relation to the top of the carb bore. With practice you can hear one go fully closed before the other.
If you're running the airbox....I got nothing for ya though. 400's had plugs to unscrew and view a dimple in the slide, 350's no such luck.
It's been decades since I played with the stock 28's on an RD, but just last weekend I started assembling one good set out of the two and a half rough sets I have left over from days of yore so I can run them on my KZ400 project.
The nozzles are quite robust. Use needle nose's to remove them from the carbs, like anything, if they resist stop and look and figure out why. It's just a light press fit. I guess if you break the barbed hose end of you could try superglue.
 
You can still buy the oil injector nozzles. Remove the needle jets from the carb body and clean them out along with the air passage ways that lead into them. Do this and you'll be fine. I used tig rods cut down to sync the carbs. With the airbox removed, place one under each carb slide leaving it hang out of the back of the carb. I bent a U shape in the end so they wouldn't fall into the carb/engine since mine is a piston port engine. When you rotate the throttle you should see both of them move simultaneously. If they don't, adjust each one from the carb top until the do. After that they are synced.
 
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