1972 Suzuki T500 Titan family project

Solved! ;D When I drained the oil, I pulled the neutral detent bolt as well as the correct drain plugs. I accidentally reassembled the neutral detent bolt into the drain plug's hole next to it. This prevented the shift mechanism from working. Thanks PF for the clue about neutral detent. Didn't even know it lived down there! It shifts like "Budda" now! Can't wait to log some mies on it but NOW we've got rain coming in. Sheeeesh!
 
budda shifts "smooth and silky" 8)

Now that it shifts correctly I'm puzzled as to why I can't get the mix right. It smokes like a chimney even with the stock jets and the needle lowed a notch. One side is much worse than the other and I see less spark action on the plug. I double checked my coil connections, they seem OK although they are pretty tucked away and a little tough to "triple check".

Seems to me that it should run best with larger main and pilot jets (which I have on hand) and the needle on the middle notch. I'm pretty sure some of you have already dealt with getting the mix right. I welcome your thoughts. I do have the electronic ignition and I'm a little concerned some of the trouble may be related to the side that doesn't seem to be firing correctly.
 
CarbsAndCylinders said:
Obvious I know, but did you double check the oil pump setting?
!!!!!Doh!!!!!!
It was off a country mile. I don't know what "two marks" I thought I had lined up when the throttle was full open but they weren't the correct marks. they are lined up now as I had to back off the adjuster several turns to make it so. I couldn't start it up tonight (It's a "little loud" hehehe) but I expect great results from this adjustment tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me to make that part of my inspection criteria. I raised the carb needles to their center position again in hopes I may be pretty close with stock settings. If anything, I still would expect to need to make the mixture richer. Back to tuning school 101 for me.
 
Well, I stalled out temporarily for the Holidays. It's still missing on one side but I attribute that to checking connections. I still have some oil to blow out from when the oiler was set way too heavy. It's dripping out of the slip fit on the exhaust header. I DID get some "Donkey Dick" K and N filters as nothing else had what I would consider sufficient air flow. I may replace the 2 size over main jets as I can't imagine that with the tuned exhaust and free flow intake that stock jets would be appropriate. I'm close but a bit frustrated in final tuning. Won't be long now.
 
Good to see this project back on line! Would like to suggest you do not underestimate the critical nature of the igniting timing. Start with a bit less advance than the stock setting. Typical fuel available needs (tolerates) less advance. Those T500 motors are pretty bomb-proof, but you can still hole a piston pretty easily with more advance than needed. The difference between "runs great!" and "needs pistons" really is just a hair if you lean on it! Set the timing so you know you have a safety margin, then you can get it jetted. You can always creep up on adding more advance later once you get it running well. Very likely you will need to tweak the jetting as you add advance back in - just keep in mind that on a street bike, you pretty much always have to run slightly less than optimal advance and slightly richer than optimal jetting to accommodate temperature and humidity variations.
 
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