How to start with a totaly out of wack bike

[Kain]

To start off I'm a noob with tuning.

My bike (Honda cb360) is out of tune. Way out. I haven't touched it for the whole summer and last year it was running like crap and I wasn't able do much to it either (family obligations came first but on the upside while taking a break from my bike I somehow managed to get a wife).

Now I'm ready to start working on it again. But where do I start to get the right baseline to begin tuning/reliable running?

I don't have stock (or close to stock) mufflers just some shorty pipes with no baffles (old ones are full of holes and rust). I know my charging system is good because I just changed it out the summer before last (this may be overcharging as well and has pretty much killed my battery -I think-). My carbs are/were clean last time I had them off (summer before last). My air filters have just been rebuilt (by me) using the old airboxes and new filter paper (I don't know if this was a mistake or not that may be causing more issues than it was worth).

If someone has a small checklist of where I should start that would help immensely!

I'd like to put a new smaller battery in so if there's any suggestions on size/where to get on I'd love to hear those too.

Last but not least of course money is an issue. (as always)

Thanks guys!

 

[my-79-750-k]

Find your air/fuel screws, set them to factory settings and make sure they're the same. Open pipes, extra 1/8 turn to richen it up a bit, extra airflow from a better filter, extra 1/8 turn out again. If it still gives you trouble, then it's time to look at the jets. Again, start at factory sizing and go up on the appropriate jets to accommodate for the free flow exhaust.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

<<My air filters have just been rebuilt (by me) using the old airboxes and new filter paper>>

What do you mean here? Did you actually construct air filters out of filter paper? I seriously doubt if that would work. Get OEM filters.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Oh, and can you be more descriptive than "runs like crap." "Runs like crap" could mean anything.

 

[crazypj]

<<My air filters have just been rebuilt (by me) using the old airboxes and new filter paper>>

What do you mean here? Did you actually construct air filters out of filter paper? I seriously doubt if that would work. Get OEM filters.

Actually it works pretty well.
Brendon was running home made filters for almost a year without any problems.
New filters are available from David Silver in London, UK

 

[Kain]

What do you mean here? Did you actually construct air filters out of filter paper? I seriously doubt if that would work. Get OEM filters.

I removed the old filter medium and replaced it with new. I saw a thread on here a while ago about it and gave it a shot.

Running like crap... It was totally random in the way it was acting. Some days fine others the idle would "stick" high (pull up to a light and the rpm would be at 5k pull away and get to another light and it would be at 2k) others it would just not function at all.

I went with Jewbacca's advice and made the adjustments he said. The bike would not start at all before the adjustments and still won't. At this point I'm thinking I may have an electrical issue that will need to be fixed before I start tuning at all. I've got spark on the plugs and a charged battery. The starter button gives a feeble attempt at turning over but does nothing and kickstart doesn't work either.

One problem I have is that I did try to do some tuning work the summer before last but can't remember what the hell I did cause it's been so long.

I'll be running through the manual's trouble shooting sections asap I suppose.

 

[crazypj]

Just download the manual and do everything on 6,000 mile service
At the very least you need to adjust valves, re-set timing and probably set carbs to spec

 

[Kain]

Thanks PJ,
I have the shop manual on PDF so I'll look through it asap.

A big thanks to everyone else for your help!