Carb Confusion

[kev64]

So I had a couple of days off and decided to tackle my first carb strip down.
Not to bad a job this, removal took about an hour.
So all I was gonna do was remove the float bowls, clean the jets and reassemble.
The float bowls were nice and clean,blasted the jets with carb cleaner and blew them through afterwards.
I decided to check my pilot jet settings and was surprised when they were 1 turn in the front and 1 1/4 turns at the rear.
I was reading hawks guide which says 2 1/2 front, 2 3/4 rear and that would be close .
I am confused as my bike I thought ran ok . Also I just decided to read up on the Honda workshop manual and this says 1 turn for front, 1 1/4 turns rear
However (sorry if this is a bit long winded) that appears to be for a 45 pilot jet , mine are 48s
Can some one clear this confusion up for me please (before I refit the carbs)

Thanks

[macdee]

workshop knowledge base is your friend and the guru,s on here

http://vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14214

early bikes came with 45s and i think later bikes with 48s

my bike is 1 turn and 1 1/4 turns out on 2 turns it smoked like a blue bike , not good put a stop to that right away

[kev64]

im even more confused now, they all seem to contradict one another

[Watty]

workshop knowledge base is your friend and the guru,s on here

http://vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14214

early bikes came with 45s and i think later bikes with 48s

my bike is 1 turn and 1 1/4 turns out on 2 turns it smoked like a blue bike , not good put a stop to that right away

Only thing that smokes on a blue bike is the rear tyre you, you, you eejit

[kev64]

ok, been reading a little , and I am sort of getting it a bit, if I get a special screwdriver it doesn't sound too difficult to tune up
still confused about the 2 1/2, 2 3/4 turns in Hawks guide
so macdee if your carbs are roughly set the same as mine, what pilots have you got in?

[macdee]

ok, been reading a little , and I am sort of getting it a bit, if I get a special screwdriver it doesn't sound too difficult to tune up
still confused about the 2 1/2, 2 3/4 turns in Hawks guide
so macdee if your carbs are roughly set the same as mine, what pilots have you got in?

i have 48s
hawks setting is a guide ,i set my bike there at the start and it was very rich

look again at how to set the air screws

[lloydie]

Remember hawk guid is for a base setting .
I to am at 1.5 front 1.75 rear depending on outside temps I'll change them

[kev64]

Theres a heck of a difference between 2 1/2 and 1 though, even though lets say mine is running lean at the moment, big difference
I guess ill leave it as it is and have a go at tuning !!

[macdee]

what sort of air filter are you running
any other mods done

read the bit again on setting the air screws
this is something i need to do again myself

[lloydie]

What size are your pilot jets ?
I run 48s if I set mine to Hawks BASE setting it pumps out soot .
It's always better to start of rich and dial it in learner than start of lean and go rich .
Remember the better these bike breath the richer they run not the normal other way .

[8541Hawk]

Well I guess I can add a little bit to hopefully clear up a bit of confusion.

Fist of all I did state the setting were a "base line" in my post.
I will say here that the setting will be rich on most bikes but I did that on purpose as too many folks just set things to the listed "setting" and never fine tune.

Knowing this I stayed on the rich side to keep folks from having worse issues than blowing some black smoke.

With all that, there is no set position or proper setting of the pilot screws. Each bike will be different due to many factors.

So you will have to fine tune the pilot setting for your bike no matter what guide you follow.

The biggest thing to remember when dealing with pilot jets is if you are open more than 3 turns, you need to go up a size on the pilot jet.
If you are open 1 turn or less you need to go down a size on the pilot

[kev64]

Ok thanks for the replys guys, been reading up again on Hawks and Tony mons threads and am getting my head round all this.
So as my Pilots are 48s and my settings are 1 turn front, 1 1/4 turns rear (and the bike runs well in my opinion) it will maybe need fine tuning to get it spot on, ill have to get one of those special screwdrivers then !!

PS I took your advise Hawk and removed the washer above the front needle, i plan to block one of the venturi holes once im happy with the results of my tuning . Not such a difficult task removing the carbs once you done it !!

PPS Has anyone removed the coolant pipes to the carbs, if so apart from easier carb removal, any benefits?

[mik_str]

My bike hasn't had the coolant lines hooked up in the 13 years I have owned it and 200,000+ kms later, I have never had any problems as a result.....

[8541Hawk]

You will hear arguments for each side on whether you should run them or not.

Personally I think the bike runs a bit smoother with them installed but many say they fell no difference with them removed.

In the end you won't hurt anything with them removed but like I said, I felt the bike ran better when I hooked mine back up.

[kev64]

Rebuilt this afternoon, set front at 1 1/2 , rear at 1 3/4, runs nicely, tickover quite steady, revs well with no stutter and returns to idle well.
Went for a quick 30 mile test run (8 miles of motorway ) pulled well, definite improvement
So the washer removal in the front needle seemed to work (thanks Hawk)
So will be fine tuning next. (but not this side of xmas)

My next mini issue is filling one of the venture holes with epoxy resin.
Both my velo stacks are tall, so should I fill both front and back carbs (one hole in each) ??
Or is the velo stack hieight irrelevant to this issue