zagger

The diaphragms actually run the carbs. They make the sliders (vacuum pistons) move along with the attached needles. If they have holes (quite likely in an older bike) then they won't do their job. Your description seems to indicate that the carbs are unable to supply the necessary gas once the enrichment circuit is off (choke off). Looking at every component made of rubbery stuff (like the diaphragms) would make sense since they do gradually crumble away over the years. Of course, making sure the carb internals are not full of crud would also be a natural thing to check. Good luck.

Seems like an interesting idea. But I just looked online and it seems that the max. temperature that device can display is 230F. Is that high enough for a warmed up engine? I would have guessed that the exhaust pipe temp would be higher.

It has been quite a long time, but as I remember, I made simple restrictors by inserting the threaded portion of a bolt into the tubing so that the only airflow has to pass down the tiny passage created by the thread. The restriction can be adjusted by changing the length of the threaded bolt. Without a restriction, the pressure measuring guage will jump all over the place. You can experiment with the restriction for the best gauge reading. Many years ago I tried a U shaped tube with liquid inside to measure the vacuum (I forget whether this was on my venture or another bike). You cannot imagine how quickly the engine slurped that liquid in one gulp! Fortunately, the tubing ID was pretty small and the engine didn't even notice! That's when I switched to liquid-free gauges.

If you load the engine at all, it will become pretty obvious if all the cylinders are firing with a full charge of gas/air. I made notes in my service manual when I rebuilt my carbs several years ago - as far as I know, the enrichment circuit is not shown in the Yamaha XVZ1200 service manual cross-sectional drawing of the carb internals. When the engine was first started, you probably had the choke activated which has the effect of adding additional gas through the enrichment circuit. As you release the choke, less additional gas is provided and the engine may stop firing on any cylinders which are not getting an adequate supply of gas/air from each carb. I would imagine that you will find a problem in one or more carbs with the normal gas/air flow when the enrichment circuit is turned off at the handlebar. I will assume that you went through the various diaphrams in every carb, checking for cracks, etc. Proper operation depends on all the rubber diaphrams being in good shape. I'm ignoring the spark question because it seems like the engine runs ok when cold (choke probably ON). Good luck!

Yup. Plenty of snow here. Temp is +10F right now but headed down to -15F on Sat night. With our normal 10mph wind, the windchill will be -35F. Geesh. zag

Just seeing the ground instead of snow would be a nice early sign of spring! zag

What's a Harley? zag

A "billet" gas tank made from a 534 lb. block of aluminum??? Now I HAVE heard of everything! Is there a huge sheet metal shortage or something? zag

Hey Cowpuc, Thanks for the nice pictures. Is there enough clearance between the tool and the rim so that scraping up the sealing surfaces on the aluminum wheel isn't going to happen? zag

Very true - as long as you completely trust the work that was done. My daughter bought a pickup truck a couple of weeks ago that the previous owner (some newbie tinkerer) had made into a sort of "monster truck" with huge wheels and the chassis lifted up high. The door sill is about 4 ft off the ground, making it a real treat to climb in! I mention this because a few days ago she was driving in town with a couple of friends and the driver's side front wheel literally broke off the hub and went rolling away into someone's yard, narrowly missing a parked car! Since she was only going 25mph or so, she DIDN'T roll the thing and get killed. Geesh! Turned out that the mounting bolts stripped out of the extended wheel hub and simply let the tire go rolling off on its own. I rode with her a couple of days before this happened and nothing seemed weird, so go figger. My conclusion is that buying someone else's fixed up or customized vehicle can be super risky unless you know alot about the expertise of the person doing the work. PS The truck debacle isn't quite over yet. She found a set of slightly smaller wheels and tires which bolt up without an adapter hub and may actually make a profit on the deal by selling the super big ones. It is pretty cool looking but as her father, I'm happier when she drives her Civic! zag

I'm at primitive #7. Looking forward to seeing everyone. zag

"where my cutoff will be with my project" I don't think that many old project bikes would survive a "cost/benefit" accounting analysis. The best rational for working on an old bike is "because I wanted to". The finished project will be worth more to you than anyone else and it will be special to you because you made it that way. Good luck! zag

Road Rides | Madison Motorcycle Club New Years Day should be nice:Madison, Wisconsin (53701) Conditions & Forecast | Weather Underground zag

Seems great to me! zag

Just crawled around it with a flashlight and I'm sorry to report that the label seems to be gone. So many mods were done to everything, even the frame, a label wasn't likely to survive. Frankly, I have no memory of seeing it, but I did so many things to everything on the bike I don't think that I would have made any attempt to preserve a label! I would be interested to see your file. I'll PM you with my email address. Thanks! zag

Not sure how to find that. I got the VIN from the title. I don't see anything stamped into the steering neck, but maybe I just missed it. If it had a sticker on the frame, it is a good bet that it is long gone! Odometer reading is listed as "exempt" on the title, maybe because it was crashed? I tossed the original speedo back in 2006 so I cannot easily check miles on the odometer. Interesting project you have taken on! zag

1983 XVZ12 JYA26H00XDA007331 Purchased in 2006 as a crashed and totaled wreck. Not sure of total mileage - best guess: around 100K miles. zag

Thanks Tooch, My problem was that I had picked the "gray" color scheme. I changed the site color scheme back to red and the signup section appears. It disappears if gray or green is chosen. Duh! zag

Well, I've tried but I cannot seem to figure out how to sign in on the calendar. I see a bunch of names already there but don't see how to add mine. I'd like to ask for clue #1. Thanks! zag

Yup. Know the feeling. Gotta get pumped and just do it to it. Kinda cold in the garage today so I'm thinking I better wait until it warms up a bit to get started. zag

A belt driven supercharger for the black beast. We just got the first snow, so it's time to winch it down the stairs into my shop. zag

Very nicely done! zag

http://www.frpoffroad.com/fredette-racing-products-motorcycle-ice-tires-frp-studded-left--right-turn-detail.htm?productid=-162909

Maybe you should think about chains. Seems like a good plan to me! http://www.thesabregroup.com/forum/get_attachment.php?webtag=THESABREGROUP&hash=7ba949f72e72cf79b789c8ce5e5f0afe&filename=Image.jpg zag