I played with the jets, and got the engine to idle and rev well enough without choke. It’s not completely dialed in (I think the needle height needs adjustment), but it’s good enough for now.
In the few minutes the engine was running, I noticed three things:
- The engine was spitting oil onto itself. I believe this was blowing out the dipstick tube, but I haven’t verified that.
- The intake pipe needs an additional mounting bracket to keep it from self-destructing. Without some sort of auxiliary bracing, the carb vibrates noticeably.
- I had five nuts shake themselves completely off the bike almost immediately. I’ve finger-tightened way too many things on this machine along the way.
Overall, it became apparent to me that I need to forget about carb tuning and strip this whole thing down. The time has come to tear it apart and reassemble it properly.
All my little flux-core tack welds need to be taken down to bare metal, then the frame and swingarm sent out for real welding. All the current parts will be painted or otherwise finished along the way, and moving parts properly lubed as it goes together. I want to be confident that what’s there is road-worthy after reassembly, even if there will be plenty more tasks once I’m back at this point.
I have tried to be methodical and take lots of pictures, so I can actually manage to get it all back together.
