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Definitely needs to be cleaned and while your at it get 45 pilot and 180 main. Sounds like you have a lean condition when hot start up... Lean will cough back through the carb..
The bike obviously did more sitting than running, so if you don't take the carb apart and clean everything, how do you know it's not gunked up from sitting around so much? Previous owner could have pulled the bowl, blasted it with carb cleaner and put up the for sale sign.
Is the carb a virgin? Meaning, is the idle mix screw aluminum plug still intact or removed. Makes a difference as these things came jetted lean from the factory and one of the first things people do is pull the plug so they can richen up the mix screw. A lean "cough" or "sneeze" doesn't mean the bike has covid, it's just common being lean from the factory. YD
The guy that I got it from didnt take anything apart. He probable had to have someone put gas in it for him and then someone to pour it out to put new gas back in. He said the only reason he bought it was his buddy talked him into it. I have all the service records that were done to it and what im seeing is it sat for long periods in between rides. He bought it in june of 98 and in sept he had it back in the shop. The the invoice shows it had the 500 mile service done and the se mufflers put on and it shows the shop rejet the card with 45 jet. Then in 6-16-16 he had it in the shop again, the odometer shows 3627, it shows they serviced it and cleaned the carb again and cleaned the old gas out of the tank. Then on 5-25-17 the shop shows rejet carb cleaned pilot jet, odometer shows 4042. I dont have any records after that. The service records dont say anymore about the size jets than what I wrote so not sure what they are now
- Verify that the original timing cover is still riveted in place.
- Pop the locking tab off one of the pushrod tubes and see if it's got adjustables in there.
If it's got the original timing cover AND solid pushrods, there's a reasonably good chance the motor's never been opened up.
On this bike, with as much time as it's spent unused, I'd pull the fuel line* and drain the tank, then pull the petcock. Look for crud around the screen. Run a borescope into the tank and see if it's clean. I'd also replace the stock, vacuum operated petcock with a Pingle, and use a new section of fuel line when putting it back together. I'd also replace the vacuum line coming out of the carb. Yours has a tee fitting that splits vacuum between the petcock and the VOES. I'd replace that with a single piece that connects the carb to the VOES.
Can you post a pic of the slide?
* Disconnect it from the carb side, then pull it through to the left so you can use it to drain the tank. Odds are you'll break the two-piece, plastic nipple on the carb when you disconnect it. Replace it with a solid brass one and never worry about it again.
i will post a picture of the slide soon as i can. its got solid pushrods, i had the tanks off and cleaned it out and changed all the lines and stuff out when i put the rocker box gaskets on right after i got it. i didnt change the petcock but had that on my mind. except for the loud pop on the inside when you crank it the bike was running fair and after i did flush out and put the new little pump diaphragm in the carb it came alive and had very strong power with very good throttle response. but now its needs something to get it back on top.
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