95 Thunderbird 900 carburetor question

[CarlS]

Went to that shop, loved it. The guys in there must be 70 and up.
Anyway, he opened the carb and had a look because he had never seen parts like this before. In the end, we both basically came to the agreement that these parts don't belong into the carb.
He also gave me some additional pointers about the bike having a difficult time starting.

Nice guy, I'll def stop by there again and drop off some bagels or something as thank you for his time.

70 is young! Sounds like old school bikers like myself. Glad you got it sorted, Thanks for letting us know.

 

[saftie]

Found it... Grrr
It goes into the plastic float thingie
Can't believe I missed that.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y16mo61l0wa32oa/2019-03-31 06.32.51.jpg?dl=0

 

[Rocky]

Mystery solved at last!

 

[saftie]

Ha.
Now I just need to figure out why it's having a difficult time starting.
Need to check compression.
Even with starter fluid it is way too difficult. Should fire right up but it doesn't.
Will move away from carbs for now and focus on ignition system.

 

[CarlS]

Congratulations on solving the mystery!!

 

[saftie]

Lol.

Thanks for the moral support throughout this little excitement.
But not to worry, there is a new thing and I'm going to create a new thread

 

[CarlS]

Looking forward to the new thread.

 

[saftie]

Well, I think the bike needs new carbs because that little vacuum pipe on one side is broken off and someone plugged it

It happens to be on the third cylinder which does not fire all the time and bike mostly runs on two cylinders.
Gonna be tricky to find a replacement, nothing out there really. If someone has a bank or just a single one let me know

 

[Wire-Wheels]

Standing here looking at my '95 Sprint. Same carbs. Looks just the same. Nothing connected there. ...J.D.

 

[saftie]

Difficult to see in pic due to angle:
There is a screw where that pipe should go into. The pipe/tube end is just hanging in the air. It is sealed off at end where it broke off.

 

[saftie]

Hey there,

I was lucky to find a single replacement carb body off a 96 trophy 1200. Exact match.
Just put it on and bike fired right up, cranked only once.
I was an idiot and cranked and used starter fluid before wondering why it wouldn't fire. I forgot to plug the ECU back in. Lol.
Plugged it in and fired. Not sure if there was still starter fluid in system but hope not.

I'll try again in morning. Then it's putting everything back together and go for a ride before taking care of leaky forks

 

[CarlS]

Sounds really hopeful.

 

[saftie]

Yes. Was a good day today.
Also test rode my ZX for first time after engine rebuild. Here a video:
View: https://youtu.be/dFDepJvc2jw

 

[CarlS]

A very good day. Congratulations.

 

[saftie]

Argh, must have been the starter fluid fumes still in the carbs this afternoon. Tried again to start bike just now and it's still the same issue. Takes a lot of cranking to fire. Once it runs it runs and sound good. It's just the starting up.

I guess I will remove carbs and take the entire carburetor bank apart. I will also double check the sparks again. Never had a bike this stubborn

 

[CarlS]

That has to be disappointing. But the silver lining h is that it runs good once it stzrts.

 

[saftie]

After scratching my head and remembering how I once tried to jump start a Porsche with skinny jumper cables which didn't work, I decided to hook up a fully charged battery directly to the bike. Previously I used heavier gauge wires.
Bike actually started way easier. So possible it was that.
I will try again tonight.
With the new carb body, bike idles and sounds much better too, so that was definitely one issue I resolved.
I will hook up the air box tomorrow morning and report back.

One interesting thing though: if I keep pressing the starter, the bike won't start, it only fires when I release the button. Not sure if that's how it's supposed to work but found it interesting

 

[CarlS]

That is interesting.

 

[saftie]

Might be a coincidence but I observed it three times. Oh well, as long as it fires I'm ok for now

 

[Greyfell]

if I keep pressing the starter, the bike won't start, it only fires when I release the button.

I could be off-base (I hope not, or maybe I hope so), but sounds to me like the starter button is not wired properly. I would think the button/switch should be wired to be normally-open (circuit to be closed through when the button is pushed), but its sounds like it is wired to be normally-closed (circuit is closed when the button is released/normal). If you've got a manual, please check the diagram for the started button.

But then you seem to say, it doesn't happen all of the time.