Grr.
On Saturday I synced up the carbs on the FJ. They were not far out of adjustment, just a little tweak.
Then I noticed that the fuel filter was leaking. Must have cracked it putting on and taking off the fuel line so many times. It looked pretty old anyway.
I headed over to Midwest Cycle to pickup Liz’ new tire and while I was there I bought a new fuel filter.
Did I bring the old one along? Of course not.
What size is the fitting? Hmm. Well, the fuel line I bought was 1/4″, so I bought a fuel filter with 1/4″ fittings.
I didn’t put the filter on on Saturday, other things grabbed my attention. So imagine my surprise on Sunday when I discovered that the filter needed 5/16″ fittings on it. On one side anyway.
This confuses me. The fitting on the petcock is 5/16″. The fitting on the fuel pump is 1/4″ So does the stock FJ filter have a 5/16″ inlet and at 1/4″ outlet? I suppose it’s possible.
In any case, I was fooked. Midwest is closed on Sunday.
So yesterday I stopped in at Midwest and exchanged the filter for one with 5/16″ fittings. You can push a 1/4″ hose onto a 5/16″ fitting, so that worked out.
On Saturday I also changed the oil and filter on the FJ.
Man, who figures out where the damned filter goes? Morons? I thought the K bike location was stupid.
The filter on the FJ is located on the side of the motor right in front of the sprocket and over the kickstand, the kickstand switch and the exhaust pipe collector under the bike. Sure, there’s a drain bolt at the bottom of the housing, but does all the oil drain out of it? Of course not.
Even with my McGyver’d piece of cardboard to deflect the oil I managed to make agood sized puddle on the floor and get oil all over the exhaust. Damn it.
I put in the new filter and put in three quarts of oil. (The engine case says it holds 3000l.) The sight glass is a nice dirty brown, so it’s hard to see the oil level. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked full up to the top.
This morning I started up the bike. Man it’s idling fast, wtf? Hmm. Maybe it will settle down when it warms up.
I head down the alley. About half way down the Oil Level light comes on! Hit the kill switch. Look at the sight glass. I can’t tell if it’s full or empty.
So I push the bike back to the garage (in my ‘stich – hot!) and get some oil. I pour some it. Oh, look, there it is at the very bottom of the site glass. So I add more. And more. It took a whole nother quart to fill it. Hrm. That’s annoying. And the sight glass is almost exactly the same color as fresh oil.
I climb back on and head to work. As I reach the first stop sign and pull in the clutch, the engine revs up to 2500 rpm. The choke is off. Damn it, now what? If I snub the engine with the clutch it will pull down to 1200 and stay there. Vacuum leak?
I decide to ride to work anyway. It continues to misbehave all the way in.
So why is it doing this? I sealed the carb mounting boots to the head with RTV. I replaced the carb diaphragms (all four.) The choke is fully releasing. The carb mounting boots don’t appear to be cracked.
There is a chance that the vacuum spigot covers are cracked and leaking, I’ll look at that, but does anyone else have any ideas? (Did anyone else read this far?)
On the other hand, I spent about an hour yesterday cleaning the wheels. Who knew they were painted a nice silver/blue to match the body paint? They looked black when I got the bike. (Sorry Charles.)
There are two current theories right now:
One: I may not have gotten all the needles into the carb diaphragms correctly – I have my doubts, as it was running better before the sync.
Two: that I messed up the sync – this is more likely as it was running pretty well before I synced it.
