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Sounds good.
Steve

I drained and popped the bowls on the carbs, and #2 actually seemed to be set lower than the others (I expected higher due to the gas flow problem). I adjusted it to match the other floats, then hung up the bank of carbs and got some clear tubing so I could check the bowl levels. Hmm they look low. REALLY low. Like half an inch down from the top of the bowl. OK well obviously #2 isn't overflowing, maybe I knocked something loose. So I put the carbs back on the bike and started it up again. No gas leakage during the initial cranking, but as soon and the engine died the gas started draining back into the air box again. With no other ideas or energy, I put everything away for the night.

Then it occurred to me. #2 is where the vacuum line from the tank is connected. Could it be possible that what I'm actually seeing here is a faulty valve on the tank draining through the vacuum line when the engine dies and the vacuum stops? Well tomorrow I will try not hooking up the vacuum line, and the try hooking it to a different carb. Those two tests should tell me if that's my problem.

In the meantime if anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. While running I don't hear any obvious misses -- all four cylinders are firing and I'm not seeing any black smoke (still getting some white smoke when I rev it though). Let me know if there's any other questions and I'll try to answer.

That's what I was thinking. The diaphragm on the petcock is leaking. Try capping off the vacuum line on it and the carb and run it on prime.
Steve

The petcock is definitely not sealed well, I have noticed my fingers get wet every time I turn it on and off. This is the main reason I haven't actually set the tank on the bike yet. However if I discover this is actually the reason for the gas in the airbox then it will free me up to getting the carb floats adjusted tomorrow. I was checking the height of the floats against what the manual listed for initial settings and they were off quite a bit, so I'm guessing whoever previously rebuilt the carbs never bothered to set the floats (probably the same person who mangled the starter clutch). I can't believe I've had the carbs sitting on my workbench for the last three years and I never thought to even check them. Ah well, get those all set and I bet I'll have a lot better luck getting this thing to idle.

Good news and a bit of work today... I tried running the bike without the petcock vacuum line hooked up, and presto, no gas flowing into the airbox! I've been running it on and off all day without that line hooked up and had no problems with it, so mystery solved. Thanks!

Also the starter has been working reliably, so another problem solved. Thanks for that too!

A couple things I do need to keep an eye on... it ran clean for a few minutes the first time I started it, but when I restarted it after it was warm, I was getting a lot of white smoke from the right pipe. Then I had a lot of trouble getting it to start again, finally resorted to starter fluid (didn't take much, just a little to get it to kick over). Once I got it hot enough that the engine paint started to bake, the white smoke seemed to clear up again. Hopefully the smoke is just a matter of re-seating the rings (they did not get put back in the same cylinders, but I did clean up and hone the cylinder walls). While running I cannot get it to idle at a constant speed, so keeping it running is a real chore -- it always dies below 2000rpm even when hot. I *think* the problems with starting and idling are probably all due to the carb floats not being set right. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get to them today. I won't worry about it until after I've fixed the known problem, then hopefully I can get it to idle steady enough to sync the carbs. By then it will have been run enough to re-torque the head bolts and all of my known issues will have been taken care of...

Smell your oil cap to see if any gas is in the oil.
Steve

Good idea... just checked it, but it just smells like oil, albeit oil that's got a few thousand miles on it. Wasn't expecting that, but because everything got torn apart I did plan on changing the oil after I'm able to take it for a ride a couple times.

Hey, out of curiosity, how did you get your alternator bolt back on? Manual says 116 ft-lbs and I need to tighten mine down too.

Also, what's with that rubber damper? I don't even know what the manual is talking about there. Do I need to buy a new one?

Well it should just thread right in the hole, otherwise you may have some gunk in the threads? I found that a 7/16 x 20 tap fits the threads, and went in the hole very loosely so I was able to just move it around by hand to clean out the old grease. My torque wrench only goes up to 80 so I had to kind of wing it for tightening. I cranked it down as hard as I could while holding everything in place, then I used a regular wrench and a hammer to tap the bolt down a bit more snug. It's not accurate, but it's holding.

The rubber damper is a disk behind the gear, I guess about 3" in diameter? It's mostly flat, but then it curves over into a lip at the outer edge. Looking at the rubber part, you'll see one, two, or three dimples which will tell you what thickness it *should* be. The lip should face towards the block so the flat side of the rubber disk is against the back of the gear. Then there's a copper washer that goes between the gear and the alternator. If all goes well, just holding the pieces together you should see that the gear spins freely in one direction (clockwise) but not the other. When you tighten down that center bolt, you should feel just a slight drag on the gear, but it should still spin pretty easily.

The problem I had was that the copper washer had been placed *behind* the gear, so when the bolt was tightened down the washer got domed out. This bound up everything so the gear did not spin in either direction.

Sorry I didn't grab any pics while I was working on it. Does the description help you any?

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

Aww come on, where's the fun in using the *right* tool?

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationWell then, take this.

Steve