RZ 350 riddle

[TMKIWI]

The slides were back to front.

[ford832]

Yes indeed.While you typically can't do that,the RZ carb bodies and slides are a mirror image of each other(which lines up the guide pins when the slides are turned 180' and installed in the opposite carbs)-I expect for the fuel hook up as well as access to the slide sight windows/adjusters.Having,in effect,zero cutaway on the slides gave an amazingly rich condition,even worse than with the choke on-which sort of relates to an earlier discussion on idle settings and the effect on low speed jetting.Anyhoo....
At this point,having just bought a crappy running RZ with a rebuilt engine for half price that was fixed by 10 min of thought and five minutes of work,I was feeling all warm and fuzzy so I decided a test honk was order.After various "cunning stunts" I returned home,parked it,and went to bed-secure in the knowledge I had a flawlessly running bike.
The next morning,I geared up,swung my leg over it and proceed to kick the guts out of it but no start-or even a kick for that matter.Thinking maybe a buggered kill switch,I checked for spark and found lots.
Coffee in hand this time as I still planned on riding,I though for about five minutes and worked for ten and was back in business for good with no more issues.
The problem was............

[TMKIWI]

Your right. Even round slides do not fit in either way because the location groove and idle adjuster groove are different.
Well most of the time.
I'll think about your other problem later i must get back to work.

[ford832]

Yeah,it's almost bedtime for me.I'll ck in tomorrow.You should have it by then

[SachsGS]

This discussion brings back memories of my motorsports business and some of the problems we tackled.Case in point:"A regular customer brought his multi cylinder street bike in for it's annual spring tune up.The work was done,the customer came to pick up his bike and after a little chitchat he was on his way.The next morning he called me and said every time he banked sharply left the bike would stall.He would coast to a stop,the bike would fire up instantly and everything was fine until the next left hand corner".

 The bike was dropped off and we checked EVERYTHING and everything checked out.Took the bike out and sure enough,the first hard left and the bike just shut down.I've learned that many times it's best to let a problem rest for a while before tackling it again so I parked the bike on it's centre stand (the side stand had been removed) and went on to other things.

 Later that evening I was staring at that street bike wondering what demon had possessed it when I noticed something.The air intake faced rearward and under the plastic I could just make out part of a rear frame cross member.It was a steel channel with the open end facing upward.I looked closely at where the centre part of the channel disappeared under some plastic and I noticed an object.

 It was my 4 year old son's wooden train.This toy was the exact width of the frame rail and somehow the little guy had put the toy in there without me noticing.The air intake was on the left side of the airbox and during a hard left that toy train would roll down the frame rail and get sucked up against the intake snorkel,shutting down the engine.When the engine stalled and the bike was righted,the toy would roll back to the centre behind some plastic!

[mullethead774]

Turn on the fuel dummy. ?  Sorry.  Happened to me.

[factoryX]

Ha. This reminds me when I accidentally put a smaller slide in my 38mm pj carb, and when it finally started..

[TMKIWI]

yes you do get some weird & wonder problems to solve at time.

I had a 150hp DI outboard a few years ago that the owner complained of a miss. It was only 6 months old.
We checked everything on the motor from your basic compressions to everything on the fuel system & Ignition circuit to the EMM.
We tested it at work in the tank & river tested it.
Could not fault it at all.
The owner took it back and rang me to complain the miss was still there.
So I went out on the water with him out of the local port and about 1/2 mile out there was the miss.
We drove around for an hour and the miss was only at 1 spot.
After talking with the owner some more he finally said yes this is the only spot it happens. No where else.
It is very hard at times to get straight answers from people at times.
I talked to the council and found out there was a under water power cable there.
Any way the power cable was screwing with the EMM and causing the miss.
Shouldn't happen but sometimes these things do.

[MyckMcClung]

bad crank seal???

[ford832]

bad crank seal???

Nope.
The train thing and cable are too funny
Some things almost make you pull your hair out.
I remember quite a number of years ago I had a customer who complained that his car lost power at times-especially on hills.He had it in three times and I could never find anything wrong with it.He eventually realized that it only happened when he had his utility trailer on.
I told him to bring it back with his trailer though I couldn't see how light wiring would have any effect on driveability.
Anyway,it turned out that his ball was one size too small for his hitch and because it was a light trailer,when he hit a hill and accelerated it would rack back and forth some.The knock was picked up by the knock sensor on the engine and the ecu would retard the timing-causing his loss of power.

[2T Institute]

Ah bugger to late to say the reversed slides (ask me how I know). a good one I found was a a bike that started and ran , sometimes, back fired others and then refuse to start. A broken woodruff key.
A good article I read written by a long time mechanic, customer brings in a gixxer 1100 and says it has a bad vibration at 220k's, tells him to ring in a week, customer ring says it will be ready on monday, customer arrives bike has not moved , "Did you fix the vibration?" 
"No reckon just stick to 219k's in the future", customer arcs up and tells hime he's extended his life by a week and a half.
Another time did full rebuild on a multi, comes back in a week with a seized engine , cam cover off and obvious no oil getting to the top, start stripping it down, mechanic notices something blocking a oil gallery, gets it out and it's a small triangular piece of brown glass, customer goes mental, about the same time his best mate rocks in walks over sees the bit of glass on a tissue, " Ah that's probably a bit of that beer bottle you smashed when you put that engine in. Told you to flush it out"


 Thinking the vaccum hoses on the petcock not correctly installed?

[ford832]

Nope.The above is too funny.The key brings back memories of a nissan sentra that would start good,then not,backfire,then not,run good,then not.The key on the crank was good but it had beat out 1/8" either side from centre on the crank pulley so the timing would be all over the place.Bah,I hate cars........

[MyckMcClung]

broken coil wire? where the sparkplug cap screws into it?

[ford832]

No.

[MyckMcClung]

out of gas?