Progress on the CB550

Carbs are cleaned and ready to be assembled, Ignition system is tuned up, and now I'm just waiting on parts so I can get the engine fully running.

In the mean time, I had to at least hear it fire up. So I sprayed some carb cleaner down the ports and gave the starter a spin. It ran for a few seconds.

Very happy.

New Jet Blocks for the VM29 Carbies

I've been spending a lot of time on these carbs recently. This is mainly because they were beat to death before they ended up in my hands. I got the rack for 75 bucks, which turned out to be about all they were worth. Damage inside and out.

Luckily over the years, these carbs have become more and more desirable and the once obsolete parts are now coming back. Gaskets, jets, screws, etc. Have been available but hard to find on occassion. But nothing was worse than the jet block.

The jet block is a cast piece that rests in the throat of the carb and makes the transition in the slide region smooth. It is obviously critical to the function and performance of this carb, but is also the weakest link. The area of failure is where the needle jet threads into the bottom of the jet block. The cast aluminum is soft and porous, making for fragile threads. Many people who have worked with these carbs have dealt with stripped jet block threads by boring the boss open, pressing a brass slug in, and retapping. This makes a better block than the original but it must be perfectly straight.  Others have just used epoxy to glue in the needle jet. This can also be tedious and it's not permanent. I ran a set with an epoxy-ed needle jet for two years and it was ok. Eventually it began to disintegrate even though I used PC-9, which is approved for fuel.  All these bandaids aside, there is a much easier way.

Z1 Enterprises has been making new billet jet blocks for a few years and they are quite nice. For about $40, you get a block that is nearly drop-in with stronger threads. Don't  forget to replace the small paper gasket underneath and clean the area well. The jet block must be centered well in the slide bore to avoid rubbing.

That being said, when I installed a new Z1 block, I used the small screw and the jet needle to get the new block seated as well as I could. With a few iterations it only has a minor bit of contact on the inside of the slide. It slides smoothly but witb a bit more friction than the others old blocks. I would expect that the interface will clearance itself a bit after some short use. I may mark the contact areas and polish the block where needed to prevent scoring on the slide.

Rock Flute: Tuning Session 1

I've done a little work on the VM29 smoothbores since the engine rebuild. I bench synced the carbs to a random .116" because I don't have vacuum ports to sync them on the bike. First few runs its been running rich on 120 mains and 20 pilots. Tuning from the bottom up, I swapped jets to 115 mains and 17.5 pilots, which is the spec for a stock cb with vm29s. The bottom end was still incredibly rich but a lot better with the air screws out over 2.5 turns.

I dropped the pilots to 15s and kept the mains at 115. Idle looked good with 1.5 turns on the air screw but off idle was rich enough to cause a stumble. Plugs showed a lot of soot. Not wanting to mess with the pilots anymore, my suspect now is the needle and main. WOT pulls well without hesitation which indicates the main is close. To alleviate the stumble in the transition from idle to 1/8 throttle I dropped the needle down. The stumble was a lot less noticeable but still their.

I went for a ride to pick up a starter switch for johns bike and was going to drop the needle to its lowest position when I got back. Unfortunately I didn't make it home under my own power due to this little gem:

Jeff Yarrington and the Scooby Van to the rescue!  My million year old, burnt, dry clutch cable finally gave up the ghost. I couldn't find a picture of Jeff's sweet van but I did find a picture of him sleeping in it. Thanks Jeff!  He got me back to John's place where I dropped the tuning for a while and resumed wiring John's black chopper.  So many things to do.

 

My fruitless quest for a starter switch was kindly remedied by Jeff. When he picked up my bike he brought two momentary switches. What a friend. Thanks AGAIN!

Ok sorry.  Back to the tuning.  With a broken cable, I was down for the night.  My next step will be to drop the needles all the way down and then refine the a/f ratio based on some plug chops. Hopefully I'm good with the 115 mains because I feel like 112.5 or 110s on a hopped up engine is a bit absurd.  Just one more week before we leave for the Roost.  TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!