Where did the newbie go bad?

Javandyke · Monday at 9:33 AM

I just went through the carbs on my friends GL 1100; full teardown clean (sonic bath) rebuild, I used most of the old parts, except the seats and valves for the floats, those look good in the kit I got so I ran them, but I reused the mains and the pilots, (which were the pressfit type that I pulled out clean and put back). also did stem seals timing belts flushed out the fuel tank new fuel lines/ filter (I added an extra one in front of the main one temporarily) got everything back together. It will not fire on its own. It will run off starting fluid. I double checked my Cam alignments, compression is pretty good close to 120 on 1, 2 and four, number three is only about 90. What could I have done to make this thing not run? Spark looks good (new plugs) bowls are full of gas. Valve lash is good.

mcgovern61 · Monday at 11:54 AM

First question is, did you bench sync the carbs before installing them? Also, did you clean out the accelerator port in each carb?

Javandyke · Monday at 12:42 PM

Yes bench synch. I did not do whatever is happening in the pic with a pin though.

mcgovern61 · Monday at 1:15 PM

That is where the accelerator pump pushes fuel into the individual carb. These carbs usually fire the engine right away even when not fully synced. If ether works and then stalls, I am going to lean towards not getting enough fuel. Before reinstalling, did you check that the CV slides would easily spring up and down in their covers? Stuck slides can play with the air mixture quite a bit. It has been a few years since I have had my 1100 and I am pulling from an old man's memory to remember all of the issues these carbs can have. I rebuilt two sets of 1100 carbs and they would pop off the engine as soon as the starter spun.

Javandyke · Monday at 5:58 PM

I don't remember seeing that orifice mentioned in the videos and tutorials I watched. Yes, the slides worked well. I can pull the carbs out again of course but with no idea what is wrong it would seem better to go in after something. It is not even trying to fire on it's own fuel but will immediately fire on starter fluid. I would think it would at least try to run on at least one cylinder and it doesn't. Weird.

mcgovern61 · 2024-12-03T11:54:25-0800

Might be a silly question, but how old is the gas?

Javandyke · 2024-12-03T12:10:28-0800

Well, the gas is fresh, but I had flushed the tank and I tried really hard to get all of my solvents out and dry it out and of course the lines are new and the filter is new but it’s not impossible that the fuel might not be that awesome. at one point I took the drainings from a carb let it soak a paper towel and put a match to it and it burned mightily so I don’t think it’s contaminated fuel. But that’s a good theory seems like something with the fuel, either it is contaminated or it’s not being delivered from the bowl to the cylinder.

Javandyke · 2024-12-03T16:16:20-0800

I did notice today that the choke cable wasn't fully engaging choke, when I manually pulled the lever it tried to fire but then it seems the plugs were fouled with fuel (I had been trying to get it going, starting fluid and such again so not surprising), ran out of time but I might drain bowls again, crank the engine with outlet from fuel pump disconnected to pump out some fuel and try again.