It’s kinda funny how things that start to degrade gradually over time, sometimes go un-noticed until someone points them out, and (possibly) embarrasses you in the process. Such is the case with my own ’95 Connie. I noticed an erratic idle and weird behavior just off idle that became evident a number of years ago, but blamed it on the ethanol gas fooking with somethng in the idle circuit. I had the carbs off of the bike more times that I care to admit trying to correct the problem….. all to no avail. At speed, it seemed to run just fine. But still, it bugged me.
Several years ago I picked up a used set of ’95 carbs off of eBay figuring I’d just “shotgun” the issue and be done with it. Don’t recall the claimed mileage on the carbs, but the price was reasonable and they looked pretty decent. Once in hand I had a decision to make: install some overflow tubes in the bowls, or just use them as is. I eventually went with installing the tubes. I did that a few months ago, but finally got off my duff a day ago (with 202301 miles on the bike) to swap out the carbs. I finished that up late yesterday afternoon.
Prior to pulling the carbs I ran a compression check and all were in the high 190 range within 2 psi of each other. Even with those readings, I went ahead and did a leak down test as well, and they all tested good. That was encouraging given the mileage on the bike.
Haven’t taken it out yet, but as soon as it started and ran, I knew the problem was taken care of. I’ll probably never find out, but still curious what degraded with the carbs over time to cause the bike to act the way it did.
Several years ago I picked up a used set of ’95 carbs off of eBay figuring I’d just “shotgun” the issue and be done with it. Don’t recall the claimed mileage on the carbs, but the price was reasonable and they looked pretty decent. Once in hand I had a decision to make: install some overflow tubes in the bowls, or just use them as is. I eventually went with installing the tubes. I did that a few months ago, but finally got off my duff a day ago (with 202301 miles on the bike) to swap out the carbs. I finished that up late yesterday afternoon.
Prior to pulling the carbs I ran a compression check and all were in the high 190 range within 2 psi of each other. Even with those readings, I went ahead and did a leak down test as well, and they all tested good. That was encouraging given the mileage on the bike.
Haven’t taken it out yet, but as soon as it started and ran, I knew the problem was taken care of. I’ll probably never find out, but still curious what degraded with the carbs over time to cause the bike to act the way it did.