So I have done the following:
New air filter
New fuel lines and filter
Oil and filter change
New carburetor
New spark plug
New battery
Adjust valve lash
Adjust clutch
Replace gear oil
Clean muffler
Fresh ethanol free gas with stabilizer
Seafoamed the engine and original carburetor
It still doesn’t want to run when cold but runs great once warmed up. I was hoping valve lash adjustment would fix it up, but it didn’t really help.
I need to check compression. Beyond that, I will tinker with carb adjustments a bit more. If none of that works I will rebuild the original Japanese carb and ditch the Chinese Caltric replacement. They get mixed reviews but I figured for the price they were worth a try. The thing runs and starts like new when warm but will fire and die several times when cold. It takes about 6-8 cold starts/die before it builds enough heat to idle. I’m still open to ideas.
I went for a 3 hour ride with all the above changes and the plug looked good. Certainly not too rich. I was going to fatten it up a bit but running the cold bike on the choke doesn’t seem to help, so I didn’t think it was an overly lean condition. I’ll play with it before I rebuild the old carb.
Last edited by K1500; 12/08/21.
