I love it when a plan works!
The whole reason this project became necessary was because I was not able to get the engine to run over 1,000 rpm, and it was clear that at minimum my slow jets were clogged. I tried all the remedies of seafoam, techron, etc, and nothing helped. The dreaded time had arrived. But with all of us basically marking time being socially distant, the project came at the right time. I actually enjoyed it a lot, found that its not anywhere near as bad a job as I had imagined. Just work clean, take notes, be neat, and don't rush! The hardest part was waiting for parts, although I had bought everything in advance that I thought I would need. The problem was that the more you take apart, the more problems surfaced! Also, some of the parts I needed to order were either out of stock, or companies I dealt with closed up while I was waiting on things I ordered from them. No problem, since I had my Indian ready to ride and there was no rush to get the fat gurl running again.
While doing this project I also decided to rebuild the Honda petcock, and to do a complete de-smog job using the Red Eye Shiny de-smog II kit. It's amazing how much better everything looks with all the smog stuff gone.
Last night I got the old girl fired up. Idled smooth and perfect. Reved really well. Then today I took her out for a fresh load of Non-Ethanol fuel, and a long test ride. She has always run well-I mean really strong! Today she is all that and more. Easily runs up to redline with no hesitation. No burbling or popping even when cutting the throttle abruptly, or when using engine braking to come down from speed. All I had to do as far as adjustments was to take the idle down from what was 1100 to around 950.
I did spent a little extra time on the bench to minimize the possibility of problems. I had made a small gas tank from a radiator overflow tank, some tubing, and a small petcock all sourced at NAPA. I used it check my float valves before even putting the carb bowls back on. I set the whole carb assembly on my bench with the floats hanging free, but held up with rubber bands. There was no flow, after supplying fuel to both fuel rails. Success! Then I pulled each float down one at a time to be sure that now fuel would flow. All worked perfectly. Those K&L float valves I bought worked perfectly. The small springs on the original float valve pins had become weak, and I was not going to go through this rebuild and leave questionable parts to be the "weak link". I also decided to leak test the entire carb assembly while still on the bench before putting the carbs back on the bike. Not even a drop or even a weep of fuel.
For what it's worth, I had even split all six carbs once I was done with the overhaul, to rebuild the fuel rails, air rails, and also test the air cut off valves. So, I had them apart as far as possible. Also, I did not re-use any soft parts (read tubing, o rings).
I believe another thing that helped was that I was really careful with a static on-the-bench carb sync. There are many articles that were written to explain different methods. In my case it worked so well that I doubt I'll even do a running sync since it really could not be running any better. But I'll probably succumb to curiosity to see just how good the sync really is, so Sixlow, I'll be taking you up on your offer of coming to use your digi sync.
Sorry to go on and on, but there is nothing that makes one feel better than successfully doing something that supposedly is difficult. Some jobs always loom largest before you start.
I also realize that without pictures this job never really happened. But this is not written as a Tech "How To". There are already tons of those out there. Besides, I have probably a hundred or more pics and videos on my phone that I took as references in case my old brain decided to betray me! I wrote this to give those of you that may be squeamish, some courage or reinforcement to do some of the work yourself that pops up from time-to-time when you love an old piece of machinery. Just do it!
