<b>1973 TS 185 carb settings and problem </b>

sjgv · 01-18-2013, 01:23 PM

Halo, like I mentioned in my other thread "1973 ts 185 clutch problems" I am new to the forum and motorcycling world. Very excited. Being new I lack a lot of empirical knowledge which no amount of manuals can help me with. Thus these forums! (yay, you guys ge to help

)

ON TO PROBLEMS (more than one, so plz read till bottom):

1) I read about carbs and weather condition and about adjusting the air intake accordingly. Many forums say these aren't suppose to Idle. Other's say you can make these thumpers Idle but it'll affect speed. In any case, my first question is that by trial and error I adjusted the air intake to where the Zuke starts (with choke on...it's winter still) and it'll Idle, usually after warming her up, when I take the choke off I have to close the intake more for it to keep idling and give it a little throttle. Basically I am wondering how many revs it should Idle at without taking much off performance. I rode it today with the adjustments I made and it seemed a little sluggish when in 3rd gear (as fast as I'm willing to drive it now...let's say 25-30 mph).
Here is a video so you can see where I'm at, how it sounds and the revs it hits):

2) problem. My carb is leaking! but before that I'd like to ask a question about the petcock valve: When I bought it the guy had the petcock valve set to RES, which I thought was odd since I read they should be in STOP when not used) today I fired her up in STOP and even took it for a ride (I forgot I had set it to STOP) when I parked it I remembered it was in STOP and my question is. Is this possible? Wouldn't it have died if the STOP was working? This led me to thinking the guy installed it incorrectly and somehow RES is STOP and STOP is RES. but I don't know how to confirm this. I barely went outside and left it on RES (but my fuel line seems full).
Now, onto the leaking. I have read something about this but maybe by pics you guys can help me also)

Quite a leak, I left it overnight with petcock valve on STOP

This is how it leaks.

I would appreciate any insight/ technique or comments about how to diagnose where it's leaking from. (all the visible rubber seals seem to be fine and the nuts tight enough)

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND INFO
SJGV

redprimo · 01-19-2013, 10:36 PM

On most old bikes if you leave the pet cock on when not riding it a little bit of gas will still flow into the carb causing the float bowl to overflow. The gas is coming out the float bowl overflow valve.

You need to have the bike warm to adjust the carb. I dont remeber which carb is on that bike but I think it might be a Mikuni, if so you can go to the Mikuni website and get some tuning info.

01-18-2013, 01:23 PM	#1
sjgv ^OP n00b Joined: Jan 2013 Oddometer: 5	<b>1973 TS 185 carb settings and problem </b> Halo, like I mentioned in my other thread "1973 ts 185 clutch problems" I am new to the forum and motorcycling world. Very excited. Being new I lack a lot of empirical knowledge which no amount of manuals can help me with. Thus these forums! (yay, you guys ge to help ) ON TO PROBLEMS (more than one, so plz read till bottom): 1) I read about carbs and weather condition and about adjusting the air intake accordingly. Many forums say these aren't suppose to Idle. Other's say you can make these thumpers Idle but it'll affect speed. In any case, my first question is that by trial and error I adjusted the air intake to where the Zuke starts (with choke on...it's winter still) and it'll Idle, usually after warming her up, when I take the choke off I have to close the intake more for it to keep idling and give it a little throttle. Basically I am wondering how many revs it should Idle at without taking much off performance. I rode it today with the adjustments I made and it seemed a little sluggish when in 3rd gear (as fast as I'm willing to drive it now...let's say 25-30 mph). Here is a video so you can see where I'm at, how it sounds and the revs it hits): 2) problem. My carb is leaking! but before that I'd like to ask a question about the petcock valve: When I bought it the guy had the petcock valve set to RES, which I thought was odd since I read they should be in STOP when not used) today I fired her up in STOP and even took it for a ride (I forgot I had set it to STOP) when I parked it I remembered it was in STOP and my question is. Is this possible? Wouldn't it have died if the STOP was working? This led me to thinking the guy installed it incorrectly and somehow RES is STOP and STOP is RES. but I don't know how to confirm this. I barely went outside and left it on RES (but my fuel line seems full). Now, onto the leaking. I have read something about this but maybe by pics you guys can help me also) Quite a leak, I left it overnight with petcock valve on STOP This is how it leaks. I would appreciate any insight/ technique or comments about how to diagnose where it's leaking from. (all the visible rubber seals seem to be fine and the nuts tight enough) THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND INFO SJGV

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01-19-2013, 10:36 PM	#2
redprimo Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Jul 2011 Location: central coast of California Oddometer: 214	On most old bikes if you leave the pet cock on when not riding it a little bit of gas will still flow into the carb causing the float bowl to overflow. The gas is coming out the float bowl overflow valve. You need to have the bike warm to adjust the carb. I dont remeber which carb is on that bike but I think it might be a Mikuni, if so you can go to the Mikuni website and get some tuning info.