still no joy

[trix]

OK, I'll set them to 2 turns out too. thanks youngy. Can you think of anything else I can check? Due to the improvement I achieved by dropping the needle I'm pretty sure now that all my probs are carb based!

[youngy]

I think you got it all now!

[HansJ]

Well, there are not that many things left to check. My guess is that there's something else that's causing problems. Simultaneous problems, not trelated to each other, has happened to others before ...

But first things first, just to outrule any other possibilities with the carbs:

All jets are perfectly clean and in the right size (and place )
No visible cracks in carbs, diaphragms.
I have some small air inlets on my carbs, don't know if original carbs have them, but in case, theyre not clogged?
Vaccuum pipes, two going from the top of the inlet manifolds, one to the fuel pump, the other to the fueltap, no knicks on the pipes, not clogged?
Carbs opening without any problems when twisting the handle, syncronized (but I can't really see how this could affect the engine like You describe it though)
Floaters, maybe set them back to initial settings, in case you did soemthing wrong
Spraying start gas around inlets to check for airleaks, increase in idle?

Can't be so much more to it than this...

Next step, I'd change the plugs once again, they might have died because of the now solved problem
Swap coils/leads to see if the problem swaps side, then it's an ignition thing (You wrote that only one plug was fouled?)

[trix]

Thanks hansj
I took all the jets out last night, blew them out with compressed air, held the diaphragms up to the light to check for cracks (none visible...rubber still in good condition)

I relplaced those vacuum pipes with new ones, so they're clean. It idles at 3500rpm with the choke full on, youngy reckons this is a good indicator that there are no air leaks. the butterflys open and close fine too.

Last night it was running reasonably well, so i think the ignition side is ok now.
This evening I'm going to see what its like with the neelde clip on the lowest groove and play with the pilot screws.
Will report back!

[trix]

..great improvement with needle clip on 3rd groove and pilots 2 turns out. Great pickup, nice and smooth.
Still smokes a bit when you rev it (bike stationary, in neutral, puff of smoke on the overrun)

Might try putting it back to the middle clip.

But otherwise, I'm going in the right direction.

[madivi]

impressive! thought it a lost case.
Will take it as a lesson to insist longer on carb probs.