Dean Roberts

Yep Nikki has taken for a test drive & said it feels slower, brakes are made of sponge, unresponsive and the auto take ages to change gear. I took it out and must admit it feels like the kick-down on the auto has gone. Car feel gutless and yep I think the brake servo is either bust or the vacuum is crap. Oh well at the carbs work and balanced easily. The car fires up lovely and no smoke from the exhaust as before.

Cheers everybody for the input, hope the say hello and thank u all personally over the next couple of months...... Except Andi....

Latest update: Car drained, manifold removed and drilled. Everything put back and fired the car up. Carbs balanced and tick-over running sweet and the carbs now sound tickety-boo. Very happy & cheers Chris for popping over and drinking all the tea

The usual place.... Carbs & manifold was advertised on locostbuilders & eBay Do u think the car will run a little better when I get the inlets cleared ?

Cheers guys, I have learnt a lot of stuff on this outing.....engine compression, stripping carbs, balancng etc. Looks like tomorrow jobs will be to remove the manifold and carbs again.... Drill the holes so they all match in diameter, clean out the manifold and make sure there are no metals bits. Refit/balance/test and give feedback to you guys.

Sorry to tease...but the balti & beer was calling As you can see from the picture below something don't look right with the inlet, a small object inside: inlet blockage_zpsezsl2rlq.jpg Photo by Dino2B | Photobucket I find out its a small piece of metal from where??? metal piece_zpsctigwzgk.jpg photo by Dino2B I thought i would just get a wd40 straw and try it down the inlet: IMG_1985_zpsrluk10pm.jpg photo by Dino2B As you can see it pushes thru into the manifold without any issues. Whereas all the other 3 inlets: IMG_1986_zpsw3hy0q5k.jpg photo by Dino2B Only lets the straw move down the inlet about 3mm. So I fired up the car and put my finger over the inlets and found that all of them except one is blocked. So eventually, it seems - what i thought was the faulty carb, is probably the only one firing correctly and has a vacuum. The other 3 has no vacuum (or very little) on the inlets and must be heavily restricted. I feel a right tit and cannot believe I missed this earlier. I was wondering, can I just remove the manifold and drill the blocked inlets and is there anything I have to be aware of, size of the inlets etc.....

I think I have found the issue... Possibly the manifold, will confirm this a bit later and try to get some pictures. I stripped the carb and the diaphragm, needles and pipes are ok. Refitted the carb and fired her up and attached the balancer. I then noticed a tiny piece of metal lodged in the inlet pipe. So after borrowing the wife's tweezers manage to pull it out and got a picture. I think this didn't help matters, but also guided me to check the other inlets and to my horror.... ..... To be continued shortly after dinner!

Finally got my hands on a compression tester and got the following results No 1 - 148 No 2 - 128 No 3 - 138 No 4 - 140 So looks like the engine is ok, time to start stripping the carbs and checking for blockages on the no1 carb

Cheers dude, I'm picking up a compression tester on the way home tonight and will give feedback later.

Nigel, as above The 4 carbs have adjustment screws on the linkage between. You adjust the screws up or down to control the needle and balance them to match each other so they fire evenly and controlled. The problem I have is that the carbs are all adjusting as intending and balancing except the first one. I assumed it was a fault with the bike carb, but the dirty pipe, gutless engine seems to point to something little more damning.

Dan I admire your true grit and defiance to not let the car get the better of you. I imagine the weather, views and company helped with all the issues that kept popping up What a rollercoaster you have had over the last month. A great read and I look forward to seeing more photo's. The picture of the loony flag wavers.....Did they realise the cliff was crumbling underneath them...? Looks like I better get my finger out and get my car up to scratch for the next outing Best of all - "you all returned safely".

Sorry for the delay, been working all day & night & day again..... Last night I found that one of the connections to the vacuum pipe was leaking a small amount of air. I have removed all connectors and applied new PTF tape and re-connected them and tested for more leaks (none so far). I was hoping this would explain the dirty pipe, but the leak was from another one Back to the carbs and inlets, which when attempting to balance do not require the above vacuum pipe mentioned. I have connected the same erratic sensor from inlet 1 to each of the other inlets (as Nigel suggested) one at a time (using the damper valve to steady the needle as shown in the video). All the other inlets are still registering 3...ish on the Richter scale and seem to be functioning as intended. When I reconnect it back onto inlet 1 it should be reading the same, but like you can see not enough vacuum. I'm now a little concerned if it's the engine, inlet manifold or the first carb at fault Would a compression test on the engine confirm/deny if there are any internal issues? Should I strip down the first carb and see if there are any blockages? Should I be driving on it while its like this or will I cause more damage? Could this be the reason why the car feels a flat as a wet fart in a space suit? These questions and many others will be answered on the next episode of SOAP (queue the theme tune). The inlet manifold seems solid (no cracks break or leaks). I have another set of CBR900 carbs without any jets, gasket, seals etc.... Maybe I should disconnect the bike carbs and transfer everything over onto the other set and test to see if they are any better.

Notice how the needle sits way below the others, and no matter how much I adjust the screw it only rises up to the top of the red section. All the other have balanced perfectly: http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y450/Dino2B/cbr900/IMG_1976_zpshvxnadqy.jpg I have also noticed tonight that the vacuum pipe to the inlet is very discoloured for the same carb after a days outing: http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y450/Dino2B/cbr900/IMG_1977_zpswts2t9pi.jpg There was a video on there...but wont play an iphone video....sorry! Any ideas?

Oh u tease.... Now I've got to look at the manual again and hope I'm not a complete spanner

Yep, done that and have no issues balancing the carbs... Just querying why one of the buggers won't play fair and balance with the other 3... I will take the wd40 out into the garage and see if there are any air leaks.

I do sir.....Any chance of a beg/steal or borrow?

Your gonna need a 4x4 kit, with something a little stronger than aluminium to stop the shotgun pellets from farmers....

MOT passed yesterday and the kit is on the road...hooray! Couple of teething issues....but will attempt to show my face before the Stoneleigh show.

Definitely not an epic journey....Its my trip to and from work every day. Believe me I have found some very interesting alternative routes when traffic gets bad, which would make you hair turn white, if you tried to follow me in the kit.

For the essence of impatience - I bet the local garage by my house has one of those and are willing to test it for a couple of beer vouchers. If not then its on the checklist ? thanks guys.

I was wondering if an air leak might cause this.... But are you talking about the carbs or engine. No compression test or history...so something worth considering (reading about) . I have swapped the gauges around and the same carb/cylinder is at fault...so the gauges are fine.

I have connected up a cab balancer (courtesy of a good friend) on my CBR900 carbs on a Pinto. The main Carb according to the manual is cylinder no 2. I adjusted cylinders 3 & 4 and matched them with cylinder no 2 with ease. But cylinder no 1 is very low and not even getting anywhere near what the other 3 are sitting at (even with the adjustment screw fully out). Could this be a faulty cylinder? The car is driving fine, (no spluttering, stalling). This is basically what it looks like: http://honda-cb750-s.456789.n3.nabble.com/file/n4003587/AAAAAAAAAAAA.jpg But the person who reported this is using different carbs and has the issue with cylinder 4. After reading the forum, there was no solution, so wondered if anybody else has had this issue. I was going to book the car on a rolling road, but don't want to waste my money, if I have a duff cylinder. I cannot give you much more information, as they have very little history and I haven't had chance to strip them down....Yet! Being impatient, I just wanted them on and the car running for it's MOT. Any advice appreciated.

Been monitoring this leak and wiping it since passing the MOT and taking it for a spin yesterday. The leak is excessive and not from the pump gasket (need to check the breather as noted above....sorry forgot until re-reading this again) I will be driving and checking it again over the next couple of days, but must admit, it is losing a lot of oil. It now seems to be more of a spray of oil around the bottom of the distributor, timing belt cover area (so ordered a gasket set, just encase). Only did around 30 - 40 miles yesterday and lost enough oil that the dipstick is now reading minimum, (considering it was on the maximum). I hoping most of this is the oil settling and filling the filter on it first proper drive out. But doesn't bode well.

Well it seems you pulled thru the heartache (with help from the guys) and made it to the lush green North. I bet it was worth the effort?

Yaaaay...MOT passed and the car was excessively driven all around the countryside yesterday with lots of sun-screen. While the kids were in school, Nikki & I made the most of the sunshine and beer gardens. The driven miles + pit stops for transmission oil fill-ups, seems to have done the trick. Gearbox feels much more responsive and no slipping, dipstick is registering correctly and no leaks It took just a little more than what I took out...Which I imagine the excess would be the bit that was left all over the road, when the sump got torn.. Thanks guys and yes I did trust Nikki to drive the car home Considering she has to drive it to Stoneleigh, th4ey have to make friends again ......"Roll-On -The-Kit-Car Show 2015"