Carb's Suck!!! The B.O.A.T Bike Part 3. Rebuilding the carbs on the Honda RVF400 project. NC35

Adam has Broken Open Another Thousand on parts for the little NC35. So now it's time to rebuild the ultra sonic cleaned carbs and see if the baby Honda will start to behave.
It's geeky, nerdy and awkward, but that's half the fun of a small bike project.

[@stevesanelli90]

What an absolute pleasure having you guys doing stuff on the little race bike! Very entertaining & knowledgeable as always Mr. Dave!🙌

[@mattmid7012]

Interesting that you went with the option of getting a bendy screwdriver rather than growing your fingers. Enjoyable video as always. Oh and well done on getting a cameo role in the Gas Monkey TT video! 😂

[@obsession_engineering]

I tried stretching my fingers but didn't like the ET look 😁

[@HankeyMcSpankey]

Feel bad for saying this after seeing you struggle with the carbs, but eh... shouldn't there be a tiny O-ring at the end of each pilot air screw? :X

[@MrShadownoise]

If it's anything like the GSXR400 Mikuni BST's, yes, and those O-rings are absolutely critical for stopping unmetered air getting sucked into the pilot air circuit and messing up absolutely everything. Idle speed and stability, carb balance, progression, hanging up, lousy throttle response, flat spots, even a recovery on a truck, all intermittent and unpredictable - an absolute nightmare that took me most of 2 summers to debug. They're so tiny they seem unimportant, but heat and fuel cooks them so once disturbed or dried out by disuse they will forever leak and ruin your life. I stripped those carbs 10 times, changed everything until I realised that because the old ones looked OK didn't mean they were. New ones cost pennies, are nice and soft and sticky, and then by magic everything worked perfectly on factory settings.

[@jamest5149]

I prefer the whine and ‘v8ish’ worble the RC engines give over even my RSV4 factory. One of the best engines (sounds) ever.

[@stevenrapa4014]

I hate to mention this now... But are you aware that the emulsion tubes are slightly different front to back ?? 😜

[@obsession_engineering]

I carefully instructed Adam not to mix the bits up... Or at least that's my excuse! Thanks for the info 😳

[@stephenbeamis1151]

Love carburetors yeah I know fuel injection is easier but when you set up carbs properly it's sweet and you can do it yourself but then I am from the era when everything had them 😉 love those little Honda's gonna have to talk Henry into getting one 😉😂😂

[@0x7FFFFFFFFFFF]

Wow that bike has an amazing sound to it

[@brahmdempers1005]

just one thing,did u guys put the o rings in with the washer and spring by the pilot screw assembly? otherwise nice video.

[@obsession_engineering]

It's been a while, but pretty sure we did 😬

[@nthorpey]

Sounds lovely, where did you source the float valves from?

[@obsession_engineering]

Allen's performance

[@jamest5149]

Dave… Use something like Permatex aluminum or nickel paste with alloy casings etc… copper slip is not good with aluminum and can cause galling of the threads. Plus Stainless is a bad dissimilar metal mix and causes galvanic corrosion.

[@io3204]

I've heard that, too, but never experienced it myself apart from a stainless screw in a magnesium fork yoke which was heavily corroded. So I would appreciate first hand experience as there are so many stainless screws sets for motorcycles. I use ceramic lube on screws in alu for peace of mind btw.

[@MrShadownoise]

@@io3204 I've heard this too, but I've been using Copaslip with steel and stainless threads into aluminium, for 40 years. Never had a problem, and I still have one bike that I did this >25 years ago. Vastly better than the nothing the mfrs use, anyhow, which is a galvanic disaster. I can't tell if ceramic or nickel grease is better, 'cos I've no experience of copper being bad, so have never bothered to buy any.

[@io3204]

@@MrShadownoise thx tony, that's exactly the right information. I guess as long as there's enough grease involved everything's fine.

[@troywee4774]

nice and simple with those then ...... lol. cheers.

[@kawi704racing]

Thanks man.

[@andrewoverton5170]

What about the two screws in video 2 which you didn't remove because the heads were chewed up? Personally I'd be worried about those as they are bound to cause issues, they really do need to come out like the rest and be set up correctly. Probably a hole drilled in them so you can tap a torx in and screw them out? Enjoying the vids though, top stuff.

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

These look almost identical to the SV650 carbs! Not removing the sheared pilot screws?!

[@steve23464]

You know a bike is compact when your hand can span the distance between the frame rails.

[@grachoderunwiderstehlichen]

Endoskop camera ? if you repair very often this historic mechanics

[@russfoggan4092]

Dave, the only that thing will ever run 100% is if you drag Ricky Leddy out of retirement and get him to sort it all out, it'll run ok but it will never be 100% without Ricky mate

[@PedroMcMahon]

great video shame about the led light strobe show

[@phillee2814]

OK, call me old-fashioned, but I vastly prefer carbs over injection. You could do all the required maintenance at home without investing the value of another bike into electronic diagnostic equipment (half of which goes out of date a few models later), and once you understand the principles, it really isn't all that hard. I found CV carbs an unnecessary complication, but you do have to know not to slam the throttle open too suddenly. Slide throttles were just fine if you treated them right. Need a rich mixture for starting? Just raise the fuel level a bit by pressing the little button on top of the float chamber - no need to get a handful of petrol, either - that just shows you are holding the float down too long. So that is the choke removed, too. If you don't run very lean you don't need an accelerator pump, so in the bin with that as well. Need it richer in the mid-range? raise the needle a notch in the slide. Or lower it to give a leaner mid-range. More fuel at full bore? Bigger main jet. Opposite again to lean it out. Bottom end? idle airscrew. All really simple, and you learned to treat your engines right. All that with no internet to look it up on as well. I miss the days when motorcycles were what everyone had until a family arrived and they were adult enough to buy a car and use it responsibly - at least being on a bike first was a logical progression from a bicycle and taught people to use the roads at higher speeds without putting others at risk. If people did something dumb it was only themself that got hurt, and traffic was actually able to flow instead of queue. And we had MUCH more responsible drivers as a result, as that early experience of vulnerability was great training for a lifetime of safe driving. I can't say I've never had a problem, but have a passed million road miles in or on each of three different classes of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, and never had a ticket, conviction, or claim against my insurance. Or for that matter, had any problems flying an aircraft.

[@TheOriginalCoda]

Can concur. Learned on bikes. Never had a car accident. Also a competent pilot. The value of learning to get around on 2 wheels before anything else is incalculable.

[@Cronus111]

Is that a Wera screwdriver or a Vessel JIS?

[@motorcyclegarage2307]

The complexities of mixing a bit of fuel with air is ridiculous!