Hi gang, I've been pretty well removed from all things motorcycle for well over a year now. My wife and I purchased a fixer-upper (our first house) and in addition to a ton of projects the house has no garage or wrenching space to speak of. That's been remedied now with a small workshop built in the backyard, so the fun stuff that's been in storage is finally home now.
I've been going through my 76 CB550F, which went into storage with an electrical gremlin and a bad keyed ignition. Those are now sorted so off came the carbs for a good cleaning. Admittedly, i've only ever made adjustments to components in the bowl area of these carbs so decided to give them a full cleaning, the slides came out without a hitch with the exception of #1 (furthest left with choke lever).
That sucker was stuck! It took a bit of coaxing to pull it free. Once free I expected to see plentiful varnish on both the slide and carb interior but they're quite smooth and generally clean. The slide drops in and out of carbs 2-4 with ease but won't even begin to start into #1.
Any thoughts on what I'm missing here?
Also I must admit, i've never compared the throttle pull to another 550 and took it at face value - plus, with the bike off and throttle pulled back i could hear a mechanical/binding noise but it sounded to me like the rack spring working under tension. Sorry for the wordy post, thanks in advance!
