Carburettor maintenance plus OH and polishing requested.
Shop folks, does this sound familiar? Not this particular bike, but the owner mentioned, “It looks like the shop did a carb OH when I bought it?” with a question mark of their own.
“What exactly is an OH?”
In general terms, I think OH refers to the level you reach when you take something apart and wash it—like reaching the first station on a mountain climb. I’m not entirely sure myself.
Anyway, back on track. All four float chambers were clean.
The float fixing O-ring was rock hard.
A quirky mechanism unique to BST. This is a tricky carb where the fuel level is hard to set.
Yikes, this is scary… What is this? I dug it out and removed it. Nothing was there? I wonder why it was plugged in the first place. The mystery deepens.
I’ll replace the intake manifold. It’s secured with standard bolts, so an angle impact wrench makes quick work of it. Losing time over a single bolt that won’t come out is frustrating…
Having a backup plan after getting stuck is routine. With the right tools, even tough jobs go smoothly.
Some people apply sealant almost like a charm… Japanese bikes don’t seem to leak much if you don’t disassemble them.
In my opinion, it’s worth buying an intake manifold while they’re still available.
An offset intake manifold this short isn’t easy to adapt elsewhere. Something you can buy for two or three thousand yen becomes a custom fabrication job with adapters and whatnot, and suddenly you’re looking at a huge bill.
Jumping ahead: I didn’t disassemble the damper rod, but it had some odd modifications. I swapped it with the owner’s spare and got the suspension working. The speed gear was grinding, but I found a used one in stock and gave it to them.
Light prep and polishing done. If you’re going to ride it long-term, it’s worth doing it right so you can really love the bike.
On hold for now.
