1971 Kawasaki H1

Try a marina.  They sell rec 90 which is alcohol free.

In reply to maj75 :

Nearest real marina is 90 miles away

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Maybe this website will help? Pure-Gas  According to some of the Allentown Sunoco comments, there are a couple of nearby Wawa stations selling E0 gas.

Interesting side note - if you get to the Dragon, try to arrive with an empty tank (assuming you're driving some sort of performance vehicle). The station at the Motorcycle Resort only has 93 Oct Ethanol-free gas.  Kinda cool.

I live about a mile a half from a marina, although I've not looked to see if it sells gas.  But I can check the next time I'm home and may be heading up your way. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

As Bill points out, we unfortunately live in an area where ethanol-free is hard to find unless you're flying.  Van Sant would be somewhat convenient, and I know Doylestown airport has it as well.  I think Lehigh Valley International actually has a gas station across the street which might have it, so maybe I need to come up with some reasons to visit Allentown.

You could always go karting at Lehigh Valley Grand Prix. I used to go all the time with a buddy. Indoor but gas karts, and a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Installed my eBay carb ring:  

Fired it up and... no improvement.  Now not even running consistently on all cylinders- I really think the petcock may be at fault.  So I tore things apart again:  

Drained the tank:  

The petcock should probably flow fuel through all three lines, right?  It just picks the path of least resistance, if you clamp off the one that's flowing it moves around:  

Then, the final nail in the coffin- the berkeleying thing came apart:  

Ordered a Pingel and set about cleaning the carbs yet again:  

Then went on a fuel adventure.  Airport Garage across from Lehigh Valley International has ethanol free 87 and 90 octane fuel, as well as leaded 110 at the pump and a number of other options inside.  Neat!

So now the carbs are reinstalled, and I'm waiting until next weekend for parts.  Again.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Thanks, I need to remember that one, Airport Garage!

IIRC those carbs are supposed to have a rubber boot at the top.  I don’t think they will run properly without the boots.  The carb bodies don’t seal themselves, that’s why the boots were there.

I think the rubber boots were just to keep the weather out.

The boots are present, but every photo has them slid up since I'm working on the carbs.

New valve sure looks it should flow more:

Plumbed and filled up:

Started pretty easily:

And it ran ok... then did the same berkeleying thing it has been doing 

This time I kept restarting it and paid really close attention as it ran worse and worse.  What happens is, it starts out running on all three, then the left cylinder stops firing, followed by the center cylinder a minute or so later.  It will then run only on the right cylinder until it becomes impossible to restart.

I can't keep working on it right now or I'm going to hurt it out of sheer frustration.  Distributor cap?  Still a fuel problem?  Maybe I keep berkeleying up the carbs exactly the same way? Ugh.

What do the plugs look like? Are you sure it's a lean problem and not a gas-fouling-the-plugs rich problem? Probably lean, but thought I would throw that out there. Good luck...you'll get it figured out!

In reply to nedc :

Pretty much fine, but obviously the cylinders that stop firing end up covered in fuel.  The jets are all stock so I'm not sure what would make it run that rich, maybe badly adjusted cables?  I have to have them adjusted all the way in to let the slide fully close on each carb.

The distributor cap and rotor are original, really wondering if I'm getting weak spark when things heat up.

I think you may be on to something... 

If one cylinder stopped "working" and wasn't covered in fuel, then I'd say it's a lean condition and the carbs are not working.  Since you have 2 that are not working after it heats up AND they are wet, sounds like electrical.  Maybe you have enough spark to get it started and running but once it heats up, the spark goes away.  Cap, rotor and even wires are suspect as well as any other components related to spark.  Could be one of the reasons it was parked in the first place...

Also, if it's always the same cylinder that remains running to the end might provided some clue on what is happening.

Don't give up.  You're so close!

Note that may or may not be helpful:

2 strokes rpm rises as they lean out (like when you are running out of fuel).

At least, that was the case on my RD400 and RZ350.

"2 strokes rpm rises as they lean out (like when you are running out of fuel)."  That has been the case with any two stroke I have had also.

Maybe a duff coil? Easy enough to check. I was thinking that the coils were old and therefore might be a bit suspect...

The ignition system is all new parts from the CDI box to the spark plugs with the exception of the distributor cap and rotor... I've got a NOS set coming from eBay now.  Might as well rule them out, right?

Sadly, the only parts that you know for sure are any good are the ones installed on a bike that is running 100% correctly.

I've seen plenty of new stuff that was bad out of the box, enough that I keep a known good piece in a box to swap in, just in case.

Heat related. Any chance you're losing compression on certain cylinders as it heats up? Not sure where it would be going. I'm just trying to think of something that hasn't been thrown out there. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Entirely possible, but since fixing it would require opening the motor it's low on the list.  For what it's worth, it's equally difficult to kick through all three cylinder pulses when hot.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Installed my eBay carb ring:  

I just looked more closely at this picture and was wondering if all the enrichment jet cables are adjusted this way? That seemed like a lot of threads exposed. 

Did you set the enrichment circuit according to spec and confirm they are closing when you release the cable?

if those aren’t seating properly they will cause it to run rich and eventually stall out individual cylinders. 

Also, make sure they aren’t leaking around the cables or carb boots. Check for leaks around them. 

Are the tank and carbs venting oK?

Venting is OK.  Everything to do with the cables is suspect- I set it all according to the manual, but as noted the throttle cables are basically all the way in and the enrichment cables nearly all the way out.  The aftermarket cables seem like they're not quite the right lengths, so I really wonder if they're keeping me from getting everything tweaked properly.

Possible the cables are reversed?

In reply to Samebutdifferent :

Nope, the throttle is a 4 into 1 since it also actuates the oil pump cam.