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HELP! fouling plug, engine makes tapping noise....

2548 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  C1iffburton
i have been having an issue with fouling the plug so today i tore it down.

put in a new plug and cleaned the carb, i also went from a 170 jet down to a 165. b/c i thought that it would cut back enough fuel to not foul out.

still same thing with no change. i checked the a/f screw and it was 2 1/2 turns out. the a/f screw is so hard to get to that i have to pull the whole carb out to adjust it and then put it all back in to see if it worked.

AND, when i can get it to idle, i hear a tapping noise from the engine, like someone is tapping it with a screwdriver. and a few times it made a big KLANK! noise like maybe it misfired or something.

it did backfire quite a bit when i first started it up.

could my rings be bad? valves?

i don't know enough about this thing to just tear into it.

please help me out, everyone is riding this weekend and i am stuck at home.
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There is a guy on the highlifter forum named honda mechanic that really knows his stuff. You should go there and try to contact him. He could probably tell you exactly what to do.
sounds kinda like what mine was doing, i changed my plug a few rides ago since i just bought the bike, was entirely black and could barely see a space at the end of the plug, i cleaned it and put it back in to see how it ran and ran a little smoother so then i changed my plug to the NGK plug like 5 minutes later and the idle on it dropped a ton, bike got alot quieter and sounded smoother, after that it started to poop out, not saying the plug did it or anything

but guy thats fixing my bike called yesterday and told me i didnt have a top ring on my piston at all and the bottom one was barely holding on thats the only reason my bike was almost starting, so he told me i could get it bored/new piston and rings and it should work for 10-15 more rides then it would be messed up again and would need alot more engine work done to it then

id say it might be your rings but not gonna bet on it...also my bike had a klank to it every here and there
sounds like you are in for a big treat, rebuilding an engine.

i fixed my issue. i cleaned the carb and put in a 165 jet in place of the 170 i had before. when i rerouted all my vent lines from my carb, one of the vent lines wasn't getting enough air and it filled with gas somehow...

anyway, i routed it to a separate hose and it has been fine.

rode last night for a few hours with no problem, except for me losing my third skidplate...
yea when i get my bike back i needa take my vent hoses off and clean them out, i know i have dirt and mud inside of them and ima guess that mud might be in my carb vents as well

welp he also said that i have sludge and grit in the engine which isnt good, only way to get the sludge and stuff out is to tear engine down and scrap out/suck out/maybe even pressure wash out me thinks, not really sure what to do about it, if there was something i could run through the oil that might break up the sludge and somehow grab the grit and pull it out as well that would be awesome but i dont see that happening at all...im still undecisive if ima just get him to put new piston and rings in and bore it or if ima get him to rebuild the entire engine and get the sludge out...its about a $700 difference between the two but if ima spend a little now then have to spend the same little later on plus alot more then i might as well do it all right now, thinking of doing the lesser though and just try to sell it and then buy a new bike
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i think you should rebuild it and keep it. b/c once you do that it shouldn't have anymore problems at all.

there is that oil that you can get for older cars that i heard reduces that sludge and cleans it out....i see the commercial all the time, you can try that first....

keep us posted...
your talking about some kinda of Castrol oil, Castrol GTX or Castrol Highmileage or something, i see the commercial at least once a day thats how rediculous it is, i am suppose to go to the guys house and order the parts today, still undecided on whether to rebuild top end or rebuild entire thing since its summer time and its to hot IMO to ride and since he has the top end already torn apart right now he might as well just keep tearing it all down and pull motor from the frame
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