[Crashoverride]

Posting in engine, may be fuel or electrical.
CL 350

I was getting some loss of power in 3rd to 5th. It would bog down sometimes. It was getting to 3K miles and I thought it might need a tune up. I did the cam chain valves and timing.

The bike start and revs up great to 7K in 1 to 3rd gear always but when I go into 4th, perhaps 50% of the time it really bogs down bad, and switching up to 5th is worse. This does not happen all the time. Some time it powers through 1-5 great.

Being intermittent I was going to pull apart and clean the coil connections. Have not done that yet but posting in case someone has a different idea on what to look at.

 

[J-T]

Ignition advance?

 

[Crashoverride]

JT are you saying I may have the ignition timing off somewhat? I can certainly go back and try it again but I thought it was 98-99% dead on for LF RF and it seems to run so well in gears 1-3.

 

[frogman79]

What he means is check your advance unit make sure it is advancing correctly, you will need a timing light for this. This is an issue I chased on my 360 and found that the right side was advancing too much which can cause issues at higher speeds but can be intermittent. MY issue was that the shim behind the cam on the unit had completely disintegrated which allowed the cam to bounce back and forth in the unit so it would either run correctly or bounce around.

Would also check your petcock make sure its clean. Restricted fuel flow at higher speeds is more noticeable because you are burning more fuel. My 450 did that to me early on once I got her running on the spare tank I had.

 

[Crashoverride]

So good news. I had somewhat of a similar issue building the bike where the coils connection go loose and it did somewhat the same but not exactly. Pulled the tank and both connections apart, cleaned them greased and tightened up. Bike runs really strong now issue gone. I probably did not need to do the full cam chain, valves, timing but at 3K it was time to do it anyways so now its all set. Now I don't know if this is just my bike or related but, when it was having issues - the tach needle would get all jumpy waving back and forth. Now it is almost rocks solid at all RPM. Related?

 

[ancientdad]

Not likely related, since the tachs on our bikes during that era are cable driven so it represents the actual engine movement as opposed to ignition pulses, which could be affected by a poor connection. Probably a coinkydink glad it's running strong again

 

[Crashoverride]

I am thinking of replacing these with Posi-Lock connectors.

 

[Crashoverride]

Ok so it was not the electrical connections but they are good now either way. Still a problem. I put in a new condensor, still a problem. I went back to look at timing, the gaps looked right and the LF and RF were on but the LF looked perhaps a tad off...like firing 2mm after the line. I adjusted and went for a ride, it seemed solid 4 5th good. Time will tell but I wonder if that tiny change made the diff.

 

[Crashoverride]

Nope not right yet. Its better. Before 4th and 5th were mainly all miss fires. Now 4th is 90% good and 5th is 50% good. Going to double check the valves and redoo time again on the weekend.

 

[J-T]

I'm still betting on the timing advance. You need a timing light to check it.

 

[Crashoverride]

Is that different than the light you clip on to the points to check LF and F when you turn the engine and line up the marks?

 

[J-T]

It's a strobe light which flashes when the spark plug fires while the engine is running. Many auto parts stores lend or rent them. Check you-tube for "how to use an inductive timing light", I suspect they can explain it better than I can.

 

[Crashoverride]

Timing light stuff in my notes in case needed TY. I had busy day.
Valves done
Timing done again - very very exactly on the fire marks
Still problem.
New coils
new condensor
Still problem.
Started checking grounds - lol the main batter to frame, the engine bolt through the nut and it was loose and sliding around. Got a nut on the left side but then it wouldnt tighten snug, so off came the left side of the bike exhuast etc. Snugged that up good.
Bike is 95% better now. Still happens a bit but its much more driveable now until I sort it out.

Grounds
Is it possible to run a second ground off the batter to a diff place on the frame and keep them both?

 

[J-T]

You can run all the grounds you want to. Any number of extras won't hurt anything. If you have one good one all the rest are irrelevant. It is important that you have a good connection (ground) between the engine and the frame as well as between the handlebars and the frame.

 

[Crashoverride]

If you were to add an extra ground connection for the handlebars and frame where / how would you go about it. Where to splice it and and connect please.

 

[Crashoverride]

Ok some good news lol. I thought to have fixed this many times only to have it come back. Today I was able to produce the issue - make a change - fix the issue - change it back produce the issue etc.
This story begins on a windy day.
I was driving down south when the wind really picked up and was hitting me on the right side of the bike. Started to have big issue with the stalling, figured I better turn back home before I got stranded. Drove back (now the wind is on the left side of the bike). The bike ran great. WTF. Turn south again - drives like crap. North Great
So when I was having carb problems they would piss gas out the overflow tubes, so I pulled them to the right side of the bike so I could see when it was happening.
Now it looks like the wind was creating some pressure on the line at high speeds or with direct wind messing up the carbs.
I re routed the cables. North and south the bike was running very good. Adjusted them a bit more in the center frame dropping down. Bike ran great north and south. Rode all over for a while seems to be back to normal.
Prob only happens to me this stuff.

 

[J-T]

Gotta say that's a new one on me but, if that's what fixed it, more power to you.

 

[ancientdad]

I'd have to guess bowl venting was affected, causing a disruption in keeping the bowl full