Carbs are cleaned and jetted, k&n airfilter, running straight pipe exhaust, bike will not idle on its own fuel supply, you must choke it halfway to get it to run around 2k rpms, however if I use a external fuel supply bike is completely fine. Mechanic said the fuel pump is faulty since its a quantum fuel pump, pump has not been tested yet but I did bypass the fuel pump and went straight to gravity feed only to have the same issue, tank is full of clean gas too. Im thinking that the fuel filter inside the petcock is bummed up not allowing enough fuel to reach the carbs, bike is modified and loves to drink fuel. When I looked at the petcock to try and remove it someone must have put a white caulk around it sealing it pretty good, does anyone know what the best approach at removing the petcock would be?

 

Caulk hates heat so use a butane torch and warm it up a little - don't blow yourself up though. It's probably not caulk - it's probably something like 5200 (which will still degrade with heat). Cutting it with a razor might be a better option.

Describe your external fuel supply - I would assume pumped as you say gravity feed didn't solve the problem?

 

im pretty sure the mechanic used a bottle with fuel going directly to the carbs, it idles and revs fine except for the oil light is on and it goes away past 2k rpms. The mechanic said it was a faulty oil pressure switch since he tested the oil pressure but I never had issues with the sensor before the engine was rebuilt, I threw in another sensor from a spare engine and it does the same thing, I have a new sensor on the way. With the carbs running on gravity feed or from the pump from the tank the bike is acting like it is starving for fuel, will only run off of half choke and when you even try to take the choke off the bike just cuts out, I have the mechanic checking the tank out with a borescope to see if he can see the filter being clogged, if the filter is clogged can I remove it and clean it or would I have to buy a new petcock?

 

If you can find a petcock, you're probably better off with a new one.

What worries me is the fuel demand at idle is very low - you should not need a pump for that - needing choke at idle is a classic sign of blocked idle jets...

 

but if it ran on the external fuel tank wouldn't it eliminate the possibility of anything being blocked? The carbs were rebuilt and fitted with a stage 1 dynojet kit.

 

When you say "runs on external fuel tank" do you mean direct to the carbs or through the pump/filter?

Step 1: Put fuel direct to carbs (those plastic fuel tanks that you hang from the rafters are dirt cheap, get one).
Step 2: Put fuel direct to the fuel pump inlet
Step 3: Put fuel direct to the filter before the fuel pump

If it idles at every step of the way, you are correct about your petcock and the fuel tank. Also, might be worth checking whether the tank has a clogged vent, which would result in the tank drawing a vacuum and not feeding sufficient fuel. On Harleys the fuel cap is vented but I'm not sure how they do it on the Honda's as I haven't had to deal with the problem. Easy way to tell is to just remove the fuel cap while it's running and see if anything changes.

 

since a shop did everything im guessing it was ran straight to the carbs, I have disasembled the carbs and found the idle jets clogged and incorrect mixture screw setting, incorrect float height, and a bunch of dirt hidden behind the needle seat. Looks like the shop did not know what they were doing so I am now waiting on parts to arrive and begin testing again. I looked at the fuel tank and only found a over flow hole, I have heard of people drilling their caps to make a vent but I think that it was for constant low to high altitude to relieve the pressure, but the tank cap does not sit flush with the tank and will allow little pressure/fuel out, im thinking it was the clogged jets since I could rev it up to 6k with half choke, and when I would try to even move the choke a little the bike would abruptly die and it would not idle.

 

Ouch, but not uncommon. At one point I sent my carb bank off to a fellow who advertised as a specialty carb rebuild shop and it came back with one of the needle jets sitting loose in the bottom of the float bowl, and didn't run any better than when I sent it off.

I did wonder about the needle seat because that picture you posted looked like there was a bunch of gunk there, but didn't realize at the time that the shop had allegedly cleaned them. Clogged jets would make sense, though since it wouldn't be getting enough fuel, hence the need for choke. This winter I'm probably going to tackle my '89 carbs (again) so I read these threads with interest to hopefully be heartened by others' success. Best of luck and don't forget to post back.

 

there's a small filter that sits behind each needle seat, they tend to clog very easy since they are so tiny, definitely buy a carb kit from parts giant because it comes with everything and dont mess around with the cheap ebay kits because everything in the kit will be wrong.

 

What I have found through my time here on then forum is that it is getting harder to find mechanic that how to work on carbs. If you take into account most newer bikes are EFI and the workforce is younger folks who didn’t grow up working on carb banks, it stands to reason most shops are going to be lean in that knowledge area.
If you don’t do the work yourself, you pretty much need to find a specialty shop.