Mods done by prior owner:
told it's jetted
K&N air filter
D&D slip on

I've had my F3 for quite a few years and noticed over time it's difficult to start if it has been sitting for a while (~1+ wks). A few shots of starting fluid and very careful working of the choke I'll get it to start and stay running. Once warmed up it runs great, maybe a tad rich but I haven't noticed any serious bogging or anything really questionable but figured I'd clean the carbs and hopefully correct the starting issue so I don't need to rely on SF.

I pulled the carbs and noticed that all of the Main Jets are 135 and all of the Slow Jets are 40 (I read stock Main is 135 outer carbs 138 inner; Pilots are all 38). Removing the air/fuel adjustment screw, carbs 1 & 2 are 2.5 turns out from full seat and carbs 3&4 are 3.5 turns out. The Jet needle doesn't have slots or any c-clips but it does have a washer at the end (not sure if that's stock). My next move is to pull the spark plugs and see how they look, id imagine 3&4 are going to look a bit rich.

Besides the air/fuel positions, the main jet choices seem odd to me, I haven't come across a kit that downsizes the main jets, has anyone else?

Now I'm not sure if I should bother cleaning these up to put back or if I should just buy a new Stage 1 or Basic kit?

Also, both the Main and Pilot/Slow jets are stamped with a logo like above "i" below, so I guess they are Keihin jets.

 

Pulled the plugs tonight. 1 and especially 4 are rich. 3 is slightly worse than 2.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum @Tr0cZ . Clearly you're not afraid to get into things. Not knowing the history and seeing how so many things seem to be out of balance from one side to the other, I'd start at the beginning. Do a compression check and see that they're all close to each other. Then I'd check the valve clearances. That followed by a thorough cleaning of the carburetors, making sure that all the fuel and air passage ways are clean and flow freely. Then I'd set all the adjustments to normal where factory says they should start from. Then work on balancing the carburetors.

 

Thanks for the welcome and suggestion, that approach makes sense to me.

 

Can you share some history on the bike? Mileage, past maintenance done, things like that. And oh yea, photo's are nice too... lol.

 

Welcome to the forum, and as stated above, people love pictures around this place

 

I wrote this out before but it didn't post..

I bought the bike around 2012ish, my friends had bikes and we all rode a lot. It ran great but it wasn't pretty. It had mismatched fairings and the tail section was from an F2. I found an F3 tail and rode it half naked for a while.(the bike haha)





I bought a China fairing kit on eBay already painted and it actually went together quite well, I was impressed. The fairings are thicker than OEM and I had to dremel out some holes, but overall happy with it. When I ordered I didn't realize the piece above the taillight was for the Euro models. The holes bothered me so I tracked down a handle in Sweden. After a few years my friends sold their bikes and I didn't ride as much. I'd take it out every so often but it spent a lot of time sitting. I started riding it again more often, more so last year which is when I noticed the rougher starting and running a bit rich. I also had a fork seal leaking and actually just picked them up from the shop ready to put back in. I've put tires on it, new brake pads, regular oil/fluid changes since I've owned it. It has 38k on it now.





This last pic is from this past November, right before I put it away for the winter. We were having very mild weather here in Northern NJ.

and I definitely need to get the Honda wings at the very least back on the gas tank!

 

It looks great, much cleaner than the bike I'm working on! If you still have the white rear fairing pieces, let me know, as those will complete the project bike I'm working on.

 

Wow amazing what a new dress will do, looks very smart!

 

Thanks guys! I was away this weekend so couldn't get much done on the bike. I already have 3 of the carbs cleaned, I soaked them in Chem-dip. Also still waiting on some misc screws/bolts from the shop and my carb rebuild kit with new gaskets and o-rings came in today. I want to get the carb assembly back together before I get into checking the compression and valves, etc.

Has anyone found a reliable aftermarket source for the carb to intake boots/isolators? Any I see list that they fit both the F2 and F3, but that can't be right because they are two different part numbers. The F2 is MV9 and the F3 is MAL.

I see these on Partszilla, seems they are the best and only option
https://www.partzilla.com/product/honda/16211-MAL-600