Removed carbs today and noticed screws to the floats were all stripped. Some luck! Also upon further investigation the drain tubes were no where to be found on my carb. Will this and missing O-rings cause a hard starting situation? Also bike will backfire loudly and small flame shoots out of the carbs. Thanks in advance

 

I've got a 97' and a 98' F3, and neither of them has the drain tubes on them. I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Now, the missing "O" rings are a problem. A lot of engineering went into designing the proper airflow in these bikes. You should put them, as they're wha't responsible for an airtight seal to the airbox. I can't really say what the exact symptoms might be, but I'm sure performance would be one of them.

 

the drain tubes are no big deal. the o-rings are necessary to get the proper seal needed for air/fuel flow and compression. you need to get those right away for your bike to run propperly. i dont know that they'll cause a hard starting situation though. commonly, when people take the carbs on and off, they either forget to put the choke cable back on or, its too stretched to actually choke the carb. I would check that. if your bike is like mine, it hates to be started without the choke unless its recently been ridden and is warm.

the backfiring means that your bike is running lean. what kind of carb work has been done? has it been jetted before? how far out are the pilot screws? what jets are in?


and what do you mean that there are flames shooting out of the carbs?

if i were you, id go to ace hardware and get some allen head screws to replace the stripped ones with. they wont strip and you can get them in stainless steel

 

thanks. I had the bike started today when fuel is put directly in carbs and was running fine for a few minutes. Also noticed that I don't hear the fuel pump so I ran a gravity feed and will try again once battery charges. Appreciate the help.
Choke cable is routed fine and will be getting the O-rings or a new set of carbs since mine have jb kwik on the throttle drum?

 

You won't hear the fuel pump because it only runs when the engine is actually running. It doesn't run to prime the system the way a fuel injected system does. You can however put your hand on it when the engine is running and you'll feel a kind of pulsing or clicking every few seconds, that's normal.

 

Finally have my bike running again, gravity feeding the fuel lets it start and run a 2k rpms if I give gas immediate shut down and if i move the choke it dies.
Did fiddle with the idle but no change in either direction until i somehow unscrewed the thing. Now have to tear down the bike again to put it back in. So many ups and downs I love it!