No spark??

[Banditmax]

Although i must admit i have split banks before and its not overly hard if your skilled with the wrenches.

[Mick77]

I searched through my manual for some tips on cleaning out the carb, and it's a little unclear.  I plan to thoroughly clean everything that I can see, but which one is the pilot jet?  Is it one that is visible with the float bowl off and the float removed?  On the last one I did, i just used carb cleaner, compressed air, and guitar string... Think that'll do the trick, or is it much more involved than that? 

Thanks for the "flip 'em over" tip.  I really wasnt looking forward to disconnecting the throttle cables and all that.  That choke cable ate my lunch getting the valve cover off.

[Banditmax]

Make sure your remove all plastic/rubber parts before using carb cleaner. Then after that i would remove all the jets out of each carb and clean them with your guitar string. Then blast all through with carb cleaner then the compressed air.

[Mick77]

Cleaned the carb.  Found the little jet under the rubber plug next to the main one was plugged solid.  It was too small a hole for my string, so I used a lot of air and cleaner to get it open again.  Now the bugger doesnt want to start at all.  It does this every time I drain the carbs, so I'm gonna buy some ether tonite and light a fire under it.  Maybe once I get it started the problem will just *poof* disappear !  I SURE hope that clogged jet was my problem..  I just realized that this thread has totally been off topic since the beginning.  Sorry for that guys.   my fault

[andrewsw]

That was surely a major part of the problem, if not the whole thing. As far as starting after carb work, it takes a while to fill the float bowls. If you take the extra screw out of the petcock, you can run the petcock to the 12 o'clock position and get "prime". Fuel will flow nicely. Be sure to  move it back to "on" or else you'll just flood it out.

A

[PitterB4]

That almost HAD to be the problem..  Like Andrew said, it takes quite a while to prime the carbs.  I know you've removed the screw.  Prime-em and ride!

[Mick77]

I absolutely can not believe this.  Everything is back together, i couldnt start it last night cause I didnt want to wake the neighbors.... really good thing I didnt try.  When I start it, it revs to like 10,000  and stays there!!!!  The only change is if I twist the throttle, then it kinda chokes it down  some, but as soon as you let go of the throttle, To the moooooooon again.  I mean, I cant even tell if it's running right or not because it sounds like it's gonna eat me!  What did I do wrong??  Everythings back exactly like it was, and I even adjusted the idle down so far that the cable came out and I lost the spring.  ... these dumb smileys just dont express my exasperation enough.  I sincerely thought that I would be riding tomorrow... granted, I'd be bleeding oil all over town, but hey.. anyway... some one give me the magic answer and make this go away, LOL.  help?

[interfuse]

If you messed with the throttle cable make sure the butterfly valve on the carb is completely shut. It's also possible you've installed the throttle cable incorrectly. If that's all good, then it sounds like raw fuel is spilling into the cylinders... i'd start by looking at the float o-rings and  float needles.

[Mick77]

Guess what.  The butterflies were a teeny bit open due to a slightly mis-adjusted throttle cable.  BUT  #1 is still cold.  Here's a thought I had:  could that one carb be out of adjustment?  Could I maybe lean out the mixture on that one?  The spark plug is wet with gas.  Which way would I turn the adjustment screw, in or out, and should I try that with the bike running? 

You guys might see a WHOLE lot of bandit 400 parts on ebay before too long if I can't make it work... but I love my little bandit. 

[PitterB4]

I think now we go back to the origin of this thread...  do you have spark on that cylinder?  The lead connections are REALLY fragile.  I'm wondering if with all the screwing around under the tank, if you don't have spark to #1 due to a bad lead/boot connection.

[Mick77]

I pulled the plug, hooked it up to the boot, and placed it on the cylinder head while cranking, and there's a spark.  Its not all blue, but blue with white... so there is spark, but maybe not enough? I did that test again last night, and same thing.

[Mick77]

I was digging around the board here, and saw that there is a tiny little o-ring that keeps the "hat looking thingy" on top of the needle inside the carb?  When I took mine apart, that hat thingy practically leaped out of my hand, and I never saw an 0-ring... I kept feeling like something was missing, but could not for the life of me find anything or see anything missing... would that also cause serious problems?  Man, I feel like such a hoser.

[PitterB4]

There's no o-ring on the little hat... I think you're thinking of the little bastard that sits under the big black cap. When you take the cap off, there's a small hole with a recessed area around it in the carb body facing up.  There's a tiny little oring that lives there sealing that to the cap.  You need it.  It often sticks to the cap when you take it off and falls off at JUST the wrong time. 

[Banditmax]

Where you from mick?

[Mick77]

Pitter: You mean the little plug that covers the pilot jet? 

Banditmax: I'm from Austin, Texas.  Just out of curiosity, what made you ask?  I've picked up some funny words talking to different people on message boards about this bike.  (like bugger) its one of my favorites