Ridgerunner

I put a set of Michelin 2CT's on my Blackbird two weeks ago. They seem excellent for feedback for what few times I have been riding lately. I have ran Bridgestone, Pirelli, Dunlop, etc. I never seem to get more than 3000 miles no matter what brand or type. Looking forward to seeing how many miles I get from these tires. I bet the same as the others.

I guess I'll have to tell the truth. A LCD indicator in my '97 birds tach is just too cool.

Thanks for the great info everyone, except for the comment from R1000. No I'm not a girl, I have a great ear for the bike and I've been riding motorcycles before you were born. Never hurts to have a little information that even when I'm passing the 135 mph mark on the speedometer I still have 6th gear to look forward to. The installation of the indicator in the tach looks excellent. And a big thank you to cbrxxquad. Got a big laugh from that one.

Anyone have a gear indicator installed, and if so, what kind, how easy to install and most important, how well does it work and how easy to see in bright sunlight. Thanks.

Seat off, Tank off, Upper Cowl Inner Cover where attached to top windshield, Lower Cowl, Inner Panel next to gas tank. What year is your Blackbird?

Sounds like the bike runs great as long as you don't head for home. :icon_wall:

Glad to hear you are running again. Let us know how it runs in the rain.

If all was well with the carbs before you took the tank off, no longer than that it was off the bike shouldn't of changed anything with the fuel. Will need to fix the Fuel joint o-rings. The only thing I can think of that will put fuel in the vac line is a bad fuel petcock diaphram. The honda manual calls for the float valve to be seated and the floats to be just touching the valves, there should be 13.7 mm or 0.54 inches above the side of the carb base. That's easy to check with a straight edge ruler. After a good cleaning and a couple of new o-rings, that will be a good start at getting it running again.

There are O-rings on the fuel joints that feeds both carbs. There are O-rings on the Air Joints that connect all the carbs. If they are leaking then that would be a place for water to get into. Have you found any water in the bowls of the carbs? The carbs are pretty easy to remove. I know several bikes I have had with CV carbs need to be spotless or they do not run right. I only have a factory Honda manual, which I like. Might ask a few people at this website which manuals they like. One with good pictures or diagrams showing the layout is well worth it. Not hard to take the carbs apart, my advise is to have a large enough area to lay everything out in the order you take it off. Then it makes it easier to get it back together in that order without forgetting anything. I'm not much on taking things to the dealer for repair work. They make there money on selling bikes rather than repairing them. I don't mind the self owned repair shops, since they make there money on repairing bikes instead of selling them. It might pay to ask around for references to a local shop if all else fails. Even thought it may seem a dead end at times, there is a reason and a fix for mechanical problems. Just a matter of time, money and patience. Seems we run out of all three at the same time. But when your Blackbird does get going again, the rush of adrenalin is well worth it all!

Loctite 425 is for plastic and metal fasteners. In a blue tube. It has been awhile since I used any, but seems to work just great like the red loctite for metal.

Just thought of one other thing. Might check the gaskets on the side case to see if any water is getting in there, which might get in while riding but not while parked and under the water test. Just a thought.

I didn't see the pics for the bottom of the tank. I have a '97 blackbird and was having some trouble in the wet weather last year. I replaced all the plug wires and haven't had a problem since. I know that doesn't help you now, but I would think you have some electrical problem going on. That always seems to be the hardest to figure out. Bad connections or partial broken wires would take some time to troubleshoot, but would would be worth it if you are good with wiring or know someone who is. For what its worth, my voltage regulator caused my bike to quit a few time before it finally shorted out. Water and electricity don't mix. Sorry I couldn't be more help so I'll stop ramblin on!

Did you take the carbs off? Sounds like the fuel shutoff is working. Is the hose leaking or the connection between the carbs? I did see a post in here whith some good pictures of all the connections under the gas tank. I'll look and see if I can find it.

Just wondering what the average lifespan of sparkplug's are in the Blackbird? I did find some cool info on this website about the codes for NGK sparkplugs. http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~rblander/NGK.txt NGK.txt