Anybody know anything about Honda cb350f/ carburetors?

[Wergen7]

This one is a long shot but I don't feel like going through the rigamarole of joining a Honda bike forum just yet. I thought I might try to tap into r3v's wealthy knowledge community first. Basically I just took off and cleaned out the carbs on my cb350f. That's 4 cylinders and 4 carbs. After I put everything back together (95% sure it's correct) I can't for the life of me figure out why it won't get fuel. I also am completely new to the motorcycle/ carb game so any advice is welcome. Basically it is a gravity fed system (I'm pretty sure) and fuel is just not getting into the bowls. Gas does make it from the tank to the inlet on the carbs however. I have ran the battery dead trying things. Is there some sort of priming method I'm missing? I've definitely ran the lines out of gas and started it afterwords no problem. Anyway, like I said I don't know anything about this system. I really would like to solve this and get back to working on the E30. Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

[flyboyx]

fuel won't make it into any of the carbs?

lets see... a quick 101 of carburetors........ a carb works with the float system. as the float gets low in the bowl, it opens up a valve or jet that allows more fuel in. once the bowl gets full, the float rises and shuts off the jet. it does this over and over hundreds of times a minute as the cylinders suck fuel out of the bowl when the engine rotates.

the first thing i would look at is to take one of the carbs off, remove the bowl, and take a good look at this system to see that it is working right.

get a long hose and run it from your tank to the fuel inlet of the carb with the bowl removed. hold it over a bucket but as low as possible so fuel will gravity feed into it. raise and lower the float and see if fuel runs in with the float low and shuts off with the float high.

[Wergen7]

I knew someone on here has knowledge about carbs!! Yes, there is a decent chance this system is not working right. The reason I took them off to clean them in the first place is because fuel was pouring out 2 of the overflow drains as soon as I opened the fuel valve. Meaning floats were not floating? I will reluctantly pull them off again tomorrow and check it out

[tim88325is]

"Meaning floats were not floating?" They are probably floating but more likely the needle valve isn't sealing to shut off the gas flow. Check the floats for any cracks but the jets and their seats have debris, rust, or old gas varnish which won't allow them to close completely and shut off the gas.

Chucking a q-tip in a drill with metal polish and/or carb cleaner will help get the seats clean, take a close look at the jet tips for distortion.

Carbs really need to be immaculate for 100% operation, make sure the gas tank doesn't have debris in it as well which will cause endless problems. Any little spec of rust can mess up the function of carbs on these little bikes.

[Wergen7]

Yeah when I took them apart for cleaning the first time there wasn't too much gnar in there except for some bits of things presumably from my rusty tank. After closer inspection today it appears that the rubber cone on one float needle was about to rip off and probably caused it to jam in there. As far as I can tell all of the rebuild kits now have a metal cone. The rubber ones on mine seem to be sticking shut sometimes. I'm ordering the parts now, and 100% taking care of my fuel tank inside while they ship. Wee!