Motorcycle Repair: 1984 honda interceptor, honda interceptor, bill silver

Question
Hello and thank you for your time. I bought a interceptor 500 and was told carbs were done a year ago and the bike has sat for a year. Bike ran but  as soon as you throttle it it would die. I was told jets dirty. It has a fuel pump on it that was bad. I was told it doesn't really need it and I could gravity feed carbs since it is carburated. I took carbs off cleaned out varnish and jets. Put them back on bike and bike runs but when looking at the pistons in carbs the two on the right are fluttering with the motor but the left side does not until I throttle it. Any suggestions.

Answer
Frank..... I think that Honda knows better than your advisor who thinks that the fuel pump is not necessary. The petcock exit is lower than the carb float bowls, I think and you will have feed problems once the level drops down very much, if it will feed at all w/o a pump.

Anytime that fuel sits in carbs for more than a few weeks, it separates and usually plugs the idle jets.

You probably have to resynchronize the carb sets again, since you have removed them and jostled things around there. The interconnecting linkages are easily disturbed.

Bill Silver