Motorcycle Repair: Honda Carbs, exhaust gasses, dramatic loss

Question
Hey Chris,
I have a 1978 CB550fourK and I've noticed that when it has been running for a while smoke starts to spew from the #3 carb. I will never claim to know much about cycles at all but is there any adjustment I can make without having to rebuild the whole carb? I haven't noticed any dramatic loss of power but I would rather take care of that before it happens. It only has 10000 miles on it and it would be nice to see another 10 before it needs a good overhaul. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Jon.

Answer
Hi Jon.
 Chances are the valves need checking and the carbs may need to be synchronized.

 What it sounds like is the carb in question may be slightly out of synch and combined with the valves possibly needing adjustment, some of the exhaust gasses may be exiting through the slightly open intake valves rather than through the exhaust valves.  This is not a major problem, but if left alone, could create performance problems down the road.

 The manual has all the specs and proceedures for doing the valve adjustment and synchronizing the carbs.  Both are relatively easy jobs to do.

Good luck.
FALCON