Motorcycle Repair: 1977 honda 550 4 carburators, honda 550, air mixture

Question
QUESTION: I have just cleaned the carbs (very dirty) on this bike and found that the air mixture screws were all different. range from 1 3/4 turns to 2 1/2 turns out, where should they be roughly to start (stock settings) Thanks for your input.

ANSWER: As a general rule of thumb 1 1/2 turns out from GENTLY seated will get you in the ball park. But you MUST sink the carbs after any removal ect.
Also a little trick to make sure that all cylinders are working properly.Get the engine running and wormed up. take a spray bottle of water and spray each exhaust pipe at the cylinder head.If the pipe does not INSTANTLY boil the water off, that cylinder is not firing.Check that cylinder with a timing light to make sure it is getting spark. If not the ideal circuit in that carb is not working. Back to cleaning carbs.

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QUESTION: how do you make sure the carbs are in sink

Answer
This is something that will require a trip to your local motorcycle shop  do to the fact that special tools and equipment will be required.

Here is the low down on the process.You have what they call a base carb
one that is not adjustable the others are.What you want to do is adjust the other carbs so they flow the same amount of air as the base carb. So the cylinders are not fighting each other.This is done by reading the vacuum of each carb.The more the carb is opened the less the vacume.Unfortuntley this will require the tools and expertise of your local motorcycle shop.This is money well spent as you will not believe the improvement in derivability.

Ride safe  Jerry