Walk around with Mikuni VM28 Carbs plus comparison with Dell'Orto VHB30s

Replaced the Mikuni with Dell'Orto VHB 30 Cold idle.

Vintage fuel tank, installing a Wix 33001 Complete In-Line Fuel Filter

Update: I have changed the carbs to Dell Orto VHB30 with build in replaceable filters however I kept this configuration and it is working like a charm.

No matter how hard and carefully you clean a vintage fuel tank, some crud will still continue to come out. Some is coming from the fuel itself, some, like in my case initially, was just 20 years worth of deposits from sitting in a barn for too long.
Long story short, I have decided to put a massive, non fuel pump, fuel filter before the carbs, especially since my vintage Mikuni do not have filters. Wow, I cannot believe I just write that, who makes carburetors without filters, arg!

So I purchased a very fine filter (see Wix 33001 ) and a couple of T couplings and put it in the middle of the flow coming from either the main line or the reserve.
The trick is to make sure it stays above the float bowl of the carburetors or, Archimedes will tell you, you are not going to get any fuel. I achieved this by making it rest atop the air filters and carefully routing the fuel lines. Done. It works like a charm and my carbs no longer require cleaning every 5 minutes ;-)
 Oh and yes, the dark stuff you see it is crud, the paper filter is actually white. Sold yet?

The maiden vojage

Very first ride after the rebuild. This is prior to timing tuning and carb fine tuning, in other words, she runs a lot better now.

Take two on the tank and powder coating parts

Well the original tank did not hold, it got worse and worse and it is a Swiss cheese waiting to happen, holes everywhere. Thanks to the good people of Norcal Guzzi Owner Group, I have found a fellow Guzzista who had a etxra one in excellent condition considering it is a 40 year old tank!
Here are some shots of the tank and a bunch of other parts I sand blasted and powder coated. Enjoy!

Details:
- powder coats from powderbythepounds.com
- facilities: The tech shop 
- two component epoxy coat by 3K

before, good shape, most of the dings are actually a bad paint job

blasted, ready for coating

before pin striping

all done with epoxy clear to save the decals, done!

after chrome powder coating

Thank you time: Mikuni carb and the best resource out there for parts and knowledge

If you own anything with a Mikuni carburetor, you must be aware of Sudco International. I have been doing business with them and considering my vintage VM28s are nearly one of a kind, they were a life saver! Chad spent time figuring out what parts would fit and he treated me like I was ordering hundreds of dollars of parts when in fact my orders have been very small. A big thank you, Ms Elly would not be alive and soon back on the road without their help! If you need help with tuning or understanding how VM28s works, there is no better resource than the Kawasaki Triple site since these were OEM on these two strokes bikes.

Ms Elly, mostly clothed

Engine operational, all electrical work is done, lights and turn signals functional, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and she looks amazing!
Photos are actually from the 4th of July weekend, I guess she is declaring her independence from rust, mostly, but most of all from an unduly, untimely demise in a barn.

 

For effect, this is the before picture about three months ago.

She lives! First engine start in probably 20 years

After resolving most of the issues in my previous post, she still would not start. As it turned out, all she needed was a few minutes to fill up the carbs. What you see here is the very first start after my previous attempt a few minutes earlier did not succeed and I decided to let her sit for a minute.


I was so tuned to listen for a loud twin cylinder rumble (like my Ducati) that I nearly missed it. At first it just sounded like the starter picked up revs but I could barely tell the engine was running! In this video the revs are already north of 2000 rpm as the idle speed was way off and so was the air fuel mixture. Still, she is alive! Now the tuning can start.