1968 CL350 Restoration

Well after replacing the needle I got fuel flowing to the left side carburetor. I got the bike started and after maybe 30 seconds of blue smoke it seemed to run normally. I had battery issues after that so I'm charging up the battery tonight and tomorrow I should get to do the proper tune for the carbs although I wouldn't be surprised if something else comes up. We'll have to see.
 
Went out to start it this morning after charging the battery and I was getting zero electricity, none of the gauges lit up. I checked the battery voltage which was good, so I decided to take a look at the fuse. I opened up the little thing and out falls a piece of metal somebody had shoved in there in place of the fuse. Started up with a fresh 15 amp fuse and I was able to ride it around even without the carbs being tuned. It is definitely running on both cylinders now and feeling a lot less like it's limping along. However I still have a few issues.

When I gave it throttle the rpms would hang for an extra couple of seconds before falling down so I'm guessing that might be related to the carbs not being set properly. The other thing is after starting and stopping a few times (kickstart because the electric starter is broke) I had trouble getting it to start back up again and it didn't really want to idle either. I am thinking maybe there's an electrical problem here as I noticed some flickering on the lights along with the weaker idle but idk. Is this possibly a sign of a bad regulator/rectifier? I am told those tend to go bad easily and that might also explain why I keep having to charge the battery.
 
brianwilsonsdog said:
When I gave it throttle the rpms would hang for an extra couple of seconds before falling down so I'm guessing that might be related to the carbs not being set properly.
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Could be carbs, but could also be the advancer return springs are a little loose not retarding the timing as far as it should.
brianwilsonsdog said:
The other thing is after starting and stopping a few times (kickstart because the electric starter is broke) I had trouble getting it to start back up again and it didn't really want to idle either. I am thinking maybe there's an electrical problem here as I noticed some flickering on the lights along with the weaker idle but idk. Is this possibly a sign of a bad regulator/rectifier? I am told those tend to go bad easily and that might also explain why I keep having to charge the battery.
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The charging system on these older bikes is barely above break-even overall and it doesn't start recharging the battery until above 2500 to 3000 rpm, so riding around at low rpm for short periods actually discharges the battery a bit. If you have a weak battery it will drop faster and definitely could affect spark strength.
 
Must have felt good to ride it around!

Do you have one of the old red waffle selenium rectifiers? Could be bad, but you can monitor the voltage at the battery while it's running to investigate. If it goes up with throttle, hopefully upwards of 14V then good. If it doesn't change at all, then there is at least one bad component, not necessarily the rectifier.

Based on the fuse rigging, who knows if the charging system is even wired up correctly.
 
Yes I've got the waffle. I'll check to see if it's the rectifier after I cool down a bit. I got it to run again but I still can't get it to run on just the left cylinder so I'm thinking there's still something up with the left carb, maybe the float height isn't right? It is also being a pain in the ass to restart. Seems to start much easier after being left sitting for a bit, idk if that means anything. I know the left carb is somewhat functioning because it will respond to me lifting up its little throttle arm thing manually but when I do give it gas the engine spikes to around 3500 rpm and then takes a while to settle down. Overall the bike idles really weird and is always either too weak or too strong. I was able to adjust the right hand carb to what I believe to be the right spec relatively easily.
 
The test I described is really testing the entire charging system. If it shows no voltage change then individual tests on components are needed, starting with the stator.

Could be one cylinder is going in and out on you and that's making it alternate between weak and strong. That slow return to idle can be a sign that the carbs are not well balanced. How does the pressure feel out of each pipe? You want those to be equal and use the idle stop screws to adjust. The mixture screws are adjusted for max idle speed with a preference for a richer setting when the idle speed remains constant. Maybe you can make some improvements the next time it's running.
 
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