Well, the other day I finally got around to picking up my order at the Honda shop. I got the seals in for the petcock and tank. I went straight to Garner's and went to work on Mark's Honda.
I replaced the tank-to-petcock seals, and the rubber piece inside the valve itself. After getting that installed, I attached new fuel line from the shutoff to the carbs, and I had to scrounge a new piece for the little hose that goes between the two sides of the tank.
I put some gas in, and immediately it started running out of the tank hose. I frantically ran around the garage trying to find some sort of hose clamps while fuel spilled onto Garner's floor. I tried some zip-ties. They were too old and brittle, and snapped while I was putting them on. I finally found some small screw clamps in a drawer and managed to clamp one down before the whole half-gallon of gas ended up on the floor.
Well, let's fire 'er up!! I took my old battery, which is on it's last leg, off the charger and threw it in.
I cranked and cranked - nothing. I checked for fuel in the float bowls. Plenty. Checked for spark. None. The damn thing ran before!! What the hell is up? Then I remembered a mystery toggle switch up by the headlight. I flipped it to "on", kicked it, and bam! She fired right up.
I let it idle a bit with the choke on. I messed with the carb throttle and air bleed screws, and got it running pretty smoothly. By now it was dark, and I hopped on that bitch and took it down the street. It seemed to starve for fuel when I got on it a little. I limped it back and tinkered on it for a while, but it just wouldn't idle. So I put it back, and resolved to work on it the next day. Then I looked down; I had adjusted everything with the damn choke on the whole time! I flipped the choke off, and hit the starter, and the engine soared to a couple of thousand rpm. Damn! Just one of those things you forget to do when you're excited.
The next day I re-adjusted everything. It had a bit of trouble when it was cold...my 500 is cold-blooded too. But when it was warmed up, I got on it and took off down the street.
Damn!! That 350 is QUICK!! I blasted around a few blocks and a bunch of people saw a guy with a huge grin fly by. It still seemed a bit rough in the mid rpm range, so I took it back and brought out the air bleeds another 1/4 turn. I hopped on it again, and blasted around a bit more.
I can't believe how tourquey that damn thing is! Way quicker than my 500! It was a blast! And so far, running perfectly.
Like I said, you just can't kill a Honda.