Main jets mis-assembled?

[CrazyCabbie]

Hi all! I'm in the middle of cleaning my carbs, and think my jets are 'backwards'...

The manual says:
L/H 127.5
R/H 117.5

BUT, looking at them (air filter side up), it's 117.5 on the left and 127.5 on the right.

I assume left and right should refer to the rider's left and right (making the current setup backwards), but wanted to check before I swap 'em... common sense tells me not to go switching stuff around...

 

[bcware]

What year is the bike? I am curious because I have no idea what you're talking about and I have taken my carbs apart many, many times. I have heard people refer to left and right before, but does that mean that each carb has different jets, or is this referring to more than one jet within a single carb?

 

[drewpy]

left is as the rider "sees" it

 

[CrazyCabbie]

Hehe, sorry for that confusing frantic post... I was doing the cleaning in the middle of my taxi shift,hehe.

The bike's a 1982 XS400RJ (Seca). I bought it last fall, not running, from a guy that didn't seem too mechanically inclined. Rough looking, but mechanically great, just how I like it!

It has a 'brand new' tank, but I found that someone knocked the fuel strainer off the petcock installing it, and then must have put the rusty fuel from the old tank in, to save a few bucks... disassembled the petcock & carbs to take the rust chunks out.

The left and right refers to single jets within 2 carbs (Mikuni BS34's), and the manual says each main jet has a different size. First time I'd seen that, so I might have accidentally swapped 'em myself while cleaning it.

(I usually keep my parts aligned on my workbench/kitchen counter, so it was probably the other guy... couldn't have been me...)

gonna try putting 'em together tomorrow.
now I know 'right is right' in motorcycle manuals, like with cars, NOT like anatomy, lol

The fact that different size jets confused bcware tells me that it'd be pretty easy for someone to switch em, not knowing it would make a difference...

Thanks guys!

 

[bcware]

I have never read anything about the different sizes in my 78, but things change a lot from year to year in the bs34s.

 

[drewpy]

I did see the reason why it was done someplace but can't remember where or when.

 

[crush1776]

Pretty much every motor with more than one cylinder has a hot cylinder: richer jet helps even things out a bit.

I think even if you had a perfectly symmetrically built motor with the sprocket dead center and a flywheel on each side and such, you'd still have a slightlly hotter cylinder due to the Coriolis force, the gravitational pull of the moon, and one testical being larger than the other !

 

[drewpy]

I've a big ball, maybe i should get a bigger jet for it?

 

[crush1776]

I suppose that depends on which side it's on. Maybe Cabbie's jets were switched because the previous owner was a rightie!

 

[drewpy]

I suppose being a leftie in the USA got the McCarthy squad on you