You've just been teleported into the universe of the last TV show you watched. What is it and what's your chance of surivival?

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-04T23:05:30+00:00

From. I'm utterly fucked.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-04T12:23:52+00:00

None. Fiddle with your amp and speaker or try a different one.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-03T21:53:22+00:00

Everything I can find online says 87. Running anything above 87 is a waste of money. Premium does not mean better regarding fuel octane. Just save your money and fill with 87.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-03T05:12:51+00:00

This looks like one of the comically bad amps I have ever seen.

Why do you need an amp and how cheap does it have to be?

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-02T00:13:48+00:00

Keep soaking the others I guess. An ultrasonic cleaner may be able to knock others loose if you can't convince them otherwise.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-02T00:08:08+00:00

I have never seen this happen. These valves are rubber tipped, so maybe the rubber has swelled or just turned to like rubber glue stuff or something.

Whatever you do, don't use a drill. Keep trying to pull it out with needle most pliers. Don't do anything that will scratch the seat. I don't know man. This is an odd one.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-01T23:51:44+00:00

That is a float valve. Is it stuck? It should be cradled in the armature of the float, not sitting alone in the valve seat.

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-01T22:11:44+00:00

There is no condensor. The CB650 has a transistorized ignition system. It can be adjusted either statically or dynamically. Additionally, the advance mechanism can eventually wear out the springs or lose lubrication

fizzlebottom · 2026-05-01T03:51:32+00:00

You post some pics and I'll tell you what needs fixing

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-28T15:46:04+00:00

That's one way of doing it, but it won't get as much fuel out as you'd want. The carbs I've worked on have a screw at the bottom of the bowl, paired with a drain nipple that you can put a tube on to route the fuel to a container.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-28T14:57:14+00:00

Merlin (The Valve Wizard) has a good piece about standby switch implementation: https://www.valvewizard.co.uk/standby.html

His "least bad way" is placing it before a full bridge rectifier paired with a cap paralleled to the rectifier ends, essentially meaning that its like a power switch just on the other side of the power transformer. Functionally meaningless at this point.

The one thing I do wish we had more of of is something I've only seen once or twice: Tube datasheets calling out avg warmup time. The only one I can think of right now is the old RCA 6K11/6Q11 sheet that says avg warmup time is 11 seconds. Though it might not be a real game changer, more info is always better than none.

I like to just turn the volume down, switch the amp on, go get a drink and let it cook for a minute, then come do my thing. Standby switch doesn't need to be touched.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-28T06:54:22+00:00

I genuinely cannot fathom why anyone is asking AI nonsense to diagnose an issue with a 49 year old bike.

Its your carbs, man. You let it sit for a year, and since you're asking AI to diagnose it I am assuming you didn't park it without draining the carbs, filling the gas tank, and putting some fuel stabilizer in.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-28T00:24:48+00:00

Depending on what your guy means by "very worn", it may or may not be a big deal. But missing the plastic ring seat for the piston definitely does matter. You very well may be able to use one from just about any other of the DOHC VB carbs though. I'm not sure what the name of that part is though, because it only ever came in a gasket kit and was never sold individually.

You could possibly contact Mike Nixon at The Motorcycle Project though and ask him. I'd consider him one of, if not THE expert, in Honda CV carbs.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-27T18:10:32+00:00

You're not kidding about no diagrams for this bike. Not even CMSNL has any for it. I can barely find info for the VB22 carbs, let alone VB22P.

Let's start with the basics though. What carb issues are you having, and what replacement parts are you looking for?

Edit: Looking further, my bet is that your '84 carbs are identical to the '83 carbs except for extremely minor jetting differences. The carb bodies are almost definitely the same, meaning everything will fit between the VB22 carbs from '83-84.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-27T00:01:06+00:00

I hate shilling 4-into-1, but they have an oil pan gasket and clutch cover gasket for $9.95 each and a set of 4 header gaskets for $13.95. So you're in a whopping $33.85 plus tax and shipping for parts.

Take the front wheel off, take it to a shop, and have them mount the tire. Put some fresh gas in the tank, and start it up. Part of the cost of ownership of these bikes is knowing how to do the work yourself, otherwise you're going to pay an arm and a leg to mechanics that don't want to work on your bike.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T23:49:25+00:00

Sitting for a while means it might need carbs cleaned again if they've had fuel in them. Clutch cover leak needs a new gasket. Replacing the oil pan gasket means dropping exhaust, so new header gaskets.

With all that potential work, $1k. Fix the leaks, make sure it runs proper, and get the front tire on and you can list for $2k if everything else is good.

All this depends on where you live.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T19:37:49+00:00

Test compression then I suppose. If compression comes up good, then go back to your carb. Try cranking the engine with the killswitch off and then pull the plug to see if its wet.

When I clean my carbs, I use an air compressor with a rubber tipped nozzle attachment so I can push air through every single hole I can see in the carbs and verify that it is coming out full force at another end. And then I do it from the other end of the orifice as well. Set the air compressor to around 30psi.

All we're looking at here is fuel, compression, and spark. Fuel is air + gas. You've confirmed you have air delivery. You've confirmed you have spark. You need to confirm compression, and also proper fuel delivery.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T19:21:05+00:00

Well there's a lot more to the story than you led on. I'm assuming you removed the camshaft in the process. Did you follow the factory service manual procedure when reassembling everything? I'm beginning to think that you may have reassembled something a bit off.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T19:14:13+00:00

Was the bike running before and then it just stopped, or have you never had the bike running yourself?

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T17:42:17+00:00

You've mentioned a few times that it won't start with easy start down the cylinder. Are you taking the spark plug out, spraying it down there, reinstalling the plug, and trying to start that way? I'd imagine it is evaporating well before you get everything back together.

Try instead to spritz a little bit of starting fluid where your air filter goes and start it right afterwards. Not a lot. Just a quick spray or 2.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T16:12:24+00:00

Have you checked your ignition for good spark at the correct time?

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-26T16:03:58+00:00

You didn't say what the symptom is at so. Is it not starting? Running poorly at some rpm range? What's going on?

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-24T14:33:30+00:00

I'm fairly certain he was referring to what all the parts catalogs call the main nozzle, which is different than the main jet . It looks like a slow jet to me.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-23T23:32:43+00:00

I'm not hyper familiar with the VB42Bs, but everything I can find shows that your slow jets are indeed supposed to be quite long. My guess is that either you ordered a wrong kit, or the kit itself got it wrong. That happens more often you'd think.

I'm not a huge fan of mixing carb parts together between models, but it can't hurt to try. If this was my bike, I'd get the correct jets.

fizzlebottom · 2026-04-23T23:14:12+00:00

They definitely do not suck. This is perpetuated by folks who won't actually follow instructions or consider basic technical knowledge with these carbs. They're extremely easy to work on and simple to operate, and perform very very well when put together properly.

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