Motorrad Benzingespräche » Thanks to the Forum

I am what you refer to as a 'newbee'. I purchased my Ella 10 months ago to replace a Kawasaki W 650 that was getting a bit too heavy for an old man. There are probably only about 6 or so BJ250s' in England so information on them was non existent. My machine or though running and with an Mot certificate ( British version of what I think you call a TUV) was certainly not running properly, no idle jerky acceleration etc. The previous owner had had a local motorcycle workshop clean and adjust the carburetor but obviously with little success. I had decided to have the fuel tank relined to eliminate rust particles and whilst this was happening I joined the Forum and with the useful information I discovered there set about getting things set up correctly. I discovered that the air filter had been removed, the spark plug was black indicating a far too rich mixture and the jets did not seem to have been looked at. The main jet was a #128 and fortunately the slide, diaphragm, and needle all seemed to be in good. From CMS N I purchased a new #35 idle jet, a #125 main jet, needle holder and from the internet an extended type idle screw that makes adjusting the idle mixture very easy. I did not remove the carburetor from the engine just detached the throttle cables and rotated the carburetor through 90 degrees from where I could detach the float bowl and cleaning and blowing through everything with an aerosol duster replace the various jets. Noting from the Forum the importance of correct valve clearances I set these up as indicated (they were both too tight). My engine originally had a heater system but this had been removed and I made no attempt to locate one some bikes never had them. I took note of all the carburetor adjustment available on the internet and set the mixture screw at 1/.5 turns open for a starting point. With the tank re-fitted and some fuel she started immediately. Over several test rides I adjusted the mixture so the idle is now nice and steady at about 900 rpm with the mixture screw set at 2/three quarters open as per the Japanese setting for this engine. The spark plug is the correct color and the bike accelerates well, idles properly and gives about 2.8 to3/100 consumption. Thanks Estrella Forum