or, "how I am an idiot, sort of".
Last year I posted here about how I had bought a Russian Military bike with sidecar, a Dnepr, (with a Ural motor) When I got it, it was in horrible running condition, and I figured out one tuning thing after another. The previous owner must have known nothing. Every time I found something wrong, it ran a little better. Still, after using all my tricks, it would only run 50 to 55 mph top speed. Didn't have a lot of power, and started cold fine, but was a very hard "warmed up" start. Still, I managed to ride a couple of thousand miles on it, and had a good time. I just figured the low power was a natural part of the "antique" engine style and 32 HP rating.
Then, today, I was giving it a close lookover to see how hard it would be to change the "main seal" between the engine and tranny (leaks a little). I was looking real close at the case area, and around the carb intake area, when I noticed a little metal clip just behind one of the hose clamps, between one of the carbs and the air cleaner. (Think BMW motor) Hmmmmm, I thought, what is that, a broken air hose clamp or some such? Wait, it moves back and forth, top to bottom, and it looks like some kind of ball detent attached to the clip.....WAIT!...you don't think... I took off the carb hose and looked in and what do ya know, It was a manual choke mechanism! The original carbs evidently didn't have a choke built on to them like my retrofitted Mikuni's. And guess what, THE DANG THING WAS SET TO FULL CHOKE THIS WHOLE TIME! Jeeeeez, did I feel like an idiot! But, on the other hand, you could barely see the darn thing, even with all the attention I had given the carbs. So I had been riding all this time with both carbs choking to death! I opened the mechanism, and WOW, the engine pulls a lot better in every gear and pulls cleanly up to 65 or better! DUH! Another great D.A. story to tell on myself for many years to come.
