sk1200

Okay so I was not able to determine for sure what was wrong with the no. 3 carb, but I managed to make a working set of carbs from the two I had. After fiddling with the synchronizer for an hour, my bike is up and running again! Thanks for all your inputs!

Yeah, that was one of the first things I tried.

Yeah, seals when I push it. Honestly it does not look or feel any different relative to other carbs when I set the floats. I had to drill out pilot jets on no. 1 and 4 carbs of the spare set as the prior owner tightened them and broke off the heads, it sort of worked when I tapped out the remaining brass, but the thread is pretty weak. I guess I could split both sets and make a working one from them.

Tried swapping, tried the right hand bowls from the other carb set, no luck. Since the same hardware works in the other set, I keep thinking there is a crack in the 3rd carb body somewhere, only thing that comes to mind at this point. Thanks for all the responses so far!

Yup, and on the floats themselves so that they seat properly. Just installed the floats, seats and needles on an old (junk) set of B12 carbs, those are holding fuel fine with the same items. :O

Hey Suzuki lovers! Came hoping to pick your brains as a last resort in my struggle with a leaky float. I have a leaky no.3 carb float on my mk1 Bandit 1200 - fuel is going through the left of the two airholes. I replaced the seat, needle and the float iself with new parts, set the float height to 14.6mm as per the Manual. When I drop the bowl, let fuel in and close the float with my finger lightly, no leak, but when I close the bowl and let fuel in to do the same job, it leaks. I tried swapping the seat, needle and float with no 4. carb, and no. 3 still leaks unless I close it with my finger. Have I perhaps overlooked something? Wife and I are hoping to get riding again after 2 years - work, kids and life in general. :)

Is it normal for a B1200 to pull wheelies in 2nd gear without the clutch? Cause mine now does It was robbed of power since I got it, and I never knew

Thanks! Valve clearances set, motor spins nicely, tomorrow carb sync and I am up and running again!

Haha okay thats where my inexperience came in and ruined the day- I did not know that. Thank you thank you thank you. I apologize to everyone for bugging you all with this throughout the process but I hope when another young newbie comes looking for answers, he or she will be able to avoid my mistake. =)) I will post when she is back to happily buzzing away!

Ok after a lot of grief, I pulled out the rocker arms and put the replacement camshaft back in, and tried to spin it. It is not moving. Swapped over to my original journals - it is moving nicely! So the good thing is, I did not bend any valves or generally screw anything up. The bad news is, I cannot use this new camshaft since its journals are messed up (they dont look messed up at all btw). So here is the fun one! Do I risk putting my old journals on this new cam and running it, or try to source a good cam with good journals?

Haha no, Suzuki have made it really easy to orient them the right way and put them in the right place =))

Yeah, its in neutral and the cams are seemingly in the right position, which is why I am guessing its the slack of the cam chain blocking it from turning ugh.

I did what you said and still does not turn over. Is it possible that I bent a valve or two on the first cylinder when I tightened the cam journals and something 'moved'?

Finally got to it today as the weather permitted! I have ran into a problem though. I have alligned intake and exhaust cam sprockets as per manual, with the correct 22 pin distance between the arrows (24 including the pins with the arrows) while the T mark on the rotor is pointing at the pickup. Before I installed the cam chain tensioner, I rotated the engine clockwise a tiny bit to remove the slack from crank sprocket to cam sprocket. Now I cannot rotate the engine at all, so either timing wrong or chain slack stuck somewhere at the bottom. Where did I go wrong? Should I remove both camshafts again and start over?

Awesome! Thank you so much once again for all the experience you shared, it is priceless. I will post an update when I get her running again in a couple of days

Zahvaljujem najljepse! Thank you so much for writing such a detailed description! Got it, I will do everything you said before installing. Should I just replace the rocker arm shafts with the ones from the second engine? Also, is there a better alternative to graphite grease, like assembly lube you would put on brand new journals? The followers that I will be putting in look very smooth, so I should be good to go! Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the responses, I wasn't even hoping to get so many! You guys are awesome. Buzuki, what baffles me is that the valves were all within spec, even those two on the offending cam. The pairs of valves were also all quite symmetric. Thanks for the advice on oil! I also noticed that when I change the oil, it seems a bit too thin for 10-40, it could be breaking down too quickly in our hot weather. I guess either thicker from now on, or more frequent changes. I'll also make sure to check the valves every 6000km. Thanks for the offer fatbloke! I have a spare cam and rockers from a very low mileage wrecked Bandit. Pulled it out of that engine today and the lobes both look like new and measure up to spec according to the manual. I'll check the followers tomorrow, but past the visual inspection for obvious wear, I cannot seem to find any specification for it. You guys know it by any chance? Thank you all once again! I am adding a couple pictures of my beloved bike =)

Heya! Lonely Bandit 1200 rider from Montenegro here (I kid you not, there are only two mk1 1200 Bandits in the whole country). I have had the bike for a bit over a year, and have put 12000km on the clock since I bought it. Today, I decided it was about time to check the valve clearances, and what was supposed to be a routine procedure turned out to be a nightmare when I saw the cylinder 1 exhaust cam lobe (shown below). It has developed a sort of a lip towards the right part of it where it isnt touching the lifter. All other lobes look ok. The bike has 60000km on the clock and it runs very well - I never would have guessed it had a problem until I saw the cam. I'd love to hear your ideas on what could have caused it and what you think the best plan of action would be (continue to ride it or do something right away)! I happen to have a spare top end, but it would be a no-no just slapping it on without finding out what the root cause is. Thanks in advance! Stefan