Yamaha XJ 550 Maxim carburetor issue

I've been reading through the posts with the fellow having issues with
his XJ 650 carbs, and it sounded terribly familiar. I've got an '81
XJ 550 Maxim with a sick carb and wouldn't mind a pointer if anyone
out there can help.

So far: 1. the carbs have been cleaned (as in torn down, soaked and
all passages blown clean with an air hose)
2. the carbs have been synchronized using a mercury gauge
at my local motorcycle shop

Problem: Boggy and sloppy at the bottom end. You have to gun it up
to 6000-7000 rpms to get it to go on a red light or stop sign after
it's been running for a while, with about an even chance of it
stalling in the middle of the intersection in front of that big scary
transport....

When I pull the plugs, they're pretty carboned up, which the
troubleshooting guide in my manual suggests means that it's running
too rich. The fact that it positively sucks gas seems to back this
theory up.

Anyone know how to adjust this carb so that it doesn't run so rich?

Thanks,
Mike Breaton

 

Whew. That's going to take me a minute to digest. I admit that I was
in a bit of trouble by the time I read "sprue", but the rest of it
seems workable for a shade tree guy like me. Thanks
Albrecht...I'll try it and report back.

 

Heh. Now that's something I didn't know. Cool.

 

Hey, that's me! Thanks to Albrecht, I got the courage to clean out my
carbs, and the bike is much better off now, although I'm still having
some minor issues getting it to stop running rich, and tonight I'm
going to follow Albrecht's description of setting the idle mixture
screws, found in this thread. Thanks again, Albrecht.

By the way, another great resource for help with your XJ bike is the
XJ Owners mailing list at http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/xj-owners.

-Ken