Honda-SOHC

According to the early 500 handbooks you can go right through the red bit!

Spent 2 years doing that in gears up to 3rd on one cos i was fed up with the reliability---know what damn thing still never went bang and when i pulled it to do the oil weep (Thats built in at the factory sir!) EVERYTHING was still well inside tolerance so i twin disced it with one caliper in front and one behind--looked odd but stopped well

The K3 has pressed in pilot jets which need to be removed to clean properly. Using mole grips Grip tightly, without crushing, and pull and twist at the same time.

Refit with a light tap from a soft faced hammer

Thanks Matt, according to the parts book the inlet manifolds and manifold to carb rubbers on the K3 are 404 middle numbers which makes them unique to the K3, i suspect you are using K3 manifolds and rubbers, I only owned one K3 and that was sold to Ireland in a "chop" and didnt have an Airbox only pods and that i had to pull the pilots 3 times to get them clean!!

As to chairs I only drove one and that was a Cossack Urinal with the posh Dneper chair as against the "fit a machine gun" original, Unfortunately they were RH chairs putting the bike in the gutter making for "Interesting" handling and impoved muscles in the left arm-----swore that would be the only time and so far i kept to it

Depends on the type of carbs mate, look on the top and see if the top cover is "coffin" shaped hald on with a screw at each side or "P" shaped held on with a screw at top and bottom.

It ought to be the former and have the same float setting as the 500.

Ah Steve that is the ultimate question, to which the answer is not 42.

I did know but the years have passed and the grey cells have been Guinesssed repeatedly(if you can get away with tappety-----) so there is no longer any sense or knowledge

Slightly wider but fits, go to ebay.com and search the US, lots of good ones over there BUT be advised the US Post Office only do airmail now so postage can be high

78 K3 has push in pilot jets which can be awkward to remove and refit BUT bad starting/running is almost certainly down to those being blocked, Over flowing is stuck floats, total strip and clean is only way, be carefull with the rubbers between airbox and carbs as they are unobtainium

OK there are many different methods in Honda manuals for adjusting the cam chain but here is a method i have used for 30+ years which works as long as the tensioner is operating as it should and the camchain still has useable life.

(1) Find a method of turning the crankshaft, this can be
    (a) Kickstart
    (b) spanner on nut on end of crank
    (c) rotating back wheel in gear

Or any other none destructive method you can find.

(2) Put pressure onto your turning method so that the engine is just about to turn but not quite turning.

(3) This is the difficult bit, Whilst holding that engine possition loosen the cam chain adjuster locking bolt/nut and re-tighten. That is the bolt/nut that actualy locks the tensioner not the one that stops the lock undoing!

If the chain is stilll noisy try again in a different position, if its still noisy either the adjuster is siezesd or at its limit and/or the camchain needs replacing.

Have fun.