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Overheating after carb cleaning

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Sidecar Bob 
#1 ·
Newbie here with an overheating question. Bike is a 1980 CX500D (working on figuring out how to add that to my signature) I just finished cleaning the carbs using Larry's book, and now the bike is overheating (or at least saying it's overheating) extremely quickly. Like into the red in ~5 min at idle, or three times riding up and down the block. Before cleaning the carbs it seemed totally fine - however the carbs were super gnarly and it ran pretty terribly (could ride around on flats, but no power and chugged and died on any significant incline) so maybe it just wasn't running well enough to heat up (?). Not sure if that's possible.

I am going to check the 7V regulator tonight as suggested many other places, but it seems like a strange coincidence that this would break immediately after cleaning the carbs. Also plan to pull the thermostat, but it seems like even if that wasn't working it shouldn't overheat as fast as it is.

I flushed the cooling system twice yesterday and ran it up to the red (according to the gauge) with the rad cap off, and saw very little movement in the fluid through the hole. So maybe the T-stat hadn't opened yet, but it was fully in the red according to the gauge. I then immediately drained the water out into a bucket and felt it with my finger - it was very warm, but definitely nowhere near boiling.

Any other ideas? What's the best way to check if the water pump is working? Is it correct to assume that the thermostat should have opened, or do I need to run it longer even though the gauge says red? Anything that could be related to carb cleaning?

Thanks for any help to be offered, appreciate it very much.
 
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