rich on one side

I did the search, nothing found. I have the right cylinder running rich. The bike runs good but the one plug is sooty black, the other one looks pretty close. I dont know what the main jets are. Do they both have to be the same? Engine redone a couple of years ago and the carbs are OE Amals.
Can I run a leaner jet on one side only? Drop the needle a notch? Its to the point where I am starting to refine it all.

If you haven't looked inside the carbs yet, that would be a good first step !

Could be its flooding, the float has sunk, the jets are worn, jets are wrong, etc etc.
Without a look, you won't know.
If the engine is all in tip top condition, the carbs should need to be identical.

You don't say what year this is, but "black and fluffy" could also be be oil burning.
Tried a compression test on this donk, could be one cylinder is cactus.
I had an 850 where one oil seal on the inlet guide had become adrift, plug looked black...
Have fun !

Worn needle jets cause richness.

MikeM said:

I did the search, nothing found. I have the right cylinder running rich. The bike runs good but the one plug is sooty black, the other one looks pretty close. I dont know what the main jets are. Do they both have to be the same? Engine redone a couple of years ago and the carbs are OE Amals.
Can I run a leaner jet on one side only? Drop the needle a notch? Its to the point where I am starting to refine it all.

Click to expand...

Rohan has given you all the steps you need. Only thing I would add is ..... NO, do not compensate by changing ONE SIDE jets, or needle position. You can never get an engine to run smoothly with such a mismatch, and all you would be doing is making something else wrong.

Slick

I had similar symptoms that improved a lot with a simple clean of the pilot circuit. I took out the pilot air adjust screw and blew carb cleaner and compressed air through there, then took the top of the carb off and cleaned the tiny hole in front of the throttle valve with a fine banjo string. I reset all the carb to spec and so far so good (I was getting misfires on sooted plugs every 100 miles or so).

Pilot circuit explained here ;
http://amalcarb.co.uk/rebuilding-mark-1 ... arburetter