Try to hold tour intake manifold up to your intake port & eyeball the gap on both sides so that they're even , then tighten head ... i have in the past used both rubber bands & o rings ... make sure you only adj. push rods when motor is bone cold ... personally i run intake all the way up , so the other is all the way down , adjust , then repeat for the exaust ...

 

Okay. I pull the heads back off. I used new gaskets and new rubber bands for the intake.

I started the bike and it started to idle and run really well. Now, though, each time I start her up she runs worse. I can not get a good rythmic idle at all, and eventually it will shut off if I leave it to idle. Something is fishy.

Some things that I noticed: 1) When I pull the head off of the back cylinder, the carbon on the piston was cleaned off with a small pile of it left just sitting on the piston. I appeared that the piston also had small coating of gas and oil. I thought that maybe, since I used an old gasket, that some oil was being sucked through where the cylinder and head meet. The gasket also kind of supported this because there was a little oil surrounding the insie edge of the gasket. I suppose that the issue could be my rings, and maybe this is why it is running strange.
2) There is usually some wetness on the rear plug when ever I pull it.
3) It appears that my plugs are always fouled. I never have pulled them and had them look like they should.

Does anyone have a video, or can you take a video clip and send it to me of a good running shovel, so I know what one sounds like. Just so I have something to compare mine to.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyHm6XPST4g