Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Carb trouble

Hey all, heres a quick new guy question- I was deployed to the desert for a month so my 06 TBA had to sit neglected, when I got home it was running like garbage so naturally I assumed the gas went stale (maybe a little prematurely) so I drained the tank and filled er up again. I also replaced my plugs even though I had an idea that bad gas would have gummed up my carbs. Just as expected, none of this helped and its still running bad, I rode it yesterday on the freeway for about an hour and that seemed to help alot and had no trouble out of it the rest of the day, I thought putting some miles and flow through the carbs might help but when I took it around the block again this morning, back to square one! Obviously I am just avoiding dropping my float bowls and cleaning out the jets but I guess I have no choice. I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of these carbs and before I start the job I was hoping to hear a little advice from you guys. Is there anything to look out for when I do this and possibly any performance mods I can look at accomplishing with the bowls off? And lastly, just in case I end up in over my head, does anyone have a breakdown illustration for these carbs that I can refer to If need it? Sorry If I sound like a mechanically illiterate jerk but the advice would sure be appreciated.

Take a look thru Pat's carb site (sticky post above) and get familiar. I left my bike neglected for a while too, and I found some octane booster and hi test gas helped to clean everything out.

You may want to check your vacuum caps. They are on the ports between the carbs and cylinders. If they are leaking, cracked, or missing, she will run like crap.

pulling the float bowls is easy, but you may want to try running some Marvel Mystery Oil or Seafoam through a couple tanks of gas and see how that works. Available at any autoparts store.

Seafoam.

Seafoam. I left mine sitting also and used seafoam to clean it out....Angelis

CV Carb mods from NightRider

As said above, check them vacuum plugs! Actually, just replace them all anyway.
Seafoam should also help with the cleaning but you may end up having to take the jets out and soak them in good cleaner for a bit.

I found some vacuum plugs that give a nice tight fit at the local auto parts store. They came 2 to a pack so now I have spares I keep with me in my tool roll.

thanks for all the info guys, it's a lot of help, looks like i need to make a trip to the auto parts store. Oh and Dinqua, your site is awesome! thanks so much for all the detailed tutorials.

Thanks for all the info guys (and for the great tutorial dinqua!) I got my carbs cleaned out, put back together and it runs great! Also, I learned that my bike looks a whole lot better without the pillion seat and sissy bar. At first when i started it back up, I thought I was in for a whole lot of trouble as the bike sounded strangely horrible but ended up that I disco'd the air hose that runs from the box to under the tank and didnthook back up the tank side, a quick fix and big relief! Now, off to the highway!

Hey Boozer, Run some Sea Foam through the gas. Available at Autozone etc, $6.00 a can. Works wonders for cleaning out the gum. It will not take much for your 4 gallon tank.
Pour the left over in your daily car, good stuff.
Mike

I run about four tablespooons of Seafoam thru er every 60 days or so during peak riding times and every three months otherwise.

Just got back from the grocery store, and since Autozone is right next door I stopped in. Looks to me like the 5/32" rubber vacuum caps will fit. When I got home I took off a stock cap on the intake manifold and compared it to the ones I bought. The auto parts store ones are slightly smaller with their inside diameter than the OEM caps.

I find most autoparts store caps are thinner material than the stock ones which are hard and thick. So a little smaller, coupled with a bit more supple rubber, should stay on nicely.

This is probably the dirtiest post I have written so far.

so size matters?

Frank

Gotta have a snug fit

Lord I apologize, be with all the starving pigmies in New Guinnea amen.

The first thing I did when I got my new '06 SM was tighten up the manifold clamps, and put small hose clamps on the vaccuum caps so they don't pop off. From what I understand losing one of those vaccuum caps when the engine is running can cause some headaches.

Quote:

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Lord I apologize, be with all the starving pigmies in New Guinnea amen.

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You better apologize, talking like that

I think I bought 3/16. The only ones they stock near my house are extra-long. When the bulged out part starts to crack, I just cut it off and get some extra life out of it.

I followed Pats link to http://nightrider.com/biketech/hd_cv_mods.htm. Has any one drilled out their vaccuum port on their slides? I'm thinking I read that newer BAs and BSMs didn't need it.