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So I changed the oil and fired up the old lady today. All went well until I went out for a ride. I made it about two miles and came to a stop light. When I went to take off she cut out as I let the clutch all the way out. So heading back home if I would ride the clutch I did ok. It would cut out and backfire as I let out the clutch the whole way. Would do it in first and second. I tried reving up before shifting with no change. My usual winterization routine is Shell V power 93 octane with stabil, shut off the petcock and let her run until she drains the carbs. Pull the battery and run it on the tender.
So here are my thoughts and question. Could plugs be fouled? It runs fine in neutral, can twist throttle no popping both cylinders are firing, tested once I got home. Doesnt seem electrical because I can start her again as I roll down the road. I don't have a tach but am going to get one. This years treat.
Thanks for the help
Brett

How long was it sitting for Brett? And ummm, was it in heated or cold storage? I'm kinda wondering about condensation 'tis all.

Put her up about late October in my non-heated but attached garage. So it probably gets to 20-30's in there with the cold days. You know those Keith
So do you think drain the tank and start anew as a good place to begin?

If the tank wasn't full there could be some condensation in there. I was also thinking there might be some moisture in some of the electrical connections. Maybe check the plug wires just to see. Then I got to thinking maybe the rubber on a squirrel condom might have broken down over the winter and you're getting an intake leak. Worth checking anyway. I've also heard that fuel stabilizer can make a bike run poorly.

And yeah... I know what those temps are like. Great for backyard skating rinks though!

Ive thought about a backyard rink a few times. That's funny.
I'm neurotic and just pulled the plugs. I took a pic and will post tomorrow at work. But right plug is oily at the threads. Can't say I'm pleased with the way they were seated in there.
Squirrel condoms is a great call. I'll get some new provalactics tomorrow for the weekend, and get them on. Probably a safe thing to do even if they are good.

I have to ask and excuse my ignorance what is the squirrel condom?

Those are the little black rubber vacuum caps used to block off the 4 vacuum ports when the AI is disconnected .
Welcome to the Forum !

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
YEAH I ALREADY HAD THAT ISSUE IT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN LOL
SORRY FOR CAP LOCKS AT WORK AND EVERYTHING HAS TO BE IN CAPS

This is the picture of my plugs. The right one you will notice has oil on it. But as I was thinking about it I had to tighten my bolts last summer because I was getting oil leaking from the head, and the right was worse than the left. So I'm thinking that oil is not a blown ring or something awful like that, but rather left over mess from that issue.

Not to turn this into another jetting thread, but now that I have them pulled it would appear I am running a little rich because the plugs are black, instead of a nice gray. I have 155/45 now. Any suggestions??

I will order new plugs, checked the condoms in the daylight this morning and they look good. Then I think I'll try draining the tank in case I have some condensation in there, don't know what I'm going to do with 4 gallons of bad gas though... Any other suggestions on what I should check while I'm tearing into her.

Hey Teeg, welcome aboard!!

Ok Moe I can do that. Now that you mention it I do recall that routine for checking plugs. I will get a new set and then try to get a better index. Thanks for the help.

Quote:

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don't know what I'm going to do with 4 gallons of bad gas though

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Just leave it sitting outdoors (in the sun if ya got it) in an open bucket and it will evaporate fast enough.

Regarding your jets, just run your setup through Pat's calculator... that should give you a pretty good idea.

Well playing with the jet calculator I get 154/45. So I'm saying my jets are pretty well set up. Of course there are no Trident pipes on there, but changing the setting to different pipes really doesn't change the end result very much.

I'm going to drain the tank and put in new plugs this weekend. And hope that thing you call the sun comes out before June to evaporate my bucket of gas.

I never did a carb balance or synchronization when I did my freak jetting stuff. Quite frankly because I didn't know what the heck to do. But now I think I could try to make that manometer. Do you think this is an essential routine?

Balanced the carbs is required wrenching. After any carb adjustments and after any valve adjustments too. Basically anytime you mess with throughput.

That's something I'll have to do once I can get my bike outside and fired up. Haven't got a clue how to do it, but I'm pretty handy with the 'Search' thingy here.

1. Pulled and cleaned the spark plugs.
2. Pulled and cleaned the K&N pods
3. Drained the tank put in new fuel
She will run fine at idle. I marked off my throttle position, and if I turn up to 1/4 turn she runs fine. But then once I go beyond that she sounds like she is getting bogged down and will shut off. If I really take it up like 3/4 to WOT she'll give a good backfire and one time shot a nice flame out of the left pipe. Pretty cool looking, but not right But usually she will give out before I get that opened up.
I printed off a copy of the carb parts and their function in throttle position, and it looks like the pilot jet is ok, but I'm thinking maybe I need to pull those and clean those out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I'm stumped....doesn't take much for that though.
Brett

I wonder if your bike is starving for fuel. You might have some dirt in the hidden filter between the carbs and you are only getting enough fuel to keep it barely running.

Loosen the drain screws at the bottom of each carb bowl and see how much fuel flows freely from the carbs. You could attach a small hose to each of the drains and run the gas back to a can for future use. You should have full flow coming out of both drains. Let them run for a minute to make sure the flow from the tank to the carb bowls is ok.

Have you also tried some Seafoam in your tank to disolve any deposits that may have formed?

I pulled and cleaned the main jets. Checked the floats and it does seem to bog down or lack fuel. Im starting to think that filter is bad. Is that in the fuel line from the petcock to the carbs? Do I get a new line with an inline filter. I know it's here but what size line etc etc?

Brett,

Check to see how much fuel drains from the carbs like I already mentioned. If the fuel flows well, the filter is ok. It is a pain to get at..

Here is a picture of the location one of the other fellows posted some time ago.

Ok I know where that is located. When I drained the bowls there was fuel in the bowls. But I also had pulled the tank. So I don't know if that filter will be a cause. So you're saying open the petcock and open a bowl drain and see if the fuel stops flowing. How about this. What about a bad tps issue? I have no idea how that works or what so tell me if I'm way off. Since I cleaned the mains it gets up to half throttle and then kills out.

Sounds to me like yer carbs dirty,you did mention the left side,the side it leans to on side stand. good luck I had the same problem last year on two bikes and everything else I put stabilizer in.Use the fuel fer the fire pit.

I've pulled and cleaned the carbs along with pulling the pilot and main jets. Also popped the top and check the needles and vacuum. I didn't see any tears or anything and needles and springs etc looked good and got a cleaning. I pulled the unline filter and cleaned it too. It was a little dirty. But now have her back together and as soon as I twist it to half it cuts out and backfires. If I keep it open it stalls. If I back off it will go back to idle just fine.
Tomorrow I'll try to unplug the tps. Can somebody explain to me what the heck that gizmo does please
Stored her on a stand for the winter so it was upright and not leaning.
I really appreciate the ideas and help so far. I'm looking forward to posting what was wrong.

I can't tell you technically what the TPS is all about, but I can tell you that many here have disconnected it and left it that way, including myself. I didn't disconnect it because I was having trouble with my bike but rather because it got rid of the pop-diddy-pop-pop on deceleration.

It must be so friggin' frustrating trying to get your bike running properly again, especially when all you did was park it. You got gremlins living in your garage or something? If the TPS thing doesn't work out try having a look at the hidden filter. I'd also be inclined to run some seafoam through as suggested. Maybe there's some gunk somewhere you just can't find and if so, the seafoam should take care of it. Best of luck getting 'er running properly.

Brett,If it ran when you put it away, then check to ensure your battery has a full charge and that none of the cells are dead; then check and your carbs(I know you have already done this I was just giving you the sequence to check)and to include the vacum rubber covers/plugs. Make sure they aren't split or cracked.

Keith the TPS is a potentiator that tells your ignitor what position the throttle is in.

Jim,

That picture will go on in infamy......

Those following along at home. After further inspection I determined the left slide might have been a little sticky accounting for the left sided flame backfire. Still cool in my book and it appears she bogs down with excess fuel because fuel rushes back out of the carb intakes at half throttle when she dies out. So I'm going to get new plugs and hope a bad spark is my issue. Tried today but had this crazy ice storm. Guess our summer is over already here in Michigan. I'll keep you posted because I know you're just dying to know what I'm doing here. Haha

If you have fuel coming out of your carb you probably have a sticky float or some dirt stopping the needle from seating.

Ok that makes sense Ian. Hey I have another question while I wait for plugs. I wanted to fit some new handlebarsand I'm having a real dickens (if I really said what I want to it would edit me) of a time getting that lower bolt off. It's close to stripping and I'm starting to wonde if it's reverse threaded or something funky like that. I'm thinking I'll get a gator socket wrench-Billy Mays style and try to turn her off. Any input on this one?

If you mean the lower bolt for the top clamp then put the upper one back in snug first. Sometimes taking one all the way loose instead of breaking them both loose will cause the one left tight to binde. Put the bit ine the one you are having trouble with and give it a couple sharp hits with a hammer then turn it out. That will often break it loose.

Cool. Thanks again Ian. Ill give it a shot tomorrow.

So here is where I am now. I have:

Changed the spark plugs
Cleaned the carbs out and the jets-fixed what looked like a sticky left slide
Cleaned the inline filter and have ordered a K&N replacement that is on its way.

Now when I hold it WOT it pulses and exhaust looking discharge comes out of the back of the carbs. It seems to get bogged down still and then pulses and revs back up with the discharge, that could be fuel, because before I changed the plugs it was very obviously fuel back flow. There is also a backfire with the pulsing. As I hold it open there is a flutter to the slides, especially noticeable at half throttle. The issue only occurs above half throttle. I can safely go to 1/4 and no problem. Idles just fine. I can even go to WOT real quick and then back off and it is fine. But it's when I hold it open that this occurs.

I have seafoam but forgot to run that through. So I will do that tonight and see if any change there.

I know it's tough to diagnose with words...hey maybe I could record it...anyway and input or further ideas on what I can do?

I had a buddy say it might be the valves but it only has 7000 miles so he thought was kinda unlikely, but possible.

Be careful if you are running it stationary, don't want to over heat it. If you are going to run it much stationary use a couple big fans blowing on the engine.
The discharge and pulse does kind of sound like valves but unless you did something to hurt them I doubt it at 7,000 miles. Did you check all the air passages in the carb body when you cleaned them? also take a good look at the diaphrams on the top on the slides.That sicky slide makes me wonder if something else isn't dirty too.

So what would one have to do to jack up their valves??

Brett,

You need to answer the questions asked earlier related to fuel flow and the use of Seafoam. You either have too much fuel, too little fuel, an intermittant ignition problem, a partially plugged exhaust, sticking valves etc etc etc. Some of these are highly improbable. Knocking them off one at a time has to take place in order to narrow the problem down. Your bike did run ok for the first 2 miles right? Run the Seafoam.

BTW, if you are running the bike with the intakes off, most carbs will spit a little out of the inlets.

When you cleaned out the carbs, did you strip them right down. Did you disturb the float height if you had them apart?

Gregger is correct so eliminate the small stuff first.

To answer your question you can burn a valve by running too lean or having an intake leak for too long. You can bend one buy setting the cam timing wrong. Those are the most common or likely.If you had more miles I would suggest a few others.

Thank you Gregger and Ian. I will run the sea foam today. My new K&N fuel filter came so I'll install that too. And then I'll tear into the carbs again. I'd say it is pretty unlikely to be the valves. I've never had it pulled apart to work on the cams and the only time it would have run lean was the stock set up.

I don't have any suggestions for ya but just wanted to say, Geeze... this has got to be frustrating for ya!!