Ever since the weather got warm I've been dealing with an erratic idle. The bike would run fine on the expressway but as soon as I'd get into traffic or any kind of slow stuff it would heat up past the midpoint and start missing. It would actually stall if you didn't blip the throttle or kick up the idle to 1,500 or so. Obviously this was no good so I figured I better fix it!
First thing I did yesterday was flush the coolant. Who knows how old that was, I replaced with cheap green stuff and distilled water at 50/50. Rode around; overheating seems to be in check but I still had a crappy idle. In fact today I hopped off the expressway after running a glorious 200 mile incident free time just to have her die suddenly at a stop sign!
Got home and pulled the carbs. Needles looked clean, choke operates beautifully. I pulled the bowls, I'm running 122 mains and 40 slows (stock I believe). So I pulled the jets and ran wire though them along with some Berryman chem dip and reinstalled. I then pulled the idle screws and did the same thing. I set them at 4 turns out to compensate for the straight yoshis that are currently on. They were at 3.
Reinstall, fire it up and cruise time! She seems 95% better, not perfect but a lot better. Time will tell. I wonder if some 125 main jets would be beneficial?
Anyway if anyone is having these issues give that a shot. Really just general maintenance on an old machine, there really wasn't just one thing wrong, just a bit of neglect.

 

New front brake pads today. EBC HH F142's. These are the first set of HH I've had in it so will be interested to see how they go with these old calipers. I really got my moneys worth out of the old ones....lol. Should've been changed a few km back......

 

Put a set of Givi Trekkers on my 93 ( got them for another bike ) to see how'd
they'd look - well took them back off in two minutes - looked like a bad clone of
Optimus Prime

Worked well on the other bike tho.

 

Since your running straight pipes your going to need to rejet. Bike bandit.com (no affiliation) has a stage one dyno jet kit. Comes with 125's and 128's if I remember correctly. Also comes with new needles and springs. I would most definitely check into it. Send me a pm if you need help finding it on have questions.

 

Oil & Filter change: trying out Shell Rotella Diesel Engine 5w40.
It's Motorcycle Engine Approved.

Ordered new O-rings for the cooling system joints on the L&R sides of the head and the pipes on the front of the cylinders (which are all weeping coolant. I should have them by next Wednesday. Also, I use the Honda Pre-mixed 50/50 Coolant.

 

The yoshis came with the bike. I'm going back to stock cans asap, hopefully tomorrow if the weather holds off! I'm swapping with a forum member a couple hours ride away from me.
Too bad nobody ever rejets when they put on free flowing cans though. You're right, it is necessary. It's so easy on these bikes too. Pulling the carbs probably takes me 6 minutes on this whereas my cb550 can take 30 what w/ the tight airbox! I had my carbs installed, test ran the bike, pulled, tweaked and put back on within 40 minutes on the CBR. So nice - it's like they're just made to be tuned!

 

Wouldn't say that man - My two that have full flow cans have been rejetted
and I know of a few more that have done likewise as we bought the jet kits
from CarbJets.com for a lot less than those DynoJet kits etc. go for.


Today I have some wheel rim refinishing on the go with the set of wheels I
picked up from MalboJah last year - came with some decent Shinko rubber
with a good bit of meat still left on them

 

Is it carbjetkits.com? Nice site and cheap! I may go that route.

Look up carbjets.com though, it's a hilariously fake website about some nondescript company

 

Found my lower fairing left side had broken lugs so fiberglassed it to the upper panel on both sides. Nice and solid now.

Had a nasty fuel leak, tank has been damaged by the guy doing the repair (eek) so I don't know what it will look like when it is returned. Needed to be resprayed.

Hope every thing will fit now as he had to remove the bottom of the tank to recoat the interior.

I see a fight looming ..................will keep you posted.

 

I had been smelling some coolant orders lately. Today pulled the plastic and found the head pipe nuts on #1 slightly wet. Hummmmm!

Everything looked OK on the left side with my super-duper magnifying glasses on and my super-duper high intensity flashlight. Went over to the right side and the top of the radiator had some coolant on it. Apparently the coolant flows across the top, right to left, when the bike is on side stand.

The lower hose below the radiator cap was about hand tight. I guess I didn't tighten it about 30k miles ago when I did my CCT and had to pull the radiator back because I dropped a nut in the motor (another story).

Also pressure washed the front of the motor to get years a crap off.

Replaced the radiator cap with a ToughOne part #10233 from Advanced Auto. I noticed it was the same one on my 2005 Subaru and told them that I needed the Subaru one.

Same as a Stant cap #10233 that fits many many radiators.