Well, after some searching through the board I was not able to find any other riders with a similar issue...how lucky am I. Anyway, I am the original owner of a '94 California model that has been giving me some grief, probably due to excessive sitting in the garage.

Anyway, I seem to have two separate issues, but I am willing to bet that they both come down to the same overall problem. On full choke my bike will rev immediately to between 4K-5K and will sometimes eventually climb to 6K. However, once it is warm and I try to ride the idle is not sufficient enough to get the bike moving without considerable feathering of the throttle and clutch. Much more than usual anyway. Not to mention, my inline 4 sounds more like a v-twin. Once underway, the bike is just fine and power output seems to be normal. I have had it in the shop a couple times, but neither trip was worth the money spent.

I understand the theory behind what is going on to get everything in motion, but I am not skilled in the way of repair. Does anyone by chance have any idea what may be my problem in order to possibly point me in the right direction. Thank you.

 

I am NOT a carb expert, but the Seafoam or similar fuel-additive carb cleaner is a good starting place to fix what ails you. It's reasonably cheap (about $10 a can), does a good job and is often the cure for a variety of performance issues. It also won't HURT anything to try it.

Ern

 

Well, when you say it sat in a garage for a while and it bogs at low throttle but is ok at higher throttle, I would think your pilot circuit is gummed up. The "running on two cylinders" sound is definitely cause for concern as well. Have you checked your plugs? They could be fouling out at low rpms, then getting burned off when you really hit the throttle.

Explain your problem again as thorough as possible. Did the shop you took it to tell you what they did to it?

 

I think that his two cylinder issue could very well be associated to plugged pilot jets. It idles on two cylinders because two aren't getting any fuel.

I am not a big fan of sea foam but am willing to bet the issue is in your carbs. Good cleaning will fix the problem.

By good cleaning i mean really good cleaning. Make sure you have a compressor when you do it.

 

Okay, I will definitely check out the sea foam cleaner for starters. As far as sitting, I would ride it 2-3 times a month, but I have also been out of town for 15 months of the last 30 months, so it hasn't even been started while I have been gone.

One thing that I noticed for sure, on my way home today, it ran alot smoother and idled much better. Naturally, continued riding like today is called for along with the cleaner, to find out for sure.

How are would it be for someone like myself, a non-mechanic, to clean out the carbs. I am not against doing it, but I don't want to make it worse or not work at all.

The last time at the shop was last fall, I know they did an oil change and a few other things along with looking into my issue, but I would have to find the bill to know for sure.

Thanks for the ideas...keep them coming.

 

If you pay attention to details and dont rush anything you will be all good. If you get frustrated easily then dont do it.

First problem you might run into is pulling the carbs off. It takes some people few days if they are doing it for the first time and the carbs have never been pulled off before. This is the first hard step.

Next tip is to do one carb at the time. There is a tons of pieces and it is a good practice to put them back where they came from.

 

Well, I picked up a couple cans of Seafoam and will put them in my next two tanks. If they don't do the trick and are still in need of carb work I will let you know. Thanks for the info.

 

^^^Holy hell!!! you only need to run at most half a can per tank

 

Glad you mentioned that I probably would have blindly put the whole can in the tank. The can actually says "average 1 oz per gallon" which means I have enough for 8 tanks of gas. So, this begs the question, what is the typical amount added to a normal motorcycle tank? Just asking out of curiosity.