Indeed I have not ever cleaned the carbs of this bike, nor any bike that has more than one.

It did run fine in the garage at one time but at the time it didn`t have a muffler on. Gotta pull the plugs when I have the time and see what`s what, wouldn`t want to take it apart again but don`t have much options...

 

Man, she looks great. Might have to take the ferry to Finland to check her out .

 

Thanks man! It`s 252km to Turku from here so technically at some point of the summer it could be possible to come meet up with you, although i`d have to know pretty far ahead...

 

awesome bike man....but snow driving makes my rear end pucker

 

JNS: sea foam is not being sold here, but we do have brands like CRC, Fortè, liqui moly etc, would some of them have something similiar, was thinking about if i could use injector cleaner instead.
And can someone remember the NGK spark plug "code" so i could go get new ones without first ripping the bike apart?

 

The plugs if I remember correctly are ngk cr9eh9. I'd have to pull the tail off my bike and look at the sticker to be positive.

 

So that IS right... I actually googled it already but thought that cant be right cause it's the only ngk plug i've ever seen that ends with a number. I remember those were pretty tricky to find here and a bit on the expensive side but if i pull the old ones I'm not taking any risks having to do it again and might as well swap them in the process. Thanks!

 

I had a chat with some friends today about the running problem and they all thought that it`s because of the gas has stood in the carbs forming little deposit and cristals in the jets, because it occasionally shoots into the pipe it seems it`s running too lean which would suit the problem, so I went to a local service shop to ask their opinion and if they had Seafoam, they hadn`t ever even heard of it but when I explained what it is and does they said the closest thing they have is this:


Pro Honda Fuel Stabiliser. This should prevent deposits from forming and should dissolve some of the possible ones already there. I made a mix in the tank, drove a small distance with the petcock turned shut so I get the carbs to empty up, opened it to let the mix in and let it sit in the yard till tomorrow. Here`s hoping it`ll help, but the service guy wasn`t exactly promising it will... The new ethanol gas we have to use here is told to have a storage life of only two months after which it starts to gunk up. I`ll know tomorrow if it did anything or not, if it doesn`t help I`m probably gonna have to clean the carbs... Sure am gonna use that stuff from now on in the winter...

Was just thinking that basically the only way to get stuff going through the jets without taking it apart is driving it, will I be asking for trouble like burned valves or other failure if I run it too lean?

 

Without a doubt, running too lean, for too long, can lead to other problems.
Now I know you don't want to hear this, but the only way to truly get all the fueling circuits really clean, is to do a thorough carb cleaning... knowing that it's never been done, aren't you excited to see how well it might run when finished? Not to mention, what if you get in there, and find that you've had main jets that vibrated loose, and are have been just sittin' in the fuel bowls all this time, or find that your pilot screws are all out of adjustment!

Now another thing I'm concerned with is the ethanol in the fuel - ethanol does not play well with powersports motors... is there a place where you can get fuel without ethanol?

 

Nope, both qualities sold here contains hooch, I guess the safer option would be the 98E5 with 5% alcohol, but A) it`s ridiculously expensive, something around 1,80EUR/litre and B) I tested it several times last summer and the 95E10 gives more power.

The thorough cleaning would most probably be the way to go, might as well jet it while I`m at it, there`s just one major issue: lack of free time... IF I get it running without doing it I solemnly swear to do it over the next winter, if not, then I just got to find the time and not drive it before it...