I'm a new rider and I'm having some problems with my 96' CBR 600 F3...

I left it sitting for a month. It had a hard time starting and holding an idle. I checked the battery- which was fine. I drained the tank. I put in 91 octane in it and added the appropriate amount of Sea Foam (~1oz per gallon). While the tank was off I also dusted off my air filter which was pretty clean regardless. After starting the bike, it was still difficult for it to stay on without the choke on. And when the choke is on it idles quite high. I'm also worried because the sea foam didn't smoke out my exhaust after running it for a while. So I'm letting it sit for the next few days to move around the bike.

I'm going to check the spark plugs next, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Is there something else that I'm neglecting to check that I should?

Also, my throttle sticks sometimes. Could that be a contributing factor?

 

did you check the idle adjuster thingy next tothe fuel switch?

for the stickythrottle back out the screw holding the bar end and see if that helps

 

some of the questions in these threads are getting ridiculous

 

I actually have fiddled with it when the bike was warmed up. The **** isn't adjusting properly. It catches a steady idle after 3000 and under 1100-1000, which makes it idle rough. This is why I'm thinking throttle is sticking?

I'm so new with this all I'd appreciate any help at all. Thank you so much!

 

Throttle and Idle are two completely different things, if your throttle was sticking you'd notice a problem when riding the bike also. Set your idle at 1700...let me know what happens...its a tad higher than factory spec but a lot of f2/f3 riders like it there. I think that if the Idle cable works at all...then its not your problem....may be something carb related, can't really make a honest guess without more info.
Seafoam doesn't smoke too bad if at all when in your gas tank...its when you use a crankcase treatment that it smokes like hell...i wouldn't suggest going that far with seafoam. When your choke is on...it will idle high until its warm enough to run fine then it should start to drop down, thats when you take the choke off. Sounds like you may need to tear your carbs down and clean them...there is a tutorial on the site on how to do so. Trouble starting could indicate a choke problem, but when you add the trouble running that makes me think carb problem, it also wouldn't hurt to check things like the petcock and fuel filter...

 

Mine kind of sounded like your problem. I would have to roll the throttle when starting and keep it reved until there was a steady idle set, I was also running my bike at near full choke. Idk if it was my R/R (because that went bad the next day) or my idle **** (which was VERY loose, which I tightened completely during the time I was waiting on a new R/R) but it has no problems now. Used to drop in rpms before building, now it's just fine, steady climb all the way. Turn your idle **** all the way clockwise, it could be too loose, once in the correct position (all the way tightened) loosen it a little (counterclockwise) but JUST a little. After that, clockwise makes the idle lower, counterclockwise makes it higher, this may or may not be the problem, just a suggestion.

 

your problem will only be resolved by properly removing and cleaning the carburetors. to me, it sounds like the idle jets are plugged up or dirty.

 

what your doing when you adjust that is opening up the throttle plates, hence opening up the main jets a little. Once they turn off it drops down to 1100-1000 as you say. I do believe your idle jets are in need of cleaning. In the how to section there is a carb thread, skip everything else besides cleaning the bowls out and the idle jets. I made a post on the bottom of the first page on how to clean those jets. after this is done you should be good.