starting engine/idle speed
starting engine/idle speed
Here's the description of my situation:
-motor is getting spark, compression, gas, all that jazz.
-when i would start the bike, it would rev up and hold constant at about 7k-8k rpms and hold/slightly begin to drop. I thought this was obviously because I needed to adjust my throttle stop screw so I would back the screw off. The rpm's would begin to drop, idle really rough, then stall out.
-At this point I thought I just needed to back my idle way down (i'm a bonehead and pretty sure I messed up my idle the other day, so i was certain it was turned up very high) so I began dropping the idle slowly and the bike finally made it to idle at around 1.5k rpms, but it still idled very rough and would usually stall out on it's own or would stall out if any throttle was applied.
-The bike was warm from all the high rpm's earlier so i figured the motor was still just getting too much gas so I backed off the idle some more and it seemed to idle fine, and the throttle seemed responsive.
-went to take it out and test. put the bike in gear and rpm's would seem normal but not smooth throttle. pull in clutch to go to neutral and the engine speed shot up to 7k-9k rpm's. So i held that clutch for dear life and hit the kill switch. Repeated the process several times with the same result.
-after all this, I assumed the idle was still set too high, so I backed off the idle more. After that, the bike wouldn't ever start.
-walked the bike back the .1 mile to my house, tried to reset the idle adjustment by backing the throttle stop screw all the way out. found out that the throttle stop screw will come all the way out if you screw far enough.
2 questions now:
-what could be my engine speed problem?
-what's the easiest way to re-install my throttle stop screw?
-motor is getting spark, compression, gas, all that jazz.
-when i would start the bike, it would rev up and hold constant at about 7k-8k rpms and hold/slightly begin to drop. I thought this was obviously because I needed to adjust my throttle stop screw so I would back the screw off. The rpm's would begin to drop, idle really rough, then stall out.
-At this point I thought I just needed to back my idle way down (i'm a bonehead and pretty sure I messed up my idle the other day, so i was certain it was turned up very high) so I began dropping the idle slowly and the bike finally made it to idle at around 1.5k rpms, but it still idled very rough and would usually stall out on it's own or would stall out if any throttle was applied.
-The bike was warm from all the high rpm's earlier so i figured the motor was still just getting too much gas so I backed off the idle some more and it seemed to idle fine, and the throttle seemed responsive.
-went to take it out and test. put the bike in gear and rpm's would seem normal but not smooth throttle. pull in clutch to go to neutral and the engine speed shot up to 7k-9k rpm's. So i held that clutch for dear life and hit the kill switch. Repeated the process several times with the same result.
-after all this, I assumed the idle was still set too high, so I backed off the idle more. After that, the bike wouldn't ever start.
-walked the bike back the .1 mile to my house, tried to reset the idle adjustment by backing the throttle stop screw all the way out. found out that the throttle stop screw will come all the way out if you screw far enough.
2 questions now:
-what could be my engine speed problem?
-what's the easiest way to re-install my throttle stop screw?
Ok, got my throttle stop screw fixed. Now as it sits, the bike will start once, hold steady at 4k on its own for about 30 seconds, then slowly start backing down to idle really rough at about 1k. It will idle rough for about 10 seconds, then stall. I'll try to restart it and it will idle rough for about 5 seconds, then stall. No clue where to go from here. Thinking about running some seafoam through it just to see where it gets me.
Replaced the R/R today and the R/R plug into the harness. I figured out the bike will start and seemingly run fine as long as it is not leaned over on the kick stand. but when it is leaned over on the kickstand, it starts to idle rough and bog down and stall out. Come on guys, I know at least one of you can help me out.
have you worked on the carbs? are your throttle cables hooked up correctly? any kinks or binds to the cables? is the throttle all the way back? is the choke on?
..just some things i would be looking at..
..just some things i would be looking at..
haven't worked on the carbs. throttle cables haven't been tampered with other than just recently when i lubricated them. yes, i know how to work the choke
So i decided to take a step back and just think about any changes i've made to the bike since i bought it, and the only changes I made were to fix a leaky petcock. So i pulled the tank up just a bit to make sure there were no binds in any of the fuel lines or vacuum lines. I made one little adjustment to a vacuum line just to make sure. I also replaced the R/R and plug with new ones. And I also put some Seafoam in the tank just to see if that'd help at all. Called my mechanic buddy who restores classic american cars and deals with carbs all day. He said it seemed like I needed to adjust the float level in my carbs. Went ahead and started it up and it kept doing the same things as before: held at 4k/5k till warm, then backed down to idle around 1k really rough. But now it wasn't stalling out, and it all of a sudden started idling correctly after about 10 minutes. I let it idle for about 10-15 more minutes while cracking the throttle open every so often and it seemed to work just fine. Just took it out on a 4 mile test ride and it seemed to work just fine. Don't really know what problem I fixed, but it seems it got fixed somehow. I'll give a progress report if something happens.
So i decided to take a step back and just think about any changes i've made to the bike since i bought it, and the only changes I made were to fix a leaky petcock. So i pulled the tank up just a bit to make sure there were no binds in any of the fuel lines or vacuum lines. I made one little adjustment to a vacuum line just to make sure. I also replaced the R/R and plug with new ones. And I also put some Seafoam in the tank just to see if that'd help at all. Called my mechanic buddy who restores classic american cars and deals with carbs all day. He said it seemed like I needed to adjust the float level in my carbs. Went ahead and started it up and it kept doing the same things as before: held at 4k/5k till warm, then backed down to idle around 1k really rough. But now it wasn't stalling out, and it all of a sudden started idling correctly after about 10 minutes. I let it idle for about 10-15 more minutes while cracking the throttle open every so often and it seemed to work just fine. Just took it out on a 4 mile test ride and it seemed to work just fine. Don't really know what problem I fixed, but it seems it got fixed somehow. I'll give a progress report if something happens.
Last edited by stevieb615; Jun 19, 2012 at 12:39 PM. Reason: i forget things, this is a long story.
haven't worked on the carbs. throttle cables haven't been tampered with other than just recently when i lubricated them. yes, i know how to work the choke
So i decided to take a step back and just think about any changes i've made to the bike since i bought it, and the only changes I made were to fix a leaky petcock. So i pulled the tank up just a bit to make sure there were no binds in any of the fuel lines or vacuum lines. I made one little adjustment to a vacuum line just to make sure. I also replaced the R/R and plug with new ones. And I also put some Seafoam in the tank just to see if that'd help at all. Called my mechanic buddy who restores classic american cars and deals with carbs all day. He said it seemed like I needed to adjust the float level in my carbs. Went ahead and started it up and it kept doing the same things as before: held at 4k/5k till warm, then backed down to idle around 1k really rough. But now it wasn't stalling out, and it all of a sudden started idling correctly after about 10 minutes. I let it idle for about 10-15 more minutes while cracking the throttle open every so often and it seemed to work just fine. Just took it out on a 4 mile test ride and it seemed to work just fine. Don't really know what problem I fixed, but it seems it got fixed somehow. I'll give a progress report if something happens.
So i decided to take a step back and just think about any changes i've made to the bike since i bought it, and the only changes I made were to fix a leaky petcock. So i pulled the tank up just a bit to make sure there were no binds in any of the fuel lines or vacuum lines. I made one little adjustment to a vacuum line just to make sure. I also replaced the R/R and plug with new ones. And I also put some Seafoam in the tank just to see if that'd help at all. Called my mechanic buddy who restores classic american cars and deals with carbs all day. He said it seemed like I needed to adjust the float level in my carbs. Went ahead and started it up and it kept doing the same things as before: held at 4k/5k till warm, then backed down to idle around 1k really rough. But now it wasn't stalling out, and it all of a sudden started idling correctly after about 10 minutes. I let it idle for about 10-15 more minutes while cracking the throttle open every so often and it seemed to work just fine. Just took it out on a 4 mile test ride and it seemed to work just fine. Don't really know what problem I fixed, but it seems it got fixed somehow. I'll give a progress report if something happens.
glad to hear its riding..but that high idle is definitely not normal..
Progress report. Something is definitely still up. I was messing around with random things just to see what happens. It seems that it will start every time and run fine when the gas tank is tilted in a downward position towards the handlebars (raising the rear of the tank.). I did that multiple times and it seemed to work. I always noticed that when I somewhat jar the bike back and forth, it seems to want to start, but just stalls. Any thoughts anyone? Also, once the bike is started and warmed up, it runs great, doesn't stall and seems normal.
been inspecting my factory service manual for the past couple of days. does the fact that I have nothing in line with the fuel line between the petcock and the carbs a problem?
there should be the pump and a filter. but i dont see either of those missing causing the unexplained high revs..