hello everybody. thanks to those giving feedback with ideas when i last posted about 2 weeks ago w/ bad idle/carb problems. pulled plugs again and good. synched carbs and good. fuel pump is good. someone suggested maybe vallve adjustment to get bike running correct. has 26k(2000 F4). did compression test. manual says 178 psi. cylinders 1,2,3,4 were 170, 170,150,170. how much variance(psi) is allowed, is this a tell tale sign of needing valve adjustment, could it still be fuel/carb related? how much does an honest valve adj run?. thanks again for any useful info...

 

The usual forgiveness rate is 10 percent across all cylinders. Your 150 cylinder is out more than 10 percent, and should be a warning sign of something wrong. Worn rings, scored cylinder wall, or potentially a valve that isnt closing all the way, or is staying open too long. Did you do a leak down test? A leak down test will show more conclusively is its a valve staying open or not.

Considering your idle problem, I would lean towards the valve being out of adjustment, or potentially damaged.

Im not sure how much an adjustment will run, but I think somewhere around 3-400 would be a fair price to pay a dealership. they are not too difficult to check, but the labor goes up if they have to adjust any. In your case, it may be as little as one adjustment and 15 checked, or they could all need adjustment. Also, they may charge a flat rate to it.

the best bet you could do is call around and see what they are charging.

 

The other day I had the same kinda problem. My choke lever worked great but when I took the tank and air box off, I found the mechanism connected to the throttle body where the choke cable connects to, stuck closed. A lil WD-40, then a good press w/ a flat head opened it back up. Sprayed it a couple more times then proceeded to open and close it repeatedly (no power to bike) till I was satisfied in it's operation. After that I had to adjust the idle because it was adjusted before to compensate for the unknown choke issue. Bike's runnin like a champ now, even with the new inadvertant cruise control install

Might not be your problem but I'm sure at this point it's a good area to check into.