View Single Post
Old 05-17-2009, 09:56 AM   #9
mrlmd1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Crawfordville, Florida
Posts: 2,853
Re: starting and backfire problems

Both of these bikes sitting for a few years may just have dirty gummed up carbs from old evaporated gas. If they were running before they sat, there is no reason to start messing with idle set screws and other adjustments.
First off, the old gas should be dumped, emptied completely, not mixed with additives or new gas. You are just diluting the new gas with old crap. You may also have some water from condensation and crud in the bottom of the tank from sitting so long.
A good dose of carb cleaner should be run through, given time to soak, maybe for a whole day or two, then emptied out from the bottom of the carb. Running it through in the gas as you try and get the bike running may not be sufficient to clean it out. After the carb is cleaned, then put in new fresh gas and try to start it. If that doesn't work, the carb may have to come off and be more thoroughly cleaned.
The bike runs on 87 octane, anything higher is no benefit and may make it run worse.
The three things that make an engine run are air, fuel, and spark.
In this case if the air filter is clean, there is a spark as would be expected, the problem is in the fuel delivery and the dirty carb and old gas is the most likely offender. Adjusting other things at this point may just compound your problem and make it harder to solve and fix.
mrlmd1 is offline  
Reply With Quote