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I'm sick of this bike!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter kvgarrison
  • Start date Start date
K

kvgarrison

Guest
Can anybody tell me if they have actually had these problems, my bike is now doing exactly the same thing it was doing before Ispent all this time and money repairing or replacing everything on it:confused:

I think it started for me last night just because it is the devil and wants to break me, but now it is right back to not starting at all, an occassional poot but no fire over, right back to the beginning and I have no clue, I'm very frustrated, if anybody wants to read my posts and come back with any help I'd appreciate it, otherwise does anybody want buy a nonrunning bike for $3000.00 cuz that's what I got into it now!
 
KV how much fuel is in the tank. When I have problems with my bike I like to have at least 1 gallon of fuel in it. Recently my bike would not start and although I could hear gas sloshing around in the tank it did not have enough to start, added a gallon and it fired up right away.
 
the tank is almost full, the last thing I could think of and did'nt know if it was relevant is that the seal at the gas cap is cracked, it is the only thing that is not properly sealed. BTW the rack you sold me cleaned up really nice and looks great on this beautiful stationary bike
 
Hi Friend,

We all want to be there to hekp you, and to enjoy your bike for the
time and expense you invested in. Please reply with more symptoms,
more specifics, more problems, and how it reacts.

We can't help you without any issues addressed !! We need more
diagnostics of the root causes and we will gladly address them for
you.

:-D\\:D/
 
You wanna hold off for a week or so? I am going to be travelling through your area toward the end of the month and can stop by, if you want. 8-[
 
How about a full summary of everything you have done along with a description of what the problem is (either fuel or spark).

Don't give up.
 
Honestly dude we have all been there. These are old bikes, they will always need work. Like harleys ;) Try and be specific as to whats going on and we will all try and help. A video on you tube might help too.
 
i'm feeling your pain. i am about to give up on mine too. can i get more money by parting it out, do ya think? sad, cause it has run "well" for 4 years, before i started fixing things. oh well.
 
How about a full summary of everything you have done along with a description of what the problem is (either fuel or spark).

Don't give up.

OK, as I've said in my other posts ever since I bought this bike last year it would not start cold, I could crank it all day, choke, no choke, throttle no throttle, sometimes it would on a hot day, most of the time it would not. I still got 2000 miles on it last year cuz there wer enough warm days to start it and I never sat anywhere long enough to let it get totally cold.

I figured I'd wait until it got cold in the season to start troubleshooting the problem but as I've said before I am not a mechanic, evry bike I've ever owned got gas and Oil and started and I drove them. Ieven worked as the repo man from 95-97 so I repo'd and rode evrything under the sun during those years.
Anyway, started asking questions on this site and just started replacing stuff, here's the list...

New ignition coils, wires, caps and plugs
New battery
Cleaned all connections and used dielectric grease
Replaced "burned" connectors to stator, checked stator, seemed OK
Replaced Reg/Rec
New K&N air filter
Rebuilt airbox as described by Bwringer with weatherstripping
All newclamps for carbs, intake and airbox side
New intake boots and O-rings
Took apart and cleaned petcock
New fuel line, vacuum line, and breather lines from breather t's in carbs
All new orings for carbs
rebuilt carbs according to the papers on this site
( this was after I had the local bike shop "rebuild them" who told me they went through them twice and oit was blatantly obvious when I rebuilt them that they were probably never even opened up or someone just pulled the diaphrams and sprayed some carb cleaner in them)

I have adjusted the valve clearances and set the looser rather than tighter as this site has suggested.
I have not done a compression test because I do not have the equiptment.

The bike started last night after I set back the idle speed screw to almost not touching at all, and it finally fired!!
I let it run until it warmed up and then set the idle to 1000 RPM warm and took it out for a ride in the freezing rain for about five minutes.
Brought it home, let it sit overnight, changed the headlight this afternoon and figured it was'nt raining, why not take it for a spin before I change the oil and the nasty thing would not start, I got fuel and I know I'm flooding it because I smell it, it's got spark and correct time because it ran last night. The battery is brand new and is always hardwired on my Tender Junior when it's parked in the garage so I don't know.
I'm not doing anything with this bike until I get some idea as to why this is happening, it is beyond my ability at this point and it is very frustrating to do all this work only to be exactly where I started less several hundred dollars in parts and hours and hours of my time freezing my a** off in my garage.

I think the only thing I have'nt replaced or rebuilt is the stator and the motor. This just is'nt fun or funny anymore:(
 
You said you rebuilt the carbs, after you rebuilt them did you balance them and set the mixture screw properly using a color tune or highest rpm method?

When its flooding and not starting did you pull a plug and see if you were getting spark?
 
You said you rebuilt the carbs, after you rebuilt them did you balance them and set the mixture screw properly using a color tune or highest rpm method?

When its flooding and not starting did you pull a plug and see if you were getting spark?

I am getting spark and I don't know what a color tune.
My air mixture screws are set at two and a half turns out from hand tight.
I did not balance them at all, I was planning on borrowing a friends carb sync guages but the thing will not even start so highest RPM is out of the question.
 
You wanna hold off for a week or so? I am going to be travelling through your area toward the end of the month and can stop by, if you want. 8-[

I would love for anyone to stop by anytime, I welcome all the help I can get.
 
OK. So your plugs are wet so they are getting fuel, you have tested for sparkm and you get some. So perhaps your air isnt right? Turn your mixture screw in then back it out to three full turns on all 4. No matter how sure you are its already out 2.5 just to be safe screw them back in the back out 3 full turns to be sure.

It will be rich of course but if air is your issue it should start. You didnt take your cams out at all did you?
 
OK. So your plugs are wet so they are getting fuel, you have tested for sparkm and you get some. So perhaps your air isnt right? Turn your mixture screw in then back it out to three full turns on all 4. No matter how sure you are its already out 2.5 just to be safe screw them back in the back out 3 full turns to be sure.

It will be rich of course but if air is your issue it should start. You didnt take your cams out at all did you?

No I did not take the cams out so my timing is not 180 degrees off, is that what you were getting at?
 
OK. So your plugs are wet so they are getting fuel, you have tested for sparkm and you get some. So perhaps your air isnt right? Turn your mixture screw in then back it out to three full turns on all 4. No matter how sure you are its already out 2.5 just to be safe screw them back in the back out 3 full turns to be sure.

It will be rich of course but if air is your issue it should start. You didnt take your cams out at all did you?

Just went out ans set the air mix screws in and backed them out to three turns, set the choke to full[-o< and she fired right over!!! Let her warm up, had to reset the idle speed back down to 1000RPM and set the air mix out another half turn to 3 1/2 turns and she seems to run better, won't know for sure until tomorrow but I'll let you know.
Can't tell you how many times you guys have kept me from GS suicide. Of course it probably does'nt help that God gave me all my brains to build houses, not bikes, but I'm hoping there's a noodle or two left to learn more about these bikes.
 
Hate to say it but the mixture screws are not sensitive to the point that 1/2 turn determines whether or not the bike should start. Most likely the problem will come back...but hears to hoping!!!:)

Honestly, poor starting is often caused by poor compression. Get your self a tester and do the test with a warm engine and the throttle wide open. Another possibility is the ignitor - poor spark. Is the spark bright or does it look weak? Hope you don't need to go there but something to think about.
 
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I've been there dude. I've been in the same boat as you many times. I even lost my nerve and offered to sell a bike I had $4000 in for $600 all because it would die at highway speeds. ...In the end it was because of a kinked fuel line. But it wasn't the first time I almost gave up. What kind of voltage are you getting at the coils? Maybe try the coil relay mod? It's super cheap, and it doesn't hurt to do anyway. I like to take as much work off the stock wiring harness as I possibly can.
 
Find a good Catholic minister and have an exorcism. :-D

Hang in there, buddy. You'll get it worked out. If Steve is willing to stop by, he'll be a big help.
 
the long list of the new parts you installed is definitely going to add up to a fine running bike, so hang in there

however, to prevent chaising your tail i suggest you attend to the following
check the charging system so you re confident you re getting all the juice from your battery when cranking - espec important on cold days
check the voltage you re getting at the coils - the same reason as above
check engine compression (with your valves in spec) - if you dont want to buy a tester a shop can do this for you in 10min
once you have the bike running adjust the mixture screws as per the highest rpm method
sync the carbs


keep us posted
 
I think you must have a weak spark,most engines i've tried to start have fired right up when i poured some gas down the intake or plug hole.You say you can smell gas,you know the timing is right because it runs if only you can get it started.You have changed the coils,but have you taken a look on the rest of the system?It can be a malfunction in an electronic component,but it doesn't have to be that bad.Some component is poorly grounded or a connector has a bad connection.Take them all apart,and use some sandpaper and wd-40 on them,even if they look fine.Also look at the crank trigger,maybe sanding the rust of its tip is enough.My friend once had a gt 100 on which he replaced the coil and afterwards the bike wouldn't run at all,despite spark.For unknown reasons the spark was weak,but he wanted a ride so bad,so he came up with the idea of making the plug gap smaller so the spark would jump the gap easier.Perhaps a crazy idea,but it worked!The bike fired right up and saved his day.The spark should be bluish-purple and so strong it's visible in any light.If it's more white-orange and flickers around on the electrodes it's probably too weak.
 
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