Posted by Tim Schroeder on July 12, 2001 at 20:45:06:
Hey all,
Recently I've been having some weird stuff happen when I begin a ride. Since the bike was new, I've always had to pull the choke out one click to start it (normal Michigan summer temperature ranges) and ride for a few miles until the engine really warmed up, then I'd push the choke back in and all would be well. I attributed this to lean OEM settings, etc., and thought nothing of it. Now, when I do this same procedure, the engine seems to have power then acts like it doesn't, sorta like somebody is "pushing" the bike backwards while it tries to go forward. All of this goes away once the engine is good and hot, but the pattern changed this year and I wondered if anybody had any ideas.
The factory manual talks about too much oil in the "Engine has no power" section of the troubleshooting chapter which causes too much back pressure and forces the mixture backwards out of the carb into the airbox, but it's right at the Full mark, just like it's been after every oil change. None of the other troubleshooting stuff seems to match the problem. The valves and compression release cable are adjusted correctly, and all seems kosher as to the rest of the engine/battery/carb, etc. I don't ride the bike hard, either.
I've noticed the carb icing comments on this forum, and they seem to indicate the same stuff that's happening to my machine, but I thought it strange that for the last three years riding seasons everything worked like a clock and this year I've had problems. One recent night, the same stuff was happening but this time the thing quit running altogether and would NOT start and I had to push it home, fortunately I was only a mile from my house. Even though it only weights 352lbs, pushing this bike a mile was not too much fun, especially up hills. At least it was late at night and nobody saw me doing it, except the police. They just stared, shook their heads and laughed! Yeah, real funny ha ha.
Has anybody installed an extra inline fuel filter on their bikes? Do you think it's needed?
Hope everybody's having a good riding season this summer!
Tim