Posted by Max on March 31, 2003 at 20:12:56:
In Reply to: some dumb questions posted by Stinger on March 31, 2003 at 11:26:52:
Re squeal, try moving the throttle to float (no power or compression) position and see if the noise changes or goes away. If so look to the drive belt adjustment. I've been dealing with the belt squeal on mine. Had alot of movement laterally in the rear sprocket so changed the drive cushions, ($45) 18k miles, and have finally got the belt so is stays centered on the front and rear pulleys most of the time. Under a load (acceleration) is squeaks a tiny bit but not on decel. Like Frank says, starting in second will be harder on your clutch and may cause a stall when you least expect it. Jetting may end up to be an individual blike thing, the factory gets to average emissions for the feds. So some may be lean while others may be almost rich and the average still comes out. The part of the spark plug you want to look at is the center insulator. Depending on the fuel additives, it will give you an idea of combustion temperatures and air/fuel mixture. Trick is to get a reading at various speeds and loads, not easy to do w/o a dyno. the method was to run at the engine speed you wanted to check and as simuilatouesly as possible cut the igntion and pull in the clutch so the engine stops.Wait for it too cool enough to pull the plug and read it make any changes and do another run. Often times the process drew the law and you had some explaining to do. I'm running a lower than stock restriction HD muffler, but still fully baffled (on a 96) and the main jet is stock and the white spacer is in, but the pilot jet has been changed in mine (larger I'm sure) as I idle well at 1.5 turns out on the mixture screw.When I was running a SuperTrapp, I took out the spacer, and it was way to rich, luckily I had not lost it and was able to go back to stock. As I remeber the ST with 4 discs doesn't require re-jetting. Also look back at the Hartman mods on this forum, I don't think it required rejetting either. Top and cruising speeds are personal things, mine will run over 80 easy, put I don't like to go that fast, reflexes are slower at 61 and body heals slower in a get off. I don't even like to run a car at 80. Mine will run fine up to indicated 65, bigger back tire so speedo is a tad slow and the engine is happy there. Give yourself a chance to get used to the bike before you start making changes and try to set aside the hours to look at all the posts on this forum as they will answer most of your questions. Ptint the ones that interest you so you won't have to dig them out again. Max