Okay, here's the problem. I'll be riding for a while and come to a stop and the bike will die. I'll try to restart it and all it will do is backfire. Sometimes it will start for a second, go to maybe 2000 RPM and then just die again. Also, sometimes this will happen when I'm in second gear, going about 10 miles an hour, at relatively low RPM's. I'll just be driving along and boom it dies, usually with a loud backfire. This is become quite the problem because the bike is my only mode of transport, not to mention the fact that it seems to die when I'm at a stoplight on like an 8 lane road with busy rush hour traffic. Usually I have to wait like 10 minutes and the bike will restart, with some effort.
I have an ignition advancer, and the K&N drop in filter, stock pipe. It seems to do this when it's fully warmed up and warm outside. I'm thinking something is causing the bike to flood, but I don't know what. Unfortunatley, I'm not all that mechanically inclined. Any guesses? And how do I fix the problem? Oh yeah, it's a 95 with 18,000 miles. Only 2000 of those miles are mine. The previous owner did the advancer and filter, so I don't really know the specifics. Thanks a bunch guys.
Nathanael
Sounds like the carburetion is too rich. Float level most likely. 10mph in second gear sounds too low in the rpm's band, you should keep the tach above 4000rpm in every gear.
Edit: the choke may be hanging up on something (look at the right carb body). See picture: http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=14021.msg119939#msg119939
It definitely sounds like the float valve is open, maybe stuck or has dirt in it. If you can remove the float bowls, remove & clean the float valves, it should be ok. Personally I don't think you can beat the stock settup. Ignition advancer sounds like useless crap to me. Just another thing to screw up.
Hey, thanks for the advice guys. Here's some more info that may be helpful. I don't think my choke really works like it's suppost to. Even when it's pulled all the way I have to crank the bike a couple of times to get it started, and even then it only idles at about 1000 RPM. I usually have to hold the throttle just to keep it running. I know about the idle screw and have played with it quite a bit. The problem is, if I turn it too much, the RPM's will climb once the bike is warmed up. The weird thing is, they will only climb if the bike is over 2000 RPM or so, under that it will stall if I don't give it gas. So basically this is a no-win situation. I have to hold the throttle to keep the RPM's up without stalling, but if they get up too high, the bike will get "stuck" in a high RPM mode and won't go down. Sorry if this is confusing, the problem is kind of hard to explain. The whole having to hold the throttle thing didn't really annoy me too much, but having the bike die on me is a problem. I need it to get me where I'm going!
The whole ignition advancer thing, like I said, the previous owner installed that. I don't really know much about it (unfortunately). I just want the bike to run reliably. I wish I had more time to learn to work on it, but I'm lucky if I have time to wash the thing every couple of months or so. I still have to change the oil and I've been meaning to do that for months now! Cool, sorry this is so long.
Nathanael