I haven't run this bike for about a year and finally fired it up on Sunday to prep it for sale. I drained the carbs and all gas in the tank and filled it up with some new petro first. Here's the crazy part, it runs like a champ all the way up the RPM range. Sounds beautiful. BUT, the idle won't stay constant. I'll adjust the idle screw to set the idle at 1300 or so, then I rev it up a bit and let it settle. Sometimes it settles right back at 1300, other times it will stay at 3000+. :confused:
What in the world is going on? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills :cookoo:
Any help is really appreciated, I want to sell this thing with a clean bill of health and in New England spring is prime time to sell.
Thanks,
Lou
Nevermind. I think I might just be a dumb noob. These things apparently like more warm up time than I'm used to.
I just rode it/let it run for about 20 minutes and then set the idle (as recommended) and things were good.
Before the full 20 minutes, when I took the petcock off prime and put it to "on",the RPMs would drop. But, then after a little more time, the RPMs stayed constant when the petcock was in the on position. So, you really have to run these things in PRIME for 20 minutes or so, or can you switch to normal before that if you're actually riding (not just letting it idle in the driveway)? Or do I have this all wrong?
Thanks again.
in normal situation you never run on prime - if you forget to switch back to ON you may have troubles (flooded carbs), gas getting where it's not supposed to get ;) (sorry don't know exactly where it gets but I read here that it can get ugly)
I switch to prime for 10 seconds, ONLY if I haven't been riding for at least week or two, start the bike and then immediately switch back to ON.
Prime causes the fuel to get to carbs without vacuum, so it is not required if your vacuum is working normally.
hope it helps
Hmmm... maybe I have a vacuum issue because my bike doesn't like to go to the "on" setting for a while. Not sure what time would do to the vacuum situation, but that's the case. Runs like a champ in prime, not so much in on.
I'll hit it with the WD-40 method and go from there.