Hey Everyone,

My bike was having some idling issues and ran poorly in general after installing a new OEM air filter (the old one looked like it's never been changed) and adding a Delkevic slip-on exhaust. With the added air flow and the fact that this bike runs lean from the factory I decided to take apart, clean, rebuild and rejet the carbs, but I came across a some issues. I did plenty of research and have successfully taken the carbs apart but still have a couple of questions.

First off, my bike is a 2005 model so it has three jets. The main jet, the mid-main jet, and the pilot jet. The main jet is screwed into a hexagonal brass piece which came off the carburetor when I unscrewed it, leaving the jet still in there. I want to take the jet out of the hexagonal piece and replace it with a new one. What is the best way to go about this? I considered using a vice grip on the hexagonal piece (with something like cloth in between to prevent damage) to grab it and then unscrew the jet from there. If anyone has a better idea or has done this before your input is appreciated.

Next, I've decided to go three turns out on the idle mixture screws since most of the articles/wiki/charts on here say that would work well with my setup. However, it looks like the previous owner has worked on the carbs before (the brass caps were already removed) and one side was very dirty.

The idle screw on dirty side is seized up (wont tighten or loosen) so I sprayed it with PB blaster and let it sit so I wont strip it out. I'm going to use my power impact driver to take it out, that little tool worked wonders on the float bowl screws which were a pain (I've bought allen head screws as replacements). My only concern is that this may damage the screw. So any suggestions on this would be helpful as well.

Lastly, the other idle screw turns fine, but I wanted to know how far I should tighten it down to before beginning to loosen it again and starting my count to three turns. The screw seems to keep going if I tighten it to the point where I can see the threads and the screw is nowhere near all the way tight. I'm not using excessive force at all, just lightly turning by hand with a screwdriver. Again I don't want to damage anything, so I figured I'd ask you guys.

Hopefully someone can help me out here, there is a lot of great info on this forum which I'm thankful for and with it I've been able to work on my bike so far without any help. I would appreciate any helpful information/input. I have searched thoroughly on the wiki (it is for an older model), on multiple threads here, as well as other forums, google AND youtube, but haven't been able to find anything specific to my issues. Thanks!

There are some extremely knowledgeable people on here who I'm sure will chime in as soon as they read this, but I will share my two cents at the moment.  I am very new to this bike myself (one year owner so far), but have recently worked on my carbs as well.

At first, I was afraid to tighten the idle adjustment too much as I heard it could be damaged if not careful.  What I eventually found was that when I was getting it close to being fully seated, I would start to hear a little squeak from the o-ring in there, and then I could hear the spring compressing... Eventually the screw won't go any further, but VERY LITTLE strength/pressure is needed to seat this screw. 

All in all, if you take it slow, don't turn it too hard, and are thoughtful... You'll know when it's fully seated.

Quote from: dk31285 on April 29, 2016, 08:40:13 PM
There are some extremely knowledgeable people on here who I'm sure will chime in as soon as they read this, but I will share my two cents at the moment.  I am very new to this bike myself (one year owner so far), but have recently worked on my carbs as well.

At first, I was afraid to tighten the idle adjustment too much as I heard it could be damaged if not careful.  What I eventually found was that when I was getting it close to being fully seated, I would start to hear a little squeak from the o-ring in there, and then I could hear the spring compressing... Eventually the screw won't go any further, but VERY LITTLE strength/pressure is needed to seat this screw. 

All in all, if you take it slow, don't turn it too hard, and are thoughtful... You'll know when it's fully seated.

Thanks for the reply DK! I'll listen closely when tightening the screw. When you did yours, how low did the head of the screw go? On mine the head of the screw will go past the threads on that side. I feel like that's not supposed to happen, maybe I'm wrong.

Quote from: f0reignfeatures on April 29, 2016, 08:57:19 PM
Thanks for the reply DK! I'll listen closely when tightening the screw. When you did yours, how low did the head of the screw go? On mine the head of the screw will go past the threads on that side. I feel like that's not supposed to happen, maybe I'm wrong.

I'm not sure.  I actually didn't touch these screws while I had the carbs off of my bike.  I seated them and re-adjusted them while on the bike.  That being said, I tried to get a pic of the screw at it's current position.  The picture is pretty bad, but the carbs are on my bike and I'm trying to snap a pic with my cell phone in the dark 

Anyway, the screw is in the upper left corner, circled in red.  It also seems as though a tiny amount of thread is visible around the head of my screw, and they are currently set to 3.5 turns out.  So, maybe they do turn in past some threads... Or, maybe that isn't thread that I see.   

You're talking about the mixture screws, right? There is only one idle screw....

But I've always used just a small screwdriver bit in my fingers to adjust those screws. That way, it isn't possible to (for a weakling like myself) to damage the screws.

Quote from: f0reignfeatures on April 29, 2016, 07:44:26 PM
Next, I've decided to go three turns out on the idle mixture screws since most of the articles/wiki/charts on here say that would work well with my setup.

Yes we're talking about idle mixture screws.

Using a screwdriver bit by hand is a good idea, but how far down do these screws go before you start loosening them again? The threads on mine are beginning to show and I'm not using force at all.

Also, anyone have an idea how to free up the seized screw on the other side? Thanks!

Hey Guys,

Just an update/bump. I was able to seat the idle mixture screw properly on one side using just a screwdriver bit by hand as suggested. The other side is completely seized up though. I tried using a screw extractor set with no luck and now the top of the screw is almost completely gone. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get it out now?

I was able to find another suzuki forum which suggested drilling a small hole into the head of the screw and lightly tapping a small torx bit into it with a hammer. I'll probably try this next but if anyone has experience with this or any good suggestions please reply!

I'm having an issue with the bike dying once it's warmed up when I come to a stop. The idle lowers and it dies (at stop signs/red lights). I think this is because of change in the exhaust (Delkevic slip-on) and the new jets. Let me know if you guys have any input, I'd like to do a lot more riding since the weather has warmed up, thanks as always!

You can buy longer mixture screws that you can turn by hand. Forget who sells them. Makes fine tuning really easy, no tools!

Hold the hexagonal part below the main jet with a wrench.

Good luck getting the stuck screw out. I hate those.

Be careful when drilling to not nick the threads.

I had a terrible experience with my mixture screws.  They were seized, so I tried forcing them and they just got more seized.  During the drilling I hit the threads  and when I finally got the screw out the threads were totally ruined.  Had to replace that carb...