Hi all!

Apologies if this is a fairly simplistic question, but most of my previous grease monkey experience has come from fuel injected cars.....so i'm not entirely familiar with how carburated vehicles deal with the cold.

In the cold (in the -1 to +2 degrees celsius range) my ninja seems to want to stall out constantly; despite having the choke on. For example: I was out this morning and it was easily 0 degrees celsius outside. Fifteen minutes into riding, i'm downshifting to come to a stop at a red light. I blip the throttle to rev match, but it's at this point that i notice the engine has died on me.....while in motion :eek:. Long story short...i know the ninjas can be cold blooded...but is this normal?

For the most part idle is pretty steady once its warmed up. I can't seem to get it to settle at 1200 rpm, as it sorta dances around 2k first, then drops to 1k....despite what i do with the idle set screw. I'll probably take a look at the carbs, just to make sure they're clean, but given what i've said here...what else should i look out for?

I have a muzzy can on my bike....i'm not sure if the PO had the carbs tuned for it but if i were to guess i'd say he didn't.

Thanks!

-James

check for an intake/vacuum leak before playing with the carbs.

if you're gonna play with the carbs, try draining the carb bowls to see if you have any gunk in there and you might want to run some Seafoam in the gas just to eliminate a fuel contamination possibility.

How many miles do you have on the bike?
Do you only mess with the idle set screw after it has been warmed up?(ridden)

Also read this:
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/What_is_carburetor_ice%3F

Thanks for the replies! I'll definitely give seafoam a try, kkim....i have a feeling i gunked up the carbs because I cut a few corners during winter storage prep last year.

Sometimesido, I have about 10k miles on it (yes...i do mean miles....my bike was originally from New York :)). The only fiddling with the set screw was done after the bike was warm....but its been pretty chilly lately so "warm" may be a relative term.

I took out the air filter and there was a k&n sitting in there. I'm generally not a fan of these things as they tend to "grease" everything up....but I did notice that for some reason, the air filter lid wasn't sitting properly on the plenum. There isn't a huge gap or anything, but its just kinda lying on top. It absolutely refuses to seat properly. Could this cause a problem?

Thanks so much for the help, guys. I appreciate it.

there should be a rubber band on top of the lid.

this.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3359/3432561830_5db32870c1_b.jpg

Yea i got that as well. It's all snug. I was just wondering if that lid was supposed to snap in or something haha. Man, after looking at your pic, I gotta clean my freakin bike....:D

Some nice hot chicken soup always does the job.

do you mean after 15 minutes you still have the choke on? Cause that might be something different from my experience. But when I first got my cold blooded 06, she had some dirty carbs, would hesitate and/or die when I blipped, and would need to be warmed up at around 3000k. After a nice can of seafoam - problems solved! +1 for seafoam :thumbup:

do you mean after 15 minutes you still have the choke on? Cause that might be something different from my experience. But when I first got my cold blooded 06, she had some dirty carbs, would hesitate and/or die when I blipped, and would need to be warmed up at around 3000k. After a nice can of seafoam - problems solved! +1 for seafoam :thumbup:

Yea...in fact this morning i was out for a good 50 minutes and during that entire ride the choke was never fully disengaged....and the temp gauge never got close to the "fully warm" mark :confused:

In any case, I will definitely give seafoam a try....the first chance i can get my lazy butt over to crappy tire anyway :p

Some nice hot chicken soup always does the job.

LOL...i can't find a straw long enough to pipe that stuff into my helmet as i ride :D

it sounds like the idle (pilot jet) is clogged in one or both of the carbs. try the seafoam and see if it helps.

you may also want to check or change out your plugs. with the filter not sitting flush and letting in unfiltered air, you may have a fouled plug. cheap fix if you buy the plugs at the auto parts store. I recommend only using NGK in the recommended heat range.

you need to fix the air filter problem so it is installed so it seals all the way around.

it sounds like the idle (pilot jet) is clogged in one or both of the carbs. try the seafoam and see if it helps.

you may also want to check or change out your plugs. with the filter not sitting flush and letting in unfiltered air, you may have a fouled plug. cheap fix if you buy the plugs at the auto parts store. I recommend only using NGK in the recommended heat range.

you need to fix the air filter problem so it is installed so it seals all the way around.

Will do! Thanks for the help everyone. I'll tinker around with the information I've been given thus far. I'm more than confident that I can work these kinks out :thumbup:

If not you'll be hearing from me again haha!

especially if it does fix the problem, we'd like to hear from you again. ;)

Hi all!

Quick update on my situation (yes i know its been a while....i was supposed to do this on Tuesday but I went riding instead :rolleyes:). So I pulled the plugs and they look pretty clean....but the bike looks like its running a touch lean.

Left Cylinder:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z199/JamesBames/DSC00069-1.jpg?t=1239930731

Right Cylinder:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z199/JamesBames/DSC00073.jpg?t=1239930830

I've got half a tank of gas with some seafoam in it...i'll ride the bike until reserve then i'll dump another half can and do the whole "smoke show" treatment. Hopefully I can get some steady idle then. Keep your fingers crossed :)

I'll keep my eye on those plugs. I do believe the bike's running lean because of the temperature, but that is steadily improving in my area.

plug color looks pretty good to me. why is there so much oil around the threads, though?

try draining your carb bowls just to make sure you get all the crud out of there.

plug color looks pretty good to me. why is there so much oil around the threads, though?

try draining your carb bowls just to make sure you get all the crud out of there.

Ya that's what i'll be doing on saturday :D
Expect more pictures LOL!!

Well the seafoam seems to have done the trick. She now holds at a fairly steady 1200 rpm!! I guess that saves me the trouble of having to take the carb apart.....for now at least. :thumbup:

Since the bike is fairly new to me, I'll be attempting the valve adjustment and other miscellaneous service bits, but for now it's time to hit the streets (figuratively speaking!).

Thanks to Kelly, Chris and everyone for all of the help!

That's good news. Seafoam is a great product, but it's no miracle cure.

Depending on what stage of the fuel problem is in on your bike, I've seen fuel problems that Seafoam couldn't fix. Sounds like you caught yours before the problem wasn't too bad.

I would still dump all the gas in the tank, if you haven't done so yet, and fill with fresh gas.

have fun, ride safe
:thumbup:

I would still do the smoke treatment too :thumbup::rolleyes: Though it might not be as spectacular cause you've already run half a can through it lol :(

Yea I think it was just some minor gunkage in the carbs due to my lazy winterization. I still have half a tank of seafoam left which i'll run through the tank once i get her down to reserve again.

I thought about dumping the tank but riding around until the tank was empty was much more fun and entertaining. Now that I have a fresh tank of gas everything seems to be pretty good. :thumbup:

All i really need now are new tires :(

All i really need now are new tires :(
ooo.... new tires! :D what are you getting?

ooo.... new tires! :D what are you getting?

I'm gonna try and get my hands on some Bridgestone BT45's.

I loved the bt45s that came stock on my bike. You might also consider the Pirelli Sport Demons.

I have the Bridgestone BT45s that came with my '08. I find they are a perfectly good tire, and stick much better than other street tires I've used on other bikes.

I've read mediocre comments about the Dunlops some of the 250s come with, though...

LOL yea i've heard a lot of good things about the Pirelli's. I may look into them for the next tire change. I'm pretty sure my 250 currently has the stock Dunlop's, and yea they're not the greatest. At this point, any tire will do as my current set are practically bald, cracking and are fairly hard.

Seems like the new gen ninjas are coming equipped with a lot of nice goodies straight from the factory! Oh well, I'm still a noob and i believe in starting at a deficit anyway....helps build character....and etc.....

We just changed out komohana's stock pregen tires for some demons yesterday. needless to say, he's REAL happy with them. :lol: