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jcarbelbide · February 10th, 2020, 02:40 PM

Hey all, another update!

First, thank you so much to ducatiman for all of your help so far! The carbs came back immaculate, and he even restored the petcock for me free of charge (it needed some new filters). He put a lot of time into making my carbs and petcock perfect, and it really shows in how they run. Again, can't recommend him enough to anyone reading this.

So I stuck the carbs and petcock back into the bike, and have been going back and forth with ducatiman about getting the correct pilot jet settings. He's been incredibly helpful. I think I have a decent enough setting now. The bike starts right up, and rides amazing. I don't remember the bike being so much fun to ride. HOWEVER, I am still having some weird idling issues.

Here's a list of stuff I've done:
Carb clean by ducatiman
Petcock rebuild by ducatiman
Spark plugs changed
Air filter will be cleaned next week (already looked clean enough but will do this just to be sure)
Installed fuel filter inline with tank and carb
Set the throttle cable freeplay
Tuned pilot screw to 3.5 turns per wiki method (turn out until rpms stop hanging)

Here's what I'm seeing:
Prop the bike up on the center stand. Choke on, petcock on. Turn bike on. Starts on the first or second crank. After a minute or so, I turn off the choke. I monitor the idle. I let the bike warm up so the temp meter showed almost halfway. When I blip the throttle, it would sometimes hang, sometimes act rich. Messing with the idle didn’t fix much. I tried going for a ride, and the problems pretty much went away really quick. For some reason going on a pretty short ride seemed to fix everything. I think the next time it starts up, the same sequence of events will probably happen.

However, one more thing, I can't get the idle to go below 2k rpm, even with the idle screw all the way back. I'm sure that the throttle cables are set correctly. Bike might be running too rich, so I'll try turning the pilot screw back in a little. Maybe at 3.25 turns. At 2.5, it was definitely hanging a lot.

I was suggested to go have my valves checked by Danno. I would like to do this myself instead of taking it to a shop. My question though is how necessary to you guys think it is? Are my symptoms indicative of valves out of adjustment? Or do I just need to more finely tune the pilot screw? My bike is only at around 1200 miles, and I think the recommended check interval is 7500. It is a 2004 Ninja 250. One possibly important piece of information: I didn't really follow break in procedure, didn't know about it. Got the bike around 200 miles. Rode it on city probably for another 100-200. I took about 4 hour long trips on the highway where I was at full throttle the entire time. Otherwise, it was city riding. I'm not sure if that can accelerate valve clearances getting off that much. Call me an idiot, it's okay, I already know that.

Again, thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to help me.

February 10th, 2020, 02:40 PM	#20
jcarbelbide ninjette.org member Name: JC Location: CA Join Date: Oct 2019 Motorcycle(s): 2004 Ninja 250, 2011 DR650 Posts: 12	Hey all, another update! First, thank you so much to ducatiman for all of your help so far! The carbs came back immaculate, and he even restored the petcock for me free of charge (it needed some new filters). He put a lot of time into making my carbs and petcock perfect, and it really shows in how they run. Again, can't recommend him enough to anyone reading this. So I stuck the carbs and petcock back into the bike, and have been going back and forth with ducatiman about getting the correct pilot jet settings. He's been incredibly helpful. I think I have a decent enough setting now. The bike starts right up, and rides amazing. I don't remember the bike being so much fun to ride. HOWEVER, I am still having some weird idling issues. Here's a list of stuff I've done: Carb clean by ducatiman Petcock rebuild by ducatiman Spark plugs changed Air filter will be cleaned next week (already looked clean enough but will do this just to be sure) Installed fuel filter inline with tank and carb Set the throttle cable freeplay Tuned pilot screw to 3.5 turns per wiki method (turn out until rpms stop hanging) Here's what I'm seeing: Prop the bike up on the center stand. Choke on, petcock on. Turn bike on. Starts on the first or second crank. After a minute or so, I turn off the choke. I monitor the idle. I let the bike warm up so the temp meter showed almost halfway. When I blip the throttle, it would sometimes hang, sometimes act rich. Messing with the idle didn’t fix much. I tried going for a ride, and the problems pretty much went away really quick. For some reason going on a pretty short ride seemed to fix everything. I think the next time it starts up, the same sequence of events will probably happen. However, one more thing, I can't get the idle to go below 2k rpm, even with the idle screw all the way back. I'm sure that the throttle cables are set correctly. Bike might be running too rich, so I'll try turning the pilot screw back in a little. Maybe at 3.25 turns. At 2.5, it was definitely hanging a lot. I was suggested to go have my valves checked by Danno. I would like to do this myself instead of taking it to a shop. My question though is how necessary to you guys think it is? Are my symptoms indicative of valves out of adjustment? Or do I just need to more finely tune the pilot screw? My bike is only at around 1200 miles, and I think the recommended check interval is 7500. It is a 2004 Ninja 250. One possibly important piece of information: I didn't really follow break in procedure, didn't know about it. Got the bike around 200 miles. Rode it on city probably for another 100-200. I took about 4 hour long trips on the highway where I was at full throttle the entire time. Otherwise, it was city riding. I'm not sure if that can accelerate valve clearances getting off that much. Call me an idiot, it's okay, I already know that. Again, thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to help me.