Getting a 6 year old bike idling and running

[bluestreak]

Hi everyone, I'm new to bikes. I got a Ninja about 5 months ago but haven't been able to work on it because of a combination of bad weather and travel. But over the last two weekends I finally put it back together after cleaning and replacing all of the stuff that needed replacing. Hoses, fluids, spark plugs, new chain, re-grease, etc.

I bought the bike with 250 miles on it from a woman who didn't want it and left it sitting in her garage for years and years. I adjusted the valves because the manual said to do them at 400 miles. A few were a little tight. I adjusted them to the tighter end but within spec per the manual.

The Ninja 250 FAQ recommended getting rid of the plastic airbox because it's a PITA to remove and reinstall so I got a K&N filter. I also got a 2 into 1 aftermarket exhaust (Area P). I got a Factory Pro 3.0 jet kit to suit the new intake and exhaust and installed a new main jet and needle per the jet kit instructions. Before I installed the new jets, I cleaned the carbs with PJ1 and reamed the holes with a strand of copper wire. I set the floats and idle mix to stock.

The woman said the generic ("Dura Boost") battery was new when she sold it to me. It's been basically sitting on my trickle charger for 5 months.

I tried cranking the bike this afternoon and it chugged and then fired up! But it ran unsteadily, fast, too slow, fast again with the exhaust for about a minute and then died a minute later. I was playing with the choke and throttle and couldn't keep it going. I checked the bowls and they were full so I drained them and adjusted the floats to sit a little higher (richer) and enriched the idle mix just a bit. I thought it might be running a little lean because of the intake and exhaust. I tried to get it going again but just ended up sputtering and trying to catch. By this time it sounded like the battery wasn't firing as hard. So I drained the bowls again because I was pretty sure I was going to have to pull the carbs again.

So my questions are: Should I get a brand new battery? I hooked it up to the trickle charger and it was well below 80% charge after maybe 1-2 minutes of cranking total. Is that normal?

Could someone help me tune these carbs some weekend so it can run well enough so I can it on the road and try tune the new jets? I'd buy a case of beer. There are so many things going on with the carbs (choke, battery, idle mixture knob, idle mixture screws, float height, etc.) I don't know what to adjust and in which order. Is it the battery? Re-check valves? Floats? Idle mix? Where did I screw up? That kind of thing. Is there a troubleshooting or step-by-step guide to getting the bike to idle at least?

Sorry this is so long but I want to learn and need some help.

[kkim]

charge the battery back up with the trickle charger and see how it takes the charge. You need to a determine how good the battery is at this point and you'll need a nice strong battery to help get the bike started, anyway.

when you cleaned out the carbs, did you remove the pilot jets, clean them out and also blow out the passages in the carbs with compressed air that the jets connect to? sounds to me like your pilot circuit is still clogged up. I'm not a fan of reaming jets out with wire and prefer to replace the jets with new ones if there are blockages in the jets that don't come out with a soaking of solvent and a blast of compressed air.

set your float level back to the stock specs.

have you double checked the vacuum hoses for cracks and made sure the are connected correctly?

when I purchase a used bike, the first thing I do before I start modding anything it is to make sure everything is working perfectly first and all maintenance is up to date to set a known baseline.

at this point you don't know if you're chasing a problem that existed when you bought the bike or introduced a problem from your mods and/or workmanship.

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_to_...e_your_jetting

[bluestreak]

Originally Posted by kkim

charge the battery back up with the trickle charger and see how it takes the charge. You need to a determine how good the battery is at this point and you'll need a nice strong battery to help get the bike started, anyway.

The battery charged back up to 100% in 3-4 hours. I have a Battery Tender Jr.

when you cleaned out the carbs, did you remove the pilot jets, clean them out and also blow out the passages in the carbs with compressed air that the jets connect to? sounds to me like your pilot circuit is still clogged up. I'm not a fan of reaming jets out with wire and prefer to replace the jets with new ones if there are blockages in the jets that don't come out with a soaking of solvent and a blast of compressed air.

.

Yes, I removed the jets. But I will pull the carbs again and clean it again to make sure using compressed air this time.

set your float level back to the stock specs.

Will do, I'll go back to stock idle mix, too.

have you double checked the vacuum hoses for cracks and made sure the are connected correctly?

Yes, everything looked good but I will double check.

when I purchase a used bike, the first thing I do before I start modding anything it is to make sure everything is working perfectly first and all maintenance is up to date to set a known baseline.

Yes, it was an impulsive thing to do but I thought I could get away with it because the bike idled (roughly) when I bought it originally. And the motor oil was like new when I drained it, the valves looked super clean. It was garage kept for years.

at this point you don't know if you're chasing a problem that existed when you bought the bike or introduced a problem from your mods and/or workmanship.

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_to_...e_your_jetting

Well it did run when I bought it and it did run for a minute when I first started it up so I think it's just tuning it a bit. But there are a lot of variables.

[kkim]

let us know how it runs after you clean out the carbs again... at least that should allow the bike to idle steadily if it was indeed an idle circuit/pilot jet blockage problem.

sometimes it takes a lot of work to get bikes that have been sitting a long time with gas in them cleaned out and running properly again. you might want to try some Seafoam to clean out the fuel system, too.

[mrlmd]

You drained the tank and have fresh gas in it, right?
And the only way to see if the battery is any good is to fully charge it, bring it to a battery store or garage and ask them to load test it. You may charge it up to 12.6 V or higher but it may have little capacity.

[bluestreak]

Originally Posted by mrlmd

You drained the tank and have fresh gas in it, right?
And the only way to see if the battery is any good is to fully charge it, bring it to a battery store or garage and ask them to load test it. You may charge it up to 12.6 V or higher but it may have little capacity.

Yes. She (read: her boyfriend) stored the bike for a month or two with Sta-Bil in the fuel tank but I drained it months ago when I bought it, aired it out and took the petcock off to clean it. And I got fresh gas last weekend. I added a bigger inline fuel filter and got rid of the tiny OEM one.

I'll load test the battery, I overlooked that. Thanks.