Did valve adjustment...

[Thatdudeguybro]

Got a 2005 with ~18K on it. Just got the bike and it ran mostly alright. But with the mileage, i figured I'd do a valve adjustment. Well, I did that and now it's all jacked up lol. Under no choke to ~half choke, it will idle sorta unevenly and if you open the throttle at all, it dies. Past half choke, opening the throttle will increase the engine speed, but it will hang there ans revs won't drop for a few seconds. Sound like it's leaned out? Am I wrong about that?

One thing I did notice was that the air filter is in bits and pieces.... So much so that you could probably consider it non existent. So, clearly that needs to be replaced. Apart from that, would a carb sync be the culprit? I just can't see an air filter having THAT much of an effect on its running condition. Any ideas?

Something to note is that it has a muzzy exhaust and the PO claims its jetted.

Thanks, all!

[HoneyBadgerRy]

What did you adjust the valves to? (Did you confuse intake for exhaust or metric for inches). How old is your gas?
I would put a new air filter in before trouble shooting to much. However a carb clean wouldn't hurt.

You could bench sync your carbs, but they didn't likely become out of sync all of a sudden. Also you will need the bike to idle to sync them properly.

[VaFish]

When things work OK, then you do something to the bike, and then things don't work OK, you need to go back and double check what you just did. Most likely you caused the problem.

[Thatdudeguybro]

I adjusted the intakes to .13mm and the exhausts to .06mm. Ill double check it, but I'm fairly confident I got it right.

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Originally Posted by Thatdudeguybro

I adjusted the intakes to .13mm and the exhausts to .06mm. Ill double check it, but I'm fairly confident I got it right.

The acceptable range is 0.08mm - 0.13mm for the intake, and 0.11mm - 0.16mm for the exhaust, and ideally you would want to be in the middle of that.

All my feeler gauges are in inches, so I set my intakes to 0.004" and exhaust to 0.005" (right in the middle).

If your intakes are at .13mm and exhaust are at 0.06mm this would defiantly cause your bike to run like crap, and shortly cause your exhaust valves and seats to destroy themselves.

[Thatdudeguybro]

Sorry, meant .13 and .16. But, I went ahead and adjusted them to the next size down. I'm waiting on this A/F to come in. Once I throw that in, I'm going to diagnose some more

[Thatdudeguybro]

Got the air filter in, still the same. Set the idle air screws back to 2 1/2 turns out. Same thing. Warmed the bike up, turned the screws out to 5 turns (didn't go out that far straight away. Did it in half turn increments). No noticeable difference. Revs still hang and it seems like unless I cut the ignition, they aren't going to drop. Is it just me or is there something wrong, here?

And yes, before you ask again, I am sure the valves were adjusted correctly. I double checked them. Had a tech check them, too. The airbox boots are fully seated on the intake side of the carbs and the carb boots to the head are seated properly, as well.

Please advise. And thank you

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Thatdudeguybro

.........
Please advise. And thank you

It seems to be time for deep surgery of the fuel supply system and the carbs.

Pieces of the old filter may be clogging the inlet of some of the air passages in the carb's body.

Check that the petcock is working properly and supplying enough fuel when vacuum is applied.

Then check that the vacuum is reaching the petcock when the engine is working.

[Ghostt]

Sorry I'm late to the party, so let's see if I'm up to speed.

OP you said bike was running fine, you did the valve adjustment, and no it's running like crap? Have I missed something? Did you do anything else besides the valve adjustment?

So what exactly is it doing/not doing now?

What is the idle currently set at RPMs? When it's fully warmed up? Inline fuel filter?

Could be the carburetors need a service, vacuum leak?

I would go back and check everything again, because something happened during the valve adjustment, if I understand your posts correctly.

[rubber side down]

the way you say it hangs up in the rpm, leads to 2 possibilities.

most likely culprit would be vacuum leak

less likely is you have your idle adjusted way up to make up for valve adjustment or dirty carbs and the butterflies are open to far.

[Thatdudeguybro]

Issue resolved. The PO had 'cleaned' the carbs (read: they didn't do jack to the carbs). The left cyl ports in the intake side of the carbs were clogged with A/F particles. Cleaned the carbs, removed the airbox and cleaned it thoroughly, replaced A/F. Runs tip top.

I believe that the reason the revs started to hang was that the intake valves were tight before I adjusted them, causing what would normally be a rich condition. Combine that with the carb issue, which would normally cause a lean condition, happened to allow the bike to run relatively okay (wasn't perfect, hence why I did the valve adjustment in the first place). What an odd coincidence hahaha. Thanks for the help everyone!

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Thatdudeguybro

Issue resolved. The PO had 'cleaned' the carbs (read: they didn't do jack to the carbs). The left cyl ports in the intake side of the carbs were clogged with A/F particles. Cleaned the carbs, removed the airbox and cleaned it thoroughly, replaced A/F. Runs tip top.
.........Thanks for the help everyone!

I can feel some improved confidence now !!!

You are welcome

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Does this mean you did the valves with the carbs still on? I don't even check the valves with the motor still attached to the frame.

[Mohawk]

People spend ages mis-adjusting valves, trying to find TDC & all sorts of nonsense that messes it up. All you need to do is remove the valve cover, open the port on the side engine case so you can get a socket on the end of the crank.

Now look at the valves, which ever has the lobe point facing directly away from the valve/slipper should be adjusted first, then as you turn the end forward in the right direction, adjust each valve as they reach that clearance point. Job done, no need to know where TDC is or which cylinder is there.

Make sure a second time that all locknuts are torqued, then check your clearances after a couple of full revolutions, if all within spec button it up & ride.

Hope you enjoy this quick way to adjust valves, saves a huge amount of time on 4 cylinder bikes !

[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by Mohawk

People spend ages mis-adjusting valves, trying to find TDC & all sorts of nonsense that messes it up. All you need to do is remove the valve cover, open the port on the side engine case so you can get a socket on the end of the crank.

Now look at the valves, which ever has the lobe point facing directly away from the valve/slipper should be adjusted first, then as you turn the end forward in the right direction, adjust each valve as they reach that clearance point. Job done, no need to know where TDC is or which cylinder is there.

Make sure a second time that all locknuts are torqued, then check your clearances after a couple of full revolutions, if all within spec button it up & ride.

Hope you enjoy this quick way to adjust valves, saves a huge amount of time on 4 cylinder bikes !