tendency to flood now that the weather has changed.

[wordslinger]

First fill of this year the gas was in a plastic can for long enough for me to drive from the gas station home, took it out empty, brought it home full and emptied it into the bike. Since then its been refilled twice direct from the pump. valve clearance is 0.04mm on both, per the book and umpteen million postings on here.

..i know right?!..

..dude, the one time i used fuel from, what i thought was a clean can, i had this same problem off and on for a cpl of months...

..bought a new fuel filter..

..pulled and cleaned my carb probably 6 different times..Autobystarter retaining clip is a bithc....used 5 or 6 spray cans of contact cleaner in the process...(nifty little tube allow you to get up into the ports)...

..it got so aggravating that one day i grabbed hold of my carb and just shook th' hell out of it and the dang thing fired right up...

 

[wordslinger]

...got to where i could clean my carb in about 15 minutes tho...i was having to do this before headin out to work at 6am...lol..

[ScooterCommuter]

...got to where i could clean my carb in about 15 minutes tho...i was having to do this before headin out to work at 6am...lol..

I aint that dedicated - although if I have to ride the damn bus much more (at $4.50 per day for the privilege) that could easily change!

[zombie]

The colder to warm got my attention. There may be a small amount of condensation in the tank, and the fuel bowl on the carb. the way you stated it ran fine after cleaning reinforces this for me. Try adding some Sea Foam to the tank. Double the amount they recommend. Even one drop of water is enough to block these tiny jets. To eliminate most electrical problems, check for spark as soon as it stalls.

[ScooterCommuter]

The colder to warm got my attention. There may be a small amount of condensation in the tank, and the fuel bowl on the carb. the way you stated it ran fine after cleaning reinforces this for me. Try adding some Sea Foam to the tank. Double the amount they recommend. Even one drop of water is enough to block these tiny jets. To eliminate most electrical problems, check for spark as soon as it stalls.

well I just cleaned it again and made a run down to the nearest supply point for scoot parts and picked up a filter.. so I'll put it all back together and see I'll throw some seafoam in it too just to be safe.. shining a light down the filler cap didnt reveal any significant quantity of water in the tank but as you say it only takes a microliter or so, which of course one wouldnt see. With the high dewpoints we've had in the evenings recently that may well be a factor.

I did find one anomaly this time because THIS time I wasnt just cleaning it I was going through the full inspection routine - I put my multimeter on the bystarter and its base resistance is a tad high - book says to replace if its over 10 ohms, this ones reading 13. Connect it to power and it cycles according to spec though. I cant get a new one too quickly so I hope I dont have a bad one.

[zombie]

That thought had crossed my mind as well. If the meter is properly zeroed, and the reading is hi... replace it. The increased resistance will affect the operation. Even if it "cycles" correctly I am sure the Timing aspect is off

[ScooterCommuter]

That thought had crossed my mind as well. If the meter is properly zeroed, and the reading is hi... replace it. The increased resistance will affect the operation. Even if it "cycles" correctly I am sure the Timing aspect is off

Well, it fired up with a few kicks and ran ok. I took it out and put about 20 miles on it to make certain it was nicely warmed up before re-checking the idle speed and to give the battery a good charge which coincidentally (not) took me past a gas station I know I can trust so I was able to top it off with 3/4 of a tank of known-good gas too. I'll put an order in for a new bystarter and hope I can keep starting it until that arrives.

The proof of the pudding will of course be tomorrow when it's sat overnight again. Fingers crossed.

[wordslinger]

..good luck with it...mine drove me up th wall till it cleared up...

[ScooterCommuter]

Thanks for the help guys, it fired up ok this morning so I'm hoping the underlying problem is sorted, now I just need to retweak everything. At anything other than idle its fine.. but the idle has gotten a bit rough so I'm guessing the mixture is off. Kinda hard to tell which way though.. the tendency to slow down and and stall out sounds lean-ish but the response on returning to idle from part throttle (often needs a "blip" to settle back down to idle after the throttle is closed slowly) makes me think rich.

[zombie]

May be lean, and the blip is adding enough to settle it down. Simply adjust the mix screw 1/4 turn at a time either direction (after warming the engine). This may take as much as 2 full turns, so keep track of the setting. If there is no response from the mix screw the idle circuit may still have some debris in it. Once you get the fastest rpm's on the mix screw the idle speed screw can be set to the desired rpm's. Glad to hear your on the right road. These tiny jetting set ups can get frustrating, it is all in how much patience you have for it.

[ScooterCommuter]

May be lean, and the blip is adding enough to settle it down. Simply adjust the mix screw 1/4 turn at a time either direction (after warming the engine). This may take as much as 2 full turns, so keep track of the setting. If there is no response from the mix screw the idle circuit may still have some debris in it. Once you get the fastest rpm's on the mix screw the idle speed screw can be set to the desired rpm's. Glad to hear your on the right road. These tiny jetting set ups can get frustrating, it is all in how much patience you have for it.

I hear ya man. Its a darn good thing I found this place, I'm not at the level of ignorance I started with last time I was maintaining a bike engine but that was 20 years ago and with my knowledge that rusty and far out of date its good to have so many wrench-heads with knowledge of this particular beastie around to refresh it and reassure me I'm going in the right direction I do remember that I always hated having to mess with the mix though, so many ways to screw it up and either drop the performance in the toilet or just plain knacker the engine.

[wordslinger]

..the good thing about this carb, is that the mix screw only effects idle, and just off idle fuel mixture..

..everything else is jet size...

[zombie]

Speaking for myself, That's why I'm here posting. While it's harder to help trouble shoot over the NET, it's better than nothing, or the local wrench heads in most cases. From the Rugby referance earlier, and the Knacker on this post I'm guessing Wales? Close?

[wordslinger]

I hear ya man. Its a darn good thing I found this place, I'm not at the level of ignorance I started with last time I was maintaining a bike engine but that was 20 years ago and with my knowledge that rusty and far out of date its good to have so many wrench-heads with knowledge of this particular beastie around to refresh it and reassure me I'm going in the right direction I do remember that I always hated having to mess with the mix though, so many ways to screw it up and either drop the performance in the toilet or just plain knacker the engine.

..i like that term...beastie...aaarrggh....

 

[ScooterCommuter]

Speaking for myself, That's why I'm here posting. While it's harder to help trouble shoot over the NET, it's better than nothing, or the local wrench heads in most cases. From the Rugby referance earlier, and the Knacker on this post I'm guessing Wales? Close?

English by birth, significant portions of Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Manx in the ancestry (comes from having most of my recent ancestors from the Liverpool area) been living in the states (Minnesota) for the last 11 years... but yeah, I retain enough accent and brit figures of speech the locals here never mistake me for one of 'em