Engine will not idle. The day started out fine. The bike started and got me 2 miles to the park to play Pickleball. 2 hours later I leave the park and get 2.5 miles down the road to get petrol and stop to turn left. Engine dies. I had to push it across street to get out of left turn lane.
At the curb on the stand, I was able to full (then half) throttle start the engine multiple times but could only sustain operation at least half throttle. Thinking this was lack of petrol situation I forced the engine to get me 2 blocks to gas station. Once full of new petrol and many attempts to start engine and reduce throttle lower, I decide to ride the 2 miles home never let it stall out. Luckily I only had 1 red light and coasted through a couple of stop signs.
Thinking the problem was idle setting I tried maxing out idle seat. No joy.
Then I removed the seat bucket and found that manifold from carburetor to cylinder was missing 1 of 2 nuts and the other was about to come off as well. The O ring for the manifold was distorted and not round.
Need opinions of my options:
- take it back the the shop that just worked on it less than 500 miles ago to replace head gaskets
- reassemble with new gaskets and O rings
- rebuild the carburetor while I have it off in case it was the cause of fuel problems
- suspect fuel in tank problem (bad gas) and flush the tank
Shop manual suggests there is a "fuel screen" but I cannot find any info on where it is located and can be cleaned or replaced.
