2006 Venox 250 sputtering....Just bought it, put 200 miles on her..

[max oradea]

hey buddy nice to know you got on the road again, you can have a look at the plugs if this happens again, stop and wait by the road till the thing cools down a bit and pull the plugs for a check. you will know then and there if you are running rich or lean.
but from what you say it is possible that you have a vacuum lock in the gas tank. so wot will cause you to get not enough gas and then eventually stops the motor, but this is when i have to step aside because i dont have this problem.
The post i have read are that opening the tank and closing it will eliminate the problem for a little while then it will happen again, this is the positive diagnosis. beware of running lean! if you do have a vacuum lock and your gas tank is in negative pressure and that you are not getting enough fuel with WOT you might seize the engine.
There is a fix to this problem by drilling something somewhere but i have no clue because dont have that part on my bike.
Bob knows better about this problem.

[Hairy Bob]

Hey there, Kris and Max. Well I'm glad to hear things are starting to head in the right direction Kris ... I was beginingnto think I'd put a bloody jinx on you or something when I answered your first post. Anyway, it wasn't me that's had this problem mate, Max must be thinking of someone else. Off the top of my head, I think it may of been Carols' husband.  So Carol, if your reading this could you please let us know if it was, and what the fix was.
Regards, Hairy Bob.

[krisfnbs]

Im flying out of town this week and I just dropped my bike off to a local mom and pop shop that is pretty sure its just the carbs needing to be cleaned and balanced. They have been in business almost 10 years. I should have the bike back by friday. I mentioned it was around the time the valve clearance needed to be checked as well. Hes going to look over the bike and email me later with what he recommends and how much it is going to cost. He said probably somewhere around $300 or so, which is what I am comfortable doing. No chance im dropping something like $800 into something normal as this. The bike only has 14k~ so there is little chance its something major.

[max oradea]

have a safe trip. remember to super glue the setting screw for the carb and mark it with a marker if the glue does move you will know it.
as a hint as well for the guy who is going to clean your carb that the main jet and main needle are different for the front and back so not to mix them up.

[krisfnbs]

Wanted to give you guys an update.

So I got the carbs cleaned, and valves checked. Very reasonable price at a small shop down the street.(and MD inspected so I can get 2 yr tags) While they were taking everything apart they noticed my choke cable was torn. They said something about because it was torn in a certain place it was making the bike run too rich. New one from Kymco was $20. They called me and I scheduled a day to come and pick it up. They took it out for a few test rides for extended periods of time and everything seemed to be reasonably okay. They said it cut off once or twice at a red light, and then would start right back up. Kinda like accidently hitting the kill switch. But no bogging, no sputtering etc.

Then they found that after a few test rides the bike would start, and then die. Pretty much what it was doing all along before I gave it to them to get the carbs cleaned, and valves checked. They did some testing and found that cylinder 1 was intermittently getting spark. When it was... the bike runs perfectly fine. When its not it will start and then just die.

SO basically my problem all along has been sometimes cylinder 1 will not get spark. Im sure cleaning the carbs and doing a valve job was important, but I think the bike would have been fine after I find out what is making it intermittenly spark.

They think the coil may be bad. They are suppose to call me soon and let me know what they end up finding.

Me and the shop dont think it is anything too serious... as the engine runs fine when it is getting spark. I just hope it is not a problem past a new coil.

[max oradea]

Hi nice to here from you buddy. well looks like its on its way getting better.
I don't understand one thing is that when a cylinder is not firing how do you know its got no spark... i mean it can also be fuel right?either too much or non at all.
my choke cable tube has a crack in it as well but did not effect the plunger function but at your stage its better to eliminate all possibilities.
let us know what happens and we are here if you are in need of any second opinions.
by the way are the carbs balanced after the clean?

[krisfnbs]

They pulled the plug and kept it connected to the coil, and checked for spark. It wasnt getting any. Its weird...because they took it out for a 20 min ride... and everything was fine. pulling back into the shop it when it started cutting out again.

I just talked to them and they put a new coil on it and everything seems to be fine. They are going to take it out for a test ride or two just to make sure. Im going to pick it up tomorrow morning.

[max oradea]

sounds good! hopefully you are going to be riding soon!
And when you do lets us know about the screen you fitted and roughly how tall it is off the head lamp, very close to getting my so keep me posted!
I have heard somewhere before of a coil failing so you might have found the main problem.
fingers crossed!

[krisfnbs]

Pretty sure the coil was the main problem. Just paid my bill and brought the bike home this morning. Going to the DMV to get the registration all squared away tomorrow morning and then its crusing time!

$600 got me:

-Carb Clean(new o rings etc)
-Carb balance
-Valve job
-State inspection
-New coil
-New choke cable
-New spark plugs(I did)
-New air filter(I did)
-Oil change(I did)

We super gluded the setting screw as advised.

Paid $1200 for the bike. All in all I am in $1800, and I am satisfied. Let's just hope the coil was the main problem. I should know within a week or two when I get a couple hundred miles on her.

[krisfnbs]

As for the windscreen, the one I bought needs some modification to fit properly. The brackets are just a little off to mount on the headlight for the windscreen to be even in place. I need to head to lowes to see what I can find to buy some washers or something to bring it out a little.

Looking back I think I should have paid a little more and bought the windscreen that directly fits the venox 250 this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Medium-Tint-Deflector-Screen-Windscreen-03-10-Kymco-Venox-250-/111037136775?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item19da543f87&vxp=mtr

I think I may just end up buying that one and sell the one I have on craigslist. The one I have is this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AirBlade-Universal-Light-Smoked-Tall-Boy-Fly-Screen-/130915484759?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e7b2bc457&vxp=mtr

The one made for the venox 250 looks like it will fit looking like OEM, and its bigger....

[krisfnbs]

By the way Im an idiot.... I just realized the bikes odometer is in KM, and not miles. So all along I thought it had ~14k miles.....when in reality it has 8700 miles. This makes me feel much better! 

Took holly for her first trip since service... 5 mile city driving and 35 miles of highway.... no issues. very responsive, no sputtering, stalling etc. I think its safe to say im back in business and ready to ride!!!

[max oradea]

congratulations! this is superb news! now enjoy the bike and have lots of good riding times!

[krisfnbs]

thanks max. unfortunately I was not able to get it up and running in the shape it is now solely with my knowledge and everything you helped me with, but I still saved a bit of money doing some of the smaller stuff. I also learned alot of infortmation on this bike as well, I really do appreciate it.

It kinda feels good owning a bike NOBODY knows what it is. They say... Whats that? Who makes it? Is it fast? Is it reliable? So many questions lololol

[krisfnbs]

so my bike started to sputter on my way to work today and I was like WTF!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! and then I realized my gas light was on, I ran out of gas. Thankfully it was only a 3 min bike drag along to the gas station. I thought the light would be red like the others, but it was yellow. I was waiting for it to come on to see how many miles I would get out of the tank so I would know for reference. I got 363km(225 miles). I must have missed it in the sun.

[max oradea]

Great to hear you got through a full tank of gas without any problems... but you thinking what the f*** must be something to remember. Just got it fixed!! oh crap.
And hey 350km from full to dry sounds right and you are doing a lot of high way riding i guess. I get around 250 for the lamp to stay on which means there is another 2L in there, but i ride always in the city unless a trip was planed never going past 3rd gear in the city, and always have a fags worth of time for the first start up of the day to warm up.
when i went on a trip once on a full tank the lamp came on at 300km and thats with my gf on it as well from the top up of gas.
so you are bang on buddy. check your exhaust pipe from time to time to see if you get carbon on it and check if you are running too lean or not.
By the way guys interesting thing here. the venox fuel and air system is kind of cool. in the city not on hard throttle the carbon build up is less (lean) but when you power it on high ways it runs richer. i say lean as not a bad way but less carbon deposit.
feels like air box restriction to me, high rev makes more gas go into the engine but not enough air, this is safe i think because rich on high rev is kind of a protection for seizing.