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Templets
| Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 02:44 am: |
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My wife's '03 Blast which has about 5k mile on it had been sitting, unridden in our garage for about a year. I tried to start it the other day, but no luck. I notice that the fuel valve was left "on" (sigh). But, it had been on a "Battery Tender" so the battery was fine. It cranked and cranked and cranked. So, I changed the fuel, oil, and even the spark plug for good measure, air filter is clean, but no good. Carb looked a bit dirty, so sprayed carb cleaner in there, even got it behind the butterfly valve inside. Tried starting it, and it started right up, but once the carb cleaner was used up it died. Another shot of carb cleaner, starts then dies. Same on repeats. Fuel was on, and I could definitely smell gas in the carb. I looked at the "boot", but it looks nearly new. Reseated it, but no difference. Not sure where to go from here. Any ideas welcome. Thanks. |
Sarodude
| Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 04:43 pm: |
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These carbs jets can clog up pretty good after a year. On one occasion, I forced a Blast with dirty pilot jet to start by manually choking the intake horn (left side of bike hidden behind a piece of plastic covering the air box). You may have to jockey things a bit - and it's challenging to clutch, crank the starter, AND stuff your hand in the hole! Either get another person or rig up something on the clutch lever. Or, just pull the carb off and clean out the jets...... :-) -Saro |
Templets
| Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 09:43 pm: |
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I've already got the carb out. I just wasn't sure about cleaning it. What is the easiest way to do this w/o screwing things up more? :-) Last time I did anything like this was on a Pinto and then I just rebuilt the thing. |
Sarodude
| Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 11:24 pm: |
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Just remove the float bowl. Once you do that, you'll see the main and pilot jets. Squirt your carb cleaner through 'em. While things are apart, clean up whatever other passages you have access to. -Saro |
Templets
| Posted on Sunday, June 08, 2008 - 08:10 pm: |
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Thanks. I was amazed at the gunk that came out . Carb cleaner, plus a little can of compressed air did the trick. Now it starts fine, but won't idle, needs more RPMs to keep going. And other than some backfiring it runs really well. I took if for a short ride and except for having to restart if I dropped the RPMs too much at a stop, seems fine. |
Templets
| Posted on Sunday, June 08, 2008 - 08:33 pm: |
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I think I found the problem... the manifold-carburetor coupler (what else!). I started the bike, set the idle screw so that it would just run, then sprayed a little carb-cleaner on the boot. The RPMs shot up then dropped after a bit. Guess the boot is leaking and sucking in air and messing up the mixture. At speed I'm pulling in enough gas so that the leak is less of an issue. |
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