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Eeek! Saw 19.5 volts on my ride, my voltage rectifier / regulator is pooched, so the electrical system is getting way too much voltage, which completely explains why my bike eats lightbulbs. Suzuki has obsoleted the part, so I bought a Caltric unit off ebay. Hoping it arrives quickly, estimated about 2-3 weeks.
Today in The Shop, a quick mod to the bike for diagnostic purposes. My bike eats light bulbs like they’re going out of style, mainly the dual filament (running/stop) taillight, luckily they’re only about $1.50 a piece. However yesterday morning I was about 20 metres out of my driveway and the headlight blew, not great at 5:30am, but I’m thankful it happened on my lit street rather than halfway to work while I’m riding +60 km/h on a country sideroad.
Anyways, I’ve ordered some LED bulbs to hopefully resist failure from vibration, but I have a suspicion the failures may be caused by inconsistent voltage. So today I added a cheap LED volt meter using an unused +12V source near the handle bars, and a bit of two-sided tape. Not the best install, but hopefully this is temporary until I determine the root cause. Really hoping it’s vibration related as I feel it’ll be a much cheaper fix (LED bulbs in the mail already).Update, the carb tweak is going strong. I filled the tank on the weekend and saw 6L/100km vs 5.2L/100km on the tank prior. Not bad considering I was pretty hard on the bike “testing” and tuning, and my final 75kms on the tank were touring backroads and some No Winters with Matt.
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There, I fixed it.
Got the carb out in record time (practice makes perfect), pulled the bowl off, pulled the main jet and held it to the light. 2/3 blockage, just a pinhole of light. Ran my largest jet cleaner through it, and didnt even feel resistance. Now a flood of light coming through. Back together, starts on first kick, and a test drive. Safe to say she def pulled past 5,000rpm on hwy 89.
I still can’t believe the carb had debris in it again. Just my luck I spose.
All good now, time for a beer.
Gahhh, the bike is back in the shop. The carb troubles continue, still running lean. My symptoms:
1: won’t rev out past 5,000rpm
2: top speed like 105km/h
3: at 5,000rpm, roll off the throttle and the bike “speeds up” momentarily before slowing down.It’s a shame cause the bike starts beautifully with one kick, and has decent power under 4,500 rpm. Just can’t pull any power above 4500-5000ish.
All my literature and my spark plugs suggest a lean condition. It could simply be the float height is too low, or there’s something obstructing fuel flow into the carb. Either way I’m gonna take a couple hours to dot my i’s and cross my t’s.
Well apparently I can’t post links, so I’ll type it out, kinda
Go to Youtube, I’m user “Mecheng1”, and my uploads should be visible to you all.
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There’s a very good chance the left lever works the rear brakes along with the right foot pedal. On my atv, the rear brakes are single drum brake, cable activated. Thecable runs directly to the right foot pedal. The left bar lever has a cable which runs to the right foot pedal. The bar lever is quite ineffective as it requires Super strength to operate, however once stopped the parking brake can be set on the hand lever.
On Saturday night I received the repaired and recovered seat from my neighbour. It looks and feels great, Greg did a great job.
Waiting on ebay to deliver my new starter so I can toss it in there.Ride went well, but the new carb setting is slower than before. I’ve lost some top speed, and the 5,000-7,000 rpm pull is weaker. But starting is WAY easier, and up to 5,000rpm feels stronger.
Not sure how to proceed other than keep riding and check my spark plugs at a later date.
I could try to lean the needle jet (currently in richest position), but it’s a solid 2-hours of work for a 10-second adjustment, which may not improve my condition. Sooo, ride it out is the current plan.Well I finally got my test ride in this morning…. to the fas station…. on my way into work. Trial by fire I suppose haha.
The carb work was noticeable pretty quickly, bike starts much faster and the idle speed is much more controlled. The exhaust note is deeper now that the fuel mixture is fatter too, amd the bike smells like an old machine too. Glad I’m not lean anymore.
The clutch, no change noticed at all, except it doesnt slip when cold now. So that’s good.Gonna take a long ride home, try to run some no winter maintenance roads.
Monday night in The Shop, I finally completed the clutch job on my bike! AND a repair on the muffler so I can clamp down on tbe midpipe seal. BUT WAIT, there’s more. I also test fired the motor post carb rebuild, and she fired up sweet, the choke knob even performs a function now too. This morning I finished bolting on all the extra stuff that had to come off like the fuel tank, seat and number plates.
I’m pretty pleased with my efforts, but won’t put on a seal of approval until I have a successful test ride (hopefully after work tonight). It’s too dark at 5:45 am to be stuck on the side of a county road for some bullshitty thing I goofed up.
An update on Truckee, the air bags I added handled the atv and Ardbeg perfectly! At 60psi I had essentially returned to stock unladen height, and kept off the bump stops all weekend. Money well spent.
Glad the Taco tows well, shitty deal on the rad. A little strain and heat called out a weak link eh.
Your fuelling troubles all sorted out?
This Taco proving a worthy setup for you yet? I remember your buddies were into touring more and krawling less. Does the Taco tour on par?
The ATV starter crapped out on me. Weds night I used the starter to move the stv up the ramps into the Taco. Thursday night at ardbeg, only the starter solenoid clicked. I hoped riding a bunch would charge the battery enough, but I was forced to pull start all weekend. Now at home I put the good charger on the battery, ran it through a charge cycle, and still no start. Just a thick click of the relay. I’ll pull the battery out and run it through a recondition charge cycle, and hopefully that’s enough to get her going. Otherwise I’ll try using the booster with the battery to rule out the battery being defective. I really hope the starter and one-way bearing are in good shape, don’t wanna replace those parts, nor do I wanna pull start forever.
