Hi All! First time poster, long time lurker.

I have an issue that likely has been addressed on the board somewhere, but I've been poking around and can't find exactly what I'm looking for. If someone can point me in the right direction that would be GREAT.

My bike is killing when I decelerate.  The bike will idle when I start it up, but once the bike is warmed up and I've driven a couple blocks, the bike dies at the stop sign. I can get it to start back up if I give it a lot of gas, but it will continue to kill at every stop sign on the way home. If I give it gas in neutral, or with the clutch in when I come to every stop light, I can make it home. I've played around with the idle and turned it up all the way, with no help.

The bike recently flooded pretty bad and leaked gas out the air box. I figure it was a stuck carb, so I cleaned that. Now with the carb back in, I'm facing this new idle problem. I don't know what causes the flood. It was parked at my campsite and I noticed gas dripping out the airbox (no, the petcock wasn't turned off, yeah I know...) I trailered the bike home and started to troubleshoot.

I'm not sure the flood and the idle issues are connected, but my guess is that they are?

I'm a novice at working on my bike, but my boyfriend is in small engines school and works on bikes/has all the tools. He's been working hard on diagnosing, but he's at a loss. He rides old Hondas  

My bike: 2001, 10k miles, I've had it for 4 years as the second owner. It is stock most everything except:

Work done before issues arose:

• Petcock replaced with raptor per this board's suggestion
• Oil leak plug fix per suggestion
• Added fuel filter

Work done recently in an attempt to solve issue:

• Clean carb with ultrasonic cleaner
• Replaced carb needle and seat
• Checked float height
• New air filter

Again if this has been addressed somewhere, please feel free to point me in the right direction and shame me for not doing my research!

Thanks- Sar

Hi Sar. Welcome aboard. You know how the needle and seat opens and shuts via the float to regulate the fuel level in the float bowl? Well, the seat is a brass piece (the needle fits inside it) that plugs into the alloy carb body. The seat is sealed around it's outside by an o ring. If the o ring is damaged, fuel can leak around the outside of the brass seat instead of flowing through it. If this happens, the needle and float can't control the amount of fuel filling the bowl. When you're rocking down the highway, the engine uses enough fuel to keep up with the leak but at idle the leak can become too much for the engine to use, so the bowl overflows and the engine floods at idle.
Try this test: Once the bike is running down the highway, before you come to a stop, turn the fuel off (try this somewhere safe). If the engine keeps running nicely with the fuel off, it might indicate this problem. The engine will quit when the bowl runs dry so don't forget to turn the fuel back on.
It's a long shot but is something I've come across a few times on bike carbs. I see you've replaced the needle and seat but thought it worth a mention.

Check the float bowl vent is not blocked, as well. It's a loose hose that goes nowhere. It's open to atmosphere and lets the air out when the fuel comes in.

Yoshi wrote on 09/11/16 at 17:31:43:

The fuel filter is not causing the flooding issue.
But potentially it can vapor lock, or restrict fuel flow at WFO.

You've checked the float level but did you check the float valve and seat,also there is a screen filter under the float valve seat that could be plugged .If your petcock was open and the carb flooded it had to be the float valve not being seated....."replaced carb needle and seat" the needle and main jet? why? did you remember to put the washer in between the needle jet and the main jet? need more info!....did you clean the TEV valve and passages?It sends extra fuel to the carb when you close the throttle.

Yes it is a genuine Raptor petcock. I'm not super convinced of getting rid of the fuel filter. I've had one since I got the bike, and it hasn't given me trouble.


Yoshi wrote on 09/11/16 at 17:31:43:

It sounds to me like you've put back the carb with something wrong.

You got a raptor petcock    check that you've plugged the vac port on the carb.

In the tech section, there's a post called 'carb specs'
The vent lines should be open and stuck up into the frame above the carb.

Have you removed the idle mixture screw plug? or was it done for you?

Not a fan of inline filters.  Can cause issues and anything small enough to pass through the petcock filter will burn up in the combustion chamber.  To be it's like buying life insurance on a dead man.  Worthless.

Hey everybody, so I think I got it all figured out. I re-did the idle drop procedure and the bike seems to be running correct again. It seems like the air/fuel mixture screw was turned out too much and the bike was running rich. Makes sense once the bike warmed up it would bog down when returning to idle. I just got back from a longer ride and had no issues

The screw was turned way out to compensate for my dirty air filter, and when I put the carb back together I just put it back to the position it was in before, without giving it much thought. Lesson Learned! I'm still new to messing around with carburetors and there's a lot going on in there so I try to keep it simple by not deviating. But with my nice new air filter the screw needed to be adjusted.

Newbie error, but good lesson learned.

Thanks again guys! Now off to finish the last 300 miles of my camping trip....


verslagen1 wrote on 09/12/16 at 12:37:02: