Hitchcocks Forum

Merry Christmas from Kiwi land (expat). I have a 2007 (350 RE Classic).

I have just got my bike registered for the road here in NZ and not had a chance to ride for a year, due to financial reasons. Well my first ride was very short. The bike would not idle without it over idling at a fast tickover also new Motobatt battery had gone flat so no indicators. I have cleaned the carb(checked both jets and all ok). I have also bought a battery charger.

Question is there a link with the bike not idling and the flat battery. Also how many turns out of the idling screw from fully wound in and how many for the air screw.

Cheers guys any help greatly appreciated.

Mike

Hi Gaffe: Warm the engine, turn the pilot screw down to the bottom, reduce the idle screw to the slowest tick over. Open the pilot screw. Find the position the engine revs increase to maximum and firing evenly, normally between 2 to 3 half turns; 360 plus 180 degrees from fully closed position. Now adjust idle speed with the idle adjusting screw. Move the handle bars side to side to check this doesn`t alter the speed after taking up the cable slack. If the engine starts, it should run unless the battery is completely goosed.

If there is not enough current to run the indicators when the engine is running then the battery must be in a bad way. If it's been sat unused for a year it could be completely duff. If the battery is as bad as this suggests then it might not idle. You can try charging it up but I suspect it's new battery time.

If the electrolyte has dropped below the level of the plates then charging it will make this worse. Extreme case bits of plate flake off and form sediment which short the cell out. It can be tipped out, washed out with demin and refilled with acid but this is a hazardous job, so /if/ that has happened it is probably cheapest to buy a new battery. A 'new' battery that has gone down should only require topping up and charging. A lot of folks forget they need topping up.

Has the petrol been left in the tank for a year? Petrol goes off in storage. It could just be the petrol has 'blown'.

You also got to think the bike was working before you put it so bed to what has changed? Best guess here is petrol has gone off and gone gummy and the battery has gone flat. I wouldn't be too quick to change the idle setting before changing the fuel out. The float bowl and/or filter may have got gunged up with an influx of tank sediment (I bet you didn't shake the tank before opening the stop cock). Good luck.

Now, I know petrol does go off over time but, in my experience, its not as common or frequent problem as people think. In all my experience of messing about with engines the only time I have had a definite problem with stale fuel was with an outboard engine and I suspect that was water contamination. This year I started a Briggs and Stratton that had been standing for four years with fuel in the tank - no problem. It's worth checking but not the first thing I'd look at.

I add a squirt of Redex into the fuel for the lawnmower because it contains a petrol preservative. When I've not done this the Briggs & Stratton won't start come spring. That fuel may be 2yo. I might be more concerned re sediment. When something doesn't work, consider the facts, the engine won't idle and the indicators won't run, the carb has not been tampered with nor the electrics vandalised. Therefore fuel and/or battery.

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

Cheers. Mike

Check you have petrol coming freely out of the tank, pull the pipe off. There is/was/usually a filter inside the tank. When they acted up we often threw them away and let the muck fall to the float bowl/filter which is far easier to clean out. Little filter inside the banjo bolt?

It's easy enough to clean a carb out and most can be dismantled without removing the body from the bike.



Carburettor, generic: I usually start by raising the idle slide so the motor runs without dying (esp with kick start) then lower it to slow the idle whilst adjusting the air/bypass to speed it up. Start with the bypass almost screwed home then bring it out until it hunts then 1/2 turn back in. Don't be anal with that 1/2 turn, the last tweak could be 1/8. Rule of thumb is 4.1/2 turns out but much depends other jetting. Screw it out too far and the needle falls out, there should be a little o-ring on it(?) Iterative process until you get a nice steady idle thump. Actual idle rpm varies a lot from one bike to the next so emphasis on nice. Listen to the motor.




When your mate says, "I've tightened your throttle cable so it picks up straight away" say, "Thank you very much" and check you handlebars turn without the engine racing and loosen off the cable for ~1/8-in slack.