Ivanized...with a problem

[Ronin]

Thanks for the advice guys and unfortunately I won't be getting back to this little project for a while since school starts up soon.  I'll have to work on it a piece at a time.

Matt   

[Ronin]

Hey guys,

Well I finally got an opportunity to get the ol' girl back in action.  The first and foremost effort was placed in getting those carbs back off the bike and giving them the best cleaning of their lives.  I cleaned and cleaned in every orifice those carbs had.  If ya'll have not had a chance to download the service manual provided on this website, do so, it helped me tremendously.  Well, after a few good cleanings, replacing the fuel line, putting an in-line filter in place, and a new air filter I was ready to try my hand at fate.  Well, since it had been 2 months since the bike even ran guess what, the battery was dead...and I mean dead.  So I had to run up to Sears and get a trickle charger to get the sucker back in working order.  I decided to go visit some friends for a few hours and when I got back the charger said the battery was ready for a try.  So I opened the choke, turned on the ignition, flipped the run switch, and presto it ran!

Not to celebrate too pre-maturely but this was more promising than last time I fired her up.  So the real test came a few days later when I ran all the old gas out and filled the tank to the brim with new gas.  She fired right up with no hesitation and off were went, very quickly, into the wild blue yonder.

My only guess as to the problem(s) was that a needle was stuck open or something was causing flooding.  But to this point I've put about 200 miles on her and she still runs great.  Great to the point where holy crap there's a TON more power that wasn't there before BUT man does she get crappy gas mileage, at least in the city.  I know what ya'll are thinking, what did you want power and great gas mileage?  Well honestly yes but then again I also want a million dollars delivered to my door but the likelihood of either is slim to none and slim just left town.

At any rate, all is well for the time being and if anyone in the Houston/Spring area sees a silver bullet, that's me, leaving you, in the dust. 

Ya'll be safe out there!

Matt

[longislandbandit99]

I'm having the same issues with my Bandit.  Ethanol is the bane of man's existence where carburetors are involved.  I thought I had my Bandit licked too.  Stabil in the gas back in October, ran it for ten miles or so put it away.  I started it up a week ago and I had fuel in the airbox again.  Somehow it caused the #1 carb float to load up with what can only be described as fish eggs.  A brownish looking jelly mix that gummed up the needle.  The #2 carb had some stuff in the bottom but it looked more like silt.  The other two carbs were clean.  Explain that because I can't.  So now its another new oil and air filter, another three quarts of oil, another round of fighting those carbs off the bike and not scratching it up.  Oh yea I filled the tank before I did all this so I have 5 gallons of gas to dispose of.  This time I'm not fooling around.  The tank gets cleaned, petcock gets cleaned and the whole fuel system gets a cleaned.  Obviously something is in the tank or lines making this fuel dirty all the time.

[Ronin]

You were right with just "ethanol is the bane of man's existence".  Now if you're a corn farmer you might debate otherwise.  But if you look at the non-biased research on MTBE, the reason we now have crappy ethanol, you will see that MTBE is not any worse for our water supply than what the average household washes down the drain every year.


I feel for you.  After all that work and it's still not running right, it would really make me contemplate getting an fuel injected bike.  I know I'm gonna catch hell for that one but if I have to remove those dang carbs one more time I will heavily contemplate being a former Bandit rider.

I would consider adding an in-line filter if you do not already have one.  I bought mine at O'Reillys for $6 and so far so good.

Good luck,

Matt