Been Away From My Valk For Awhile And Odd Issue...

[Bitshifter]

I have not ridden my 97 Valkryie standard for several months due to many reasons and now I'm trying to get the old dragon running well again.

The first thing I did was replace the battery, replace the internal fuel tank mesh filter and 'O' ring, replaced an old fuel line, and replace the vacuum line that goes to the vacuum cutoff on the petcock. Then I put in a new air filter and added fresh gasoline and gave it a try.

Result: I can get the bike to start with the choke full on and it seems to idle okay but as soon as I give it a little throttle and/or cut back on the choke the old lady sputters and quits. After doing this a bit I started to wonder about the condition of the spark plugs. I pulled a plug and it looked fouled so I purchased and installed a new set of plugs.

Result: It starts and idles with the choke full on but any addition of throttle or reduction of choke and the beast sputters to a halt. 

Any ideas or suggestions will be very appreciated.

Robert, (AKA Bitshifter)

[BF]

Plugs don't go bad just sitting in the engine.  Probably just clogged slow jets. 

I'd recommend dumping in a bottle of Techron.  Dump in the whole bottle (some would say that's overkill, but....if you want it clean), fill tank with gas.....go for a looooooong ride and keep it under 2 grand on the tach. 

Like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, rince and repeat untill it clears up. 

[Bitshifter]

Plugs don't go bad just sitting in the engine.  Probably just clogged slow jets. 

I'd recommend dumping in a bottle of Techron.  Dump in the whole bottle (some would say that's overkill, but....if you want it clean), fill tank with gas.....go for a looooooong ride and keep it under 2 grand on the tach. 

Like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, rince and repeat untill it clears up. 

I should have said that the plugs probably fouled from the rich fuel mix due to the choke... Then again it's hard to imagine plugs fouling after 10 minutes. I'll try dumping in a bottle of Techron and idle it for awhile and shut it down to soak. I have not been able to get running well enough (yet) to take it our for a ride. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Chrisj CMA]

There seems to be a rash of these reports.  Leave a bike full of ethenol gas sit and what happened to your bike is to be expected.  Also what is to be expected is no amount of additives are likely to unclog all the slow jets (If it works you are a lucky man!)

Start reading up on Air Box R/R and Carb tear down......most likely in your future

There are enough posts on this subject you can search and find out how to properly care for and prevent this.....and how to correct this.........

[Jabba]

hindsight is always 20/20.

I start adding seafoam to my fuel in about October... as I never know when will be my last tankfull till spring.  Sta-Bil works too, but I like the additional benefits of Seafoam.

Jabba

[Ricky-D]

That's a good practice.

Many don't realize that the mixture of gasoline plus stabilizer needs to be at the same concentration inside the carburetors.

Simply pouring the additive into the gas tank and running for a few minutes does nothing for the carburetors.

***

[RudyF6]

hindsight is always 20/20.

I start adding seafoam to my fuel in about October... as I never know when will be my last tankfull till spring.  Sta-Bil works too, but I like the additional benefits of Seafoam.

Jabba

+1 

[Madmike]

If you increase the idle with the idle adjustment which is between the front 2 carbs on teh right side you may be able to get it to run without the enrichener and then work from there to get the low speed jets cleared.  With my bike if I have it running on the enricher any just about any increase in throttle will cause it to bog and die.