Old Valk, newbie owners, 13k miles

[GeeBee]

Greetings, New here - have a 1999 Valkyrie Standard we bought at an estate auction last year with 13k on it.  It was running on 4 cylinders when we purchased it from sitting for a long time.  We, my dad and I, are newbies when it comes to motorcycles.  Been doing some reading here and there and here's a list of what we've done/replaced.

Original Petcock was stuck, took it off and opened it up and the casting that held the ball for the valve was busted. - Solution Replaced with Pingel 1311-CRV deleted factory nob. Added a Pingel inline filter after the petcock as well.

Assumed the busted petcock had sent fragments into the carbs.
Pulled carb assembly off, cleaned bowls and jets. 2 idle jets were clogged up pretty bad from corrosion 1 main jet was partially clogged.  Did a poor man's rebuild on the jets, cleaned them up the best we could with carb cleaner, seafoam, then about an hours worth of Lime-Away.(I am expecting to catch hell for the lime-away) - Did not touch the adjustment screws on the carbs being a newbie working on it I was a bit afraid of messing with these.

Performed a de-smog as well, I was cursing the pair valve when we pulled the carbs out, was a pretty easy decision to remove it, we opted for freeze plugs and a home made plate w/ gasket.

While we had the carbs off decided it was a good time to verify the Thermostat wasn't stuck - it wasn't.

Re-assembly went pretty good, I didn't look at the torque specs for the intake / headers until after I'd reassembled it - didn't twist anything off but i know there was an excess of 6.5/7ft-lbs of torque.  I backed them off and torqued them lighter and ordered a 1/4in in/lb torq wrench.

Test run after re-assembly.  Primed pretty quickly and fired up running pretty smooth. We couldn't tell it was missing on any cylinders until we started pulling spark plugs individually, then we noticed #1 really had little to no change with the spark plug on or off.  Even put it in gear and used the clutch to pull the RPMs down and we couldn't notice a change.  We also noticed a slight tick on that side of the engine during all this.  Also I didn't test the carbs for leaks before re-assembling it - the T that feed's the right bank's forward 2 cylinders has a slight leak - We don't think it was preventing fuel to the number 1 cylinder as we could smell gassy air when we pulled the spark plug on it.

Next Steps
1) Compression Check cylinders
2) pull carbs to fix fuel leak - probably remove / limber up the adjustment screw in the carbs.
3) Remove valve cover on right side and inspect valve stem / rockers.

Note about owner newbieness - neither of us have motorcycle licenses(yet), some dirt bike experience(1978 Yamaha DT175E), and we recognize that this is a poor choice for a first bike. We're thinking a rebel or a shadow as a learner(we're 6' 2" ~220lbs) As far as mechanics goes we're farmers and fairly well equipped to turn a wrench, except for that cursed 9mm Allen for the highway pegs on the crash bar, Every set of allens we had skipped 9mm, guess I'll have to take the crash bars off again to take the valve cover off.

Won't be able to work on it until next week, just wanted to introduce myself and situation.
Any feedback is welcome

[da prez]

Welcome. If you post your location , you will have help. The tech board is very useful , but sometimes an experienced hand to guide you makes it easier.

                                da prez

[Hook#3287]

Hey geebee,

I didn't notice you mention float valves, it's something you should concider swapping.

Doing a valve clearance is an easy job, but at 13 k maybe not pressing.

Get on her and ride

[indybobm]

Since you are planning on pulling the carbs again, here is a good source for new Float Valves from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Supply-18-8955-Float-Needle-K3-Keihin/dp/B001KOD732?ie=UTF8&keywords=K%26L%20Float%20Valves%20(6)%20Valves&qid=1465474742&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

[John Schmidt]

The click you're hearing may just be an exhaust leak at the header stud. As for using a torque wrench on those studs.....DON'T. You're fortunate you didn't already snap one off, something many have done using a torque wrench and the listed torque setting. Just use a box end wrench or small short handles 1/4" drive ratchet, snug the nuts up and nothing more. Put some miles on it then go back and snug the nuts up again. As for an inline filter after the petcock, probably not needed since the Pingel comes with a stem filter that goes up into the tank. But, since you did use one, just make sure everything is running downhill or you'll have starvation problems with a low amount of gas in the tank.

[..]

GeeBee please check your messages.

[GeeBee]

Welcome. If you post your location , you will have help. The tech board is very useful , but sometimes an experienced hand to guide you makes it easier.

                                da prez

Thanks! Updated

Hey geebee,

I didn't notice you mention float valves, it's something you should concider swapping.

Doing a valve clearance is an easy job, but at 13 k maybe not pressing.

Get on her and ride

We didn't replace the float valves but we tested them by putting low air pressure on the fuel line and actuating the valves.

Since you are planning on pulling the carbs again, here is a good source for new Float Valves from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Supply-18-8955-Float-Needle-K3-Keihin/dp/B001KOD732?ie=UTF8&keywords=K%26L%20Float%20Valves%20(6)%20Valves&qid=1465474742&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

thanks for the link, that is probably money well spent.

The click you're hearing may just be an exhaust leak at the header stud. As for using a torque wrench on those studs.....DON'T. You're fortunate you didn't already snap one off, something many have done using a torque wrench and the listed torque setting. Just use a box end wrench or small short handles 1/4" drive ratchet, snug the nuts up and nothing more. Put some miles on it then go back and snug the nuts up again. As for an inline filter after the petcock, probably not needed since the Pingel comes with a stem filter that goes up into the tank. But, since you did use one, just make sure everything is running downhill or you'll have starvation problems with a low amount of gas in the tank.

Yea I'm not sure how much torque I had on them but it was plenty, i was going back and forth really snugging it up so they wouldn't be loose, I'm sure if we got the engine warmed up there would have been issues!  Yea the fuel filter is probably overkill, it is mounted at an angle - we cut the original fuel line from the petcock to the T and put it in closer to the T.

I'm busy this weekend and can't work on it, but if anyone could suggest a compression tester to snag off amazon that would be wonderful, our ~30 year old compression tester in the shop doesn't thread into it.

[jim@98valkyrie.com]

Welcome, and good work so far!!! Some of us have changed over to Chevron Tecron in place of Seafoam. Seems to do a better job and is cheaper. I've also used BG44K as a fuel system cleaner.

[Brewer]

SNIP

we recognize that this is a poor choice for a first bike. We're thinking a rebel or a shadow as a learner(we're 6' 2" ~220lbs) As far as mechanics goes we're farmers and fairly well equipped to turn a wrench, except for that cursed 9mm Allen for the highway pegs on the crash bar, Every set of allens we had skipped 9mm, guess I'll have to take the crash bars off again to take the valve cover off.
SNIP

Bah! it is a great first bike, it will ruin your choice in the next bike though
Welcome,  a 98 standard is my first street bike and it has been great.

[Steel cowboy]

Hello Gee Bee and welcome. I've been an I/S owner for just over a year now. I've learned quite a lot from these guys, that has led me to do rebuild my carbs, desmog, alternator R/R and a few other things to enhance my ride. If I might add to the list of do's and don'ts on this bike, it would be to change out the O-rings on the intakes. With the desmog and Pingel fuel switch there isn't any need for vacuum hoses other than to sync the carbs, which is a good thing. If you do remove the carbs again U tube has a multi part step by step disassembly and reassembly video of the carbs and what to look for.
As far as the float valves are concerned, there is no adjustment of the float height. The plunger and spring at the point were the float and the float valves touch is the pre-set for the amount of fuel in the carb. Some Valkyries are prone to a problem called Hydro-lock, it's caused by the float valve not stopping the flow of fuel completely into the bowl and the fuel bleeding into a cylinder, when she is on the kickstand. Unless there is a way to measure the tension of that spring we all recommend replacing the 6 valves.
Look on the tech site there are a lot of hints and procedures that are very helpful.

[IamGCW]

D-Rays videos should help you with the carbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyszhh4XHs

[hukmut]

Also, be sure to check all vacuum hoses and block off caps for leaks.

I had screws stuck in my block off caps but was told that they will still leak.

Now I have actual vacuum caps on those stubs on the intakes, except on number 6.

Congrats on the bike. Plus, this forum is a great source of info.

These are the best bikes made.



Ride safe...