What's being hurt ?

[Kidd]

Had  my Valk worked on in Phx Az 3 months ago  ,   they do a lot of  Valks .
They adjusted the  carbs  but said they were running too rich , they think maybe someone  rejetted them  or something .
When I got on the bike , I realized the chock  was on  ,   so   ,   I have been riding it for 3 months  this way  .

They tried to adjust the carbs with the chock on  and I am driving it   this way.

I am thinking no harm is being done  , unless   it's running too lean  now  with the chock off   .

What do you all think ?

[Patrick]

It kinda sounds as if you should have some one else take a look at the bike.. I'm not sure how it could be run all the time with the choke/enrichener on without that being known, but, stranger things have happened.. There really isn't much adjusting to be done to these carburetors except for balance/sync and pilot screw setting, so someone could fix or check this quite easily..

[Chrisj CMA]

Whatever the shop adjusted/changed tinkering with the carbs with the "choke" on is now wrong, and I wouldnt ever go back to that shop.  My bike will hardly idle and wont idle smoothly and will act like its starved for gas if I forget to push that lever back up soon enough.  Once you get it running right check the spark plugs, if they arent too fouled up they should correct, then RIDE get out and open her up and blow out all the crud thats built up....Seafoam would help too

[Rocketman]

Was it truly on, or just at that halfway point where the cable slack gets taken up?

[Kidd]

It was really on all the way, I got on the bike with the shop owner right there and pointed it out to him , he said no way was it tuned with it on.


Now with the chock off, it's probably  running lean , not rich .

[sandy]

Is it possible that he/you put the choke on when you picked it up from the shop and just never took it off. Therefore the adjustments were done properly. Pull your plugs and replace if they're black. No permanent harm could be done. BTW: Was this done at The MC Service Shop or D&D or elsewhere?

[Udo]

If they really tuned the bike with the choke on, i would never trust them again. And never give them my bike again. That´s basic, not rocket science. Who knows, what they will do (or not) next time....

[Kidd]

Is it possible that he/you put the choke on when you picked it up from the shop and just never took it off. Therefore the adjustments were done properly. Pull your plugs and replace if they're black. No permanent harm could be done. BTW: Was this done at The MC Service Shop or D&D or elsewhere?

The ones that  store bikes in the service area , their   web site  is linked to  this board

[The Purple Haze]

I wouldn't trust my Valk to anyone but BigBF and he's located right in Phoenix.  Check him out at: http://www.bigbf.com/

[sandy]

If you hand the carbs synched, it's done at an off idle condition. That means at 1500 RPMs or there abouts. It's typical for the tech to use the choke to hold the rpms up. It doesn't have any effect on manifold vacuum. Sounds like a simple oversight. Pilot screw adjustments would have been done before a synch, so the adjustments should be correct. I wouldn't worry: just pull the plugs as I said earlier.

[Kidd]

Geez , so that's how ya spell "choke "

Thanks for the info

[Chrisj CMA]

It's typical for the tech to use the choke to hold the rpms up. It doesn't have any effect on manifold vacuum.

Not trying to argue, just to understand.  My carbs have never been sync'd or adjusted, but I thought its best to tune them when the engine is at running temp.  At running temp my "choke" will not bring the engine up to 1500 rpms, in fact as the engine warms up the choke increasingly degrades the idle and lowers the rpms.  It will do as you say....holding the rpms up when the motor is cold, but is this really what should be done?

[Ricky-D]

Anymore, "tuneup" is a misnomer!!!!

It's always a good practice to inquire as to what a "tuneup" consists of.

A tuneup used to be a process of changing and adjusting points/condenser and tuning the carburetor plus anything else needed to get back to spec.

Now with all the advancements made in electronics a tuneup can be as little as changing sparkplugs and checking a few other things.

I don't know if synchronizing the carburetors is a standard tuneup item but it would be wise to inquire if it, in fact is.

Messing with the air bleed screws, to me, is a very subjective thing. I feel it's like: "This mechanic likes it this way" while some other mechanic likes it his way.

That's why I don't let anyone put a wrench on my bike. I'll research and do the work myself.

[Kingbee]

We don't have air bleed screws.  The pilot screws are fuel metering screws.