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Recent maintenance story

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kalebrown87

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I just bought my first bike, an 08 shadow spirit 750, 6000mi, super clean, started every time until 2 days after I bought it. I went out and cranked the bike, it idled rough then died when I put it in gear. There was gas, the side stand was up, I hadn't hit the kill switch, and now it wouldn't start. I just bought the bike for $3500 and now it won't run!? I called over a friend and veteran motorcyclist that helped me find this bike. We determined it was a fuel problem because the plugs had spark but they were dry as a bone. We got the carburetor and fiddled with it until it started, took it for a couple rides with no problem... Until last Friday! It idled quietly, died, and wouldn't crank. I called my friend back over to look and we went straight for the carburetor. He thought maybe there was water in the bowl so we drained it but got no water, just a teaspoon of gas. Hmm so the fuel isn't getting here for some reason. We fiddle with it some more while trying to crank it. My friend decided to cover the opening of the carburetor with his had while tring to start it and boom! It started right up. It's not pulling a vacuum for some reason... let's drain the tank and make sure there's no trash. The tank is clean, the fuel screen is clear, maybe it's the petcock then. We remove the petcock didn't see any obstructions so we took it apart and there we found the issue. Someone had taken the petcock apart and when they reassembled it the edge of the diaphragm had been folded back and wasn't creating a proper seal. We reset the diaphragm properly and put it all back together and it cranked right up every time. Bad weather hit that day so the bike stayed garaged for 3 days during which time I didn't start it. I went out after the weather cleared and it has cranked every time since!
 
Interesting find. Glad you got it figured out! I've had nothing but issues in the past with vacuum operated petcocks. I modded the petcock on my KLR to be gravity fed, because it ALWAYS had a hard time starting.
 
Isn't it neat when it's something that can be found fairly easily, unlike electrical gremlins that can sometimes make you want to go berserk on the whole world? Hint, if it's electrical, it's usually a bad ground and SOG's hammer won't fix it but can surely teach it a lesson (and make the dealer's next boat payment).
 
Good job in tracking down the problem, and thank you for posting it up here for others to see. Hopefully you will save some other folks some frustration.
 
TxMotorbiker said:
I've had nothing but issues in the past with vacuum operated petcocks.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I consider them pointless. They usually do what they're designed to do but mechanically speaking they're just one more thing to fail. Thanks to ethanol issues and bikes that aren't ridden daily they create more problems than they solve.
 
Not to thread hijack, but in the name of sharing repair stories, and what could happen, I'll share this-

A customer brought me his daughters lifan 110cc fourwheeler. I hate working on Chinese stuff. You know, its not really the poor quality that bothers me most, its the fact that MOST of the people that own them adhere to the idea "if it runs at all, ride it", and again, MOST of the time, these are very very poorly maintained bikes.

So anyways dude shows up and drops off this fourwheeler. The battery is no good, chain is kinked up and rusty as can be.

I ask him the story. He said it'd start, but idle high for a while, and then it got to the point where his daughter would have to hold the brake to sit there and idle, it was idling so high. Then it got to the point where it wouldn't start without starting fluid, and finally just wouldn't start.

I told him the high idle sounded like and air leak, and I'd take a look at it. I also asked how much it got ridden after it started idling a little high. Two summers .... Ohh geez

Anyways I tear it down, and find a huge rip in the rubber boot between the carb and the head. I also realize it is a vacuum operated petcock.

So here's what happened- the carbs weight is supported by this rubber intake boot. Poor design. It developed a crack, which resulted in a lean condition. Lean=hot. They kept riding. Crack got worse, as did engine vacuum. Between the ever growing crack, and quickly wearing cylinder (die to running lean and hot) the engine would no longer pull enough vacuum to open the petcock and allow fuel to run. Spray some ether to start it, once running it could have sufficient vacuum to open petcock. Still running lean..... And hot.

I sealed the crack, and just to be sire bypassed the petcock. Engine would still not start. Adjusted the valves, still wouldn't start. Did a compression check... 40lbs.

So basically they burnt up the top end.

Then the guy didn't wanna pay me for dicking with this piece of ca-ca, because "he thought he was paying me to fix it, not tell him he ruined it"

I spent 4 hours taking this thing apart, and hunting gremlins, and this guy didn't think that time was worth anything. I didn't get ugly with him but explained he needed to come get his fourwheeler out of my shop, THAT DAY. Then the guys asked of it'd be okay if he picked it up Saturday. (It was Tuesday at the time)

People....
 
thrill-billy85 said:
Not to thread hijack, but in the name of sharing repair stories, and what could happen, I'll share this-

A customer brought me his daughters lifan 110cc fourwheeler. I hate working on Chinese stuff. You know, its not really the poor quality that bothers me most, its the fact that MOST of the people that own them adhere to the idea "if it runs at all, ride it", and again, MOST of the time, these are very very poorly maintained bikes.

So anyways dude shows up and drops off this fourwheeler. The battery is no good, chain is kinked up and rusty as can be.

I ask him the story. He said it'd start, but idle high for a while, and then it got to the point where his daughter would have to hold the brake to sit there and idle, it was idling so high. Then it got to the point where it wouldn't start without starting fluid, and finally just wouldn't start.

I told him the high idle sounded like and air leak, and I'd take a look at it. I also asked how much it got ridden after it started idling a little high. Two summers .... Ohh geez

Anyways I tear it down, and find a huge rip in the rubber boot between the carb and the head. I also realize it is a vacuum operated petcock.

So here's what happened- the carbs weight is supported by this rubber intake boot. Poor design. It developed a crack, which resulted in a lean condition. Lean=hot. They kept riding. Crack got worse, as did engine vacuum. Between the ever growing crack, and quickly wearing cylinder (die to running lean and hot) the engine would no longer pull enough vacuum to open the petcock and allow fuel to run. Spray some ether to start it, once running it could have sufficient vacuum to open petcock. Still running lean..... And hot.

I sealed the crack, and just to be sire bypassed the petcock. Engine would still not start. Adjusted the valves, still wouldn't start. Did a compression check... 40lbs.

So basically they burnt up the top end.

Then the guy didn't wanna pay me for dicking with this piece of ca-ca, because "he thought he was paying me to fix it, not tell him he ruined it"

I spent 4 hours taking this thing apart, and hunting gremlins, and this guy didn't think that time was worth anything. I didn't get ugly with him but explained he needed to come get his fourwheeler out of my shop, THAT DAY. Then the guys asked of it'd be okay if he picked it up Saturday. (It was Tuesday at the time)

People....
Click to expand...
Storage fees can be quite high:trust:
 
Thrill-Bill: Similar story in my shop but with a moped. After exhausting 8+ hours on the thing it finally ran. When presented with the bill for "his baby" I got the "why so much it's only a moped" story.
After a minute I said, what would the store say when I tried to buy a loaf of bread for 10cents because I've been working on mopeds. He still didn't see the picture....I quit working on mopeds.

Smoky
 
That's like the guy that thought $50 for labor to install, (and TEACH HIM TO INSTALL FOR NEXT TIME) new fork seals in his sons yz125 was "kinda high", when it only took ME 20 minutes a fork.

Local shops charge $100 a fork plus parts, and won't touch it for almost a month. They dang sure won't teach you how to do it while you watch either.
 
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