Can I fix it?

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:30

Encouraged by one of my dirty Harley riding biker mates at the Puhoi today over a burger and a beer (well he was drinking beer anyway) and with a real desire to get my blue lovley running sweeter than a sweet thing I decided to actually put my money where my mouth is and get to the bottom of her fuel starvation problems. I was out and about yesterday and while she is generally running well, there still is this annoying tendancy to bog and miss when travelling along under sustained throttle.

I have made a change from 91 to 95 fuel and this has improved her performance to quite a large degree. Whereas before the missing and loss of power (I believe it runs on three cylinders during these episodes) was an every time I asked her to run at between 5 and 7k rpm constantly, making it a very frutrating and not enjoyable thing to be doing, now it is hardly evident, but will still happen.

So, I have a reasonable grasp of how the fuel system works, I understand a little bit about fuel/air mixture and I know how a carb works. Now I dont have a huge range of tools, but enough to cover the basics. I wont pull the carbs out and start mucking around with them, as no doubt I will end up pushing her to the nearest bike shop to get the things balanced once I have put it all back together and she wont start, let alone run, though I am sorely tempted to take the tops off the carbs and check the diaphrams. Trouble is I cant get to the two inside ones without taking the lot out as a unit. Back to getting the experts to have a look.

However I am happy enough to tu-tu with the fuel supply up to the carbs which is what I did this afternoon. I gathered my must have tools together.

Pic One: Wine, the most important thing along with my trusty workshop manual
Pic Two: All my tools assembled and ready to go
Pic Three: The before shot - see why I call her my blue lovely?

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:33

So, I remove the seat and fuel tank, what a friggen mission that was. Dont think that puppy has been off since Adam was a cowboy, anyway I digress. Then the side covers and carb covers.

Radians are such special little creatures, they have all sorts of covers and tricky screws hidden all over the place.

OMG! What have I done? Hope I can put her back together again

**boomer** · 30th August 2009, 18:35

nice work.. how many bottles of wine are we on?

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:40

Now this is where I would really love some advice from the KB brains trust. This is what I have discovered today.

Pic one: The vacuum hose from the tank to the carbs is split, rock hard too I might add.

Pic two: The fuel filter looks revolting and actually has a floater or two in it.

Pic three: The actual fuel pipe between the tank and the filter was only marginally attached to the tank, it basically fell off in my hands, no clip no nothing holding it on. It actually looks like it was bitten off not neatly cut.

Pic four: One of my Plug leads is not looking anything like in one piece

**kevfromcoro** · 30th August 2009, 18:44

Lol Mom..

Have another bottle of wine.....
and pull some more bits of the bike..
will keep you amused for a couple of weeks . figuring how to put it back to gether

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:47

So, I am out of the gargre, the friggen wine got warm while I was mucking around so, I am now enjoying a cold one. Being the girl that I am, used my own personal girly hand cleaner and came up here to share my findings.

I am suspicious of the vacuum hose, the fuel filter is an obvious has to be replaced, and what of that HT lead? I dont have a multi meter to check it.

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:48

Originally Posted by kevfromcoro

Lol Mom..

Have another bottle of wine.....
and pull some more bits of the bike..
will keep you amused for a couple of weeks . figuring how to put it back to gether

Hate to burst your little bubble mate, I have been around the insides of bikes for donkeys years. I dont think I will have problems, but just in case I actually took things off in an order, and laid them out in the order they need to back on in. Geez that is a bit Irish that sentence

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:51

Originally Posted by boomer

nice work.. how many bottles of wine are we on?

About to start on my second glass

**boomer** · 30th August 2009, 18:53

something seriously wrong here.. you should be trollied by now ! and the bike in bits with people standing around discussing how the pipe got nibbled...

**Mom** · 30th August 2009, 18:57

Originally Posted by boomer

something seriously wrong here.. you should be trollied by now ! and the bike in bits with people standing around discussing how the pipe got nibbled...

So where the bloody hell are ya?

**Kickaha** · 30th August 2009, 19:11

The Radian motor is basically the old XJ550/600 from the early eighties so there is a lot of information here if you aren't already a member

Including a step by step on carb cleaning (actually more than one)

**Henk** · 30th August 2009, 19:35

Unless I missed it nobody has said much. The split vacuum line is going to be a problem. Get hat sorted and replace the HT lead and plug caps if they aren't moulded nto the coils. If they are just do that vacuum line. It will probably fix it. Oh and drink some more wine.

**nallac** · 30th August 2009, 19:35

good on ya Mom for having a go.

It will pay to strip and clean ya carbies, not that hard to do
once you've stripped the bike down as far as you have,
as you have said check the diahrams an needles.

I rejetted mine last week,tiss really a piece of piss to do.

I have a home made carb balancer you could use too,well,balance the carbs...

**98tls** · 30th August 2009, 19:41

Dont piss about with it Mom simply consume a few bottles of good quality red then rip the injection system outta a bike within close proximity and fit.