Hey!!!

Short version: I ran my bike really hard for about 2500kms & crazy ticking started to happen. Checked tensioner and  it was fine. Rode bike again & it died for real. My conclusion is my valves need adjusting and how crazy is it for me to do this?

Long version:

So I successfully completed 2200kms in 5 days on my 93 savage (raptor, pod filter, Lancers jets, stock exhaust) and I'm still crazy happy my little thumper hauled me AND 80lbs of gear around Ontario!

The day before I left for the trip I threw my modded (extended weld) tensioner into the bike, new oil, sparkplug & the bike ran great but somewhere along my trip (800kms from home) the engine started ticking alot more than I had become accustomed to, bike also started vibrating a little excessively for the last leg of the trip too.

On my last day,  the bike died after I gassed up. I discovered gas was going into my air filter .... so I just let the gas evaporate off the filter and the bike started back up and I took off again. Made it home, things seemed decent so I rode it to work the next day where the vibrations & ticking got to be too much...I pulled the side case off right at work (in a brewery) and checked my tensioner and if anything was loose in there...all seemed fine (pretty stoked on that!)...add new oil and start it up...still mad at ticking...couple "knock knocks" at start up too but I had to get it home.

Bike died on me after 20mins on the highway (at my first stop) and I rolled it over to the gas station. Spent an hour trying to figure out the problem....bike turns over but wouldnt catch. My spark plug has been carbon fouling a lot (I had assumed it was carb related) so I put a new (gapped) plug in, but still just turns over with no catch. I then checked my air filter & it had gas in it again & I thought maybe I flooded my engine so I checked the plug again but it was clean/new looking and dry. I reattached everything, except the air filter & tried to start it but then white smoke came out the back end of the carb :/

I ended up rolling/pushing the bike 3+kms home, in +35 degree weather-oi vey!!!

A friend who's a mechanical engineer immediately said it was my valves once i mentioned the white smoke coming out the carb...does this correct??? (it also does a weird "gasp for air " everytime you flick the throttle)

I'll have to do the valve adjustment myself and I'm by no means a mechanic. I've been able to successfully do everything else to this bike so I feel confident I can manage this next venture but I'm more curious as to what I need to look out for????

I also have access to a local DIY moto shop...where they have benches & all the tools to do full rebuilds etc etc, so I'll most likely take advantage of the resource!

:'(

Read the info in the tech section about petcock problems. Unless one of the locknuts backed off and you have a valve that worked it's way out of adjustment (unlikely IMO) this sounds like gasoline in the oil caused by a malfunctioning OEM petcock.


EDIT: Just reread your original post and I see you have already replaced the OEM petcock with a raptor. I'd still check the oil for gas though in case of a float that's leaking. And recheck the valve adjustment just to make sure nothing's changed. And since the bike won't start at all now, unhook the plug wire from the plug and attach  the wire to a plug you know is good, leaving the original plug in the engine, Ground the other plug to the engine fins and make sure you still have spark.

OldNslow ,mentioned ,your fuel level ,float valve and I think that may be your problem. Your bike running louder,(fuel in your oil? you should check!) the motor gasping for air (to much fuel) wet air cleaner, soot on the sparkplug, and the bike not starting(flooded?) ,could all be caused by the float valve not closing when the float bowl fills ,flooding the carb. I would check the float valve for wear ( the tip of the valve should be pointed and not show a ring around it) you should also remove the valve seat by removing the screw and horseshoe shaped clip, check the O-ring on the outside for damage ,gas could be going around the valve. while your at it there is a fine filter that sits above it ,make sure its clean. and check the float (shake it /or submerge  it in warm water and look for air bubbles) for leaks. Compression +spark+ fuel =run ,you had compression ,and the valve clearance /rings don't change readily ,nor does the sparkplug ( you could just clean your old plug -it's known to work,new plugs can be bad right out of the box) that leaves fuel -to rich or to lean and the bike doesn't run.

eau de sauvage wrote on 06/18/18 at 20:17:34:



Awesome, thanks I'll do that!!!

batman wrote on 06/18/18 at 20:27:35:



Ok great! Thanks for the thorough explanation I'll be checking over everything once I get some free time!