In keeping with the spirit of the "What did you do to your Yamaha today?" thread, I thought it would be interesting to ask the same question but in reverse. Let's face it, this web site would probably not exist if our bikes ran perfectly all the time. But they don't, so here we are. I'm hoping that this thread will become a place where failures are reported along with a brief explanation of how to fix them. If you have a failure that you don't know how to fix but would like to post under this thread anyway that's fine. If you want advice on how to fix your problem, start another thread and then link to it from the comment you've added here. That way, this thread can stay on topic and streamlined (hopefully :wink:).

I'll start things off...

I decided to ride my wife's bike in to work. I hopped on, twisted on the "choke" lever, and hit the start button. She cranked a few times, started and began to warm up. Then, all of a sudden, she started to sputter and spit :?:. I rolled on the throttle to try to keep her going but it got progressively worse. Finely, she just couldn't stay running and died. And that's when I heard it. You know, the sound of liquid splashing on the ground. Fuel was pouring out of the air box puke tube. One of them [bleep]in' float needles had stuck and just flooded the bike! Cheap [bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep] carb rebuild kits!!!

And that's when I remembered someone had just posted here about their bad experience with the crappy needle and seat that came in their carb rebuild kit. It was the same brand I had bought and installed in these carbs. To make matters worse, this was the SECOND time this happened in less than 500 miles. Oh, yeah, I am not happy at all!

My fix? A lit road flare in the gas tank followed by a short sprint? No. But an email to my buddy Chacal should get me fixed up. Here's a tip to you new guys and gals: don't use inferior parts in the carbs. It'll only cost you money and time. Lesson learned.

Thanks for sharing, Don. Wanna do a 2-man carb clinic sometime next spring?
My bike has been behaving well for the most part, except I've had to prime it a couple of times recently to get started, leading me to believe I may have carb issues, no suprise.

Sure. We may be able to get Energi2er to come up, too. I haven't heard from him since he moved, though. I should give him a call...

Don - as a victim of that kit, I feel your pain. We should alert Bike Bandit, et al, that those kits are crap and cause all sorts of grief. Besides time and money wasted, it could be quite dangerous. Imagine if that float needle were to become stuck when your on the road somewhere! Stalled bike... gasoline spilling on hot engine/exhaust... bad.

Let us know how Chacal's kit works. My stock needle is a bit scored, but still usable. But I would like to get a new one that actually works.

PS. Anyone up for a carb clinic in the SF Bay Area?

I'm so there!

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun!

Dandrewk asked for an update and I'm happy to report that I've not had a lick of trouble with the parts I purchased from chacal over a year ago. As a matter of fact, I now ride this bike as my daily rider to and from work. It's been a great bike for me and very dependable.

Thanks for the tip. Almost bought something I probably shouldn't have.

I put in the valve shim that I bought from Chacal.

I had one that just barley on the tight side. It was the #1 intake valve at .10mm. I took out the 285 shim and replaced it with a 280 according to the chart and guess what? I'm still at .10mm.

So I'm thinking that the 285 that was in there wore down to 280. Something to think about when adjusting your valves.