Throttle movement issues

Hey folks,

Interesting problem today. I went out to start the bike after charging the battery, and after doing a ton of work on the front end. It turned over fine, but I couldn't turn the throttle. The throttle would turn maybe 1/8 of the distance it normally turns. First I thought I had gotten the cable routed wrong when I put the forks and brakes and stuff back together. It looked normal. Then I looked into the carb area to see if perhaps there was something mis-aligned.





Everything looked quite normal. At this point, I'm scratching my head saying "WTF?" and getting super annoyed. I haven't ridden the bike in months, so I'm thinking someone is messing with me or that I dropped a tool in there, or that a throttle butterfly plate came off. >:O It felt like metal on metal.

Here's what I found when I kept poking around:



What in heck is that? And what is it doing in my motorcycle? (I keep the bike under a cover)



A FREAKING WALNUT. It was jammed up in a space between the throttle connections (the ones with the adjustment screws) and the carb bodies. I mean, it was slipped in there very cozy. This was made all the more hilarious by the fact that I had just pointed out the funny places the squirrels on our lot hide walnuts, such as on windowsills (like that's not gonna get stolen...).

Aaaaaanyway---for your amusement. Not all "mechanical" problems with the bikes are mechanical in nature!

 

That's great! LOL

I used to work in an automotive shop...we had a lotta little old lady customers who rarely drove their cars...was common to find airboxes packed fulla nuts and seeds, same with exhaust resonators, cowls, etc...

Usually chipmunks or mice, in those cases...sometimes we'd find a dead one...

 

Someone on the site had a muffler full of acorns last year. Got to watch out for those tree rats. :lol:

 

I have two old motorcycle helmets that the damn red squirrels have built nests in. have a 25 gallon fish tank stored in there that's half full of nuts. And I have to remove a bushel of grass and leaves from the lawn tractor every time I take it out. And use a snow shovel to clear out the walnuts from the shed every few weeks. Because they are protected as a endangered animal you cannot kill them, I can understand why they are endangered. They would be extinct if I had my way! Also you can live trap them but cannot move them more then 100 yards from where they have been caught! We have about 8 walnut trees on the property and at this time of year the the damn squirrels are collecting nuts. So they are busy dropping them out of the trees so you have to watch out so you don't get hit in the head! I'd like to cut all the damn walnut trees down BUT the wife wont let me. So the war goes on with the damn squirrels!

 

You need a bunch of cats to take care of the squirrels. Then you could have stray cats clawing your seat like they did mine.

 

They would be endangered if they were in my yard doing that.

 

I let my dog take care of them. It's natural predation, so that shouldn't count against the endangered, right? Nah, that's a pain cause she only eats the brain, then I have to get rid of the rest...gross.