New Owner... Carb Issues I Think....

[MONTREALMAX]

Hello to everyone, I am new to this forum and new to the VMAX. I am 38 years old and live just outside of Montreal Quebec Canada. I have been riding in Montreal for over 25 years on various makes and models. I currently own a recently purchased 1996 VMAX with 11,000 miles that is in showroom condition completely stock except K&N air filter. I have lusted after this bike since I was a kid, does anyone remember the Yamaha poster from 1984 of the guy doing a burnout on the Max? Had that on my wall for years would love to find one for the garage!! I also own a 1983 Honda CB1000 Custom (US Model) all original, 37,000 miles. The VMAX was purchased from an older gentlemen (typical story) who did not ride very much and this bike was not ridden last season and was not properly prepared for storage. I have done everything I can think of to these carbs, complete tear apart and cleaning and sync, fuel filter, Seafoam etc you name it I have done it. The carbs were not too bad looking once I had them open but maybe I missed something....

I am still having problems with low speed hesitation and backfiring through the carbs. The bike will also hesitate or mifire? occasionally out on the highway at a steady throttle position at approx 4000-5000 rpm. The bike is very difficult to start when cold and requires extensive warm up and choke to drive away without stalling. Roll on acceleration at low RPM's is comical it hesitates so badly. My CB1000C would blow this thing away in the 1/4 mile !!! I know I have probably overlooked a simple fix here but I am at a loss for what to do next. Is there an inherent problem with hesitation on this model year? I have read that on the 1996 model perhaps this could be an issue?

The fuel pump is clean and working properly. The plugs are new and the air filter is clean. Is there a possible electrical problem and I am not correct diagnosing it as a carb issue ?

The short season is slipping away here and this morning I could not get the thing fired at all so I left it in the garage and took the minivan to work, that's right I said the MINIVAN to work..... it is getting desperate!!

BTW this forum is fantastic, truly a big help for a new owner. Thanks for all the hard work keeping it going.

 

[maleko89]

Have you checked all eight intake boots? What about air box boots to the carbs? Have you tested our ignition system? Plug wires?

When you went through your carbs did you squirt carb cleaner plus compressed air in each orifice? Did you remove the pilot fuel jet from the jet block?

BTW, welcome to the Forum!

 

[MONTREALMAX]

The plugs and wires seem to be fine although they are original perhaps time to replace. I did not test the ignition system i was so convinced that it was carb related i did not look to deeply into electrical system. The boots are all fine i did the wd-40 test air box boots seem to be in great shape.....i just called the local dealer and he quoted 200-260$ (cdn dollars) for a tear down and clean of the carbs. Because this is my first max and i have never worked on them before maybe i did miss something when they were apart, but the carbs are pretty much straightforward design wise.... All jets were removed and cleaned i am thinking that it has maybe picked up some fine rust from the tank that has passed through the new filter and found its way into the float bowls???? There is a good dose of seafoam in the tank now but it did not help at all....i have run a full tank with seafoam through at this point.... I was trying to avoid tearing them apart all over again ......i am dying to ride this thing !!!

Maleko89 thanks for the quick reply your words of wisdom on this site have been a huge help troubleshooting for a newbie !

 

[maxcruiser]

MONTREALMAX, welcome to the forum!

Now when you say you tried to start it and no luck - did you pull the sparkplugs and check for spark? If no spark at all, plugs wet, check the kickstand switch - also what do the plugs look like - all wet or dry?

Will help to figure out how to diagnose the problem.

Mike

 

[turbostang]

If anyone will get it figured out for you it is Mark.

Did you run the seafoam through the fuel system only, or did you actually put it directly through the carb openings themselves?

Look at everything to diagnose it. I thought I had a carb go bad, turned out to be a broken camshaft.

 

[dannymax]

Welcome MontrealMax and congratulations on surviving 25 years of riding the streets of Montreal. That's a major accomplishment!! :clapping:

You have the best in the business helping you here. I'm not one of them, but here's a link to something that may help you. It did wonders for my issues. :biglaugh:

http://vmax.lvlhead.com/tips/shotgun.htm "Shooting the Shotgun"

Good luck,

danny

 

[MONTREALMAX]

No i did not run seafoam straight through the carbs only in the gas....i ran a full bottle in a full tank of gas but it did not help....normally i am not a big fan of any bottle cures but i was hoping after reading some things about seafoam it would save me from tearing into them again

i tried the shotgun again after the tear apart but nothing changed perhaps actually made it worse?? I am wondering if the seafoam in the gas knocked something loose in the fuel system that has now clogged my just cleaned carbs

oh well i am just going to spend sunday tearing it apart again and taking a closer look at all suggested and keep my fingers crossed

a broken camshaft? Ugh i hope not

 

[MONTREALMAX]

When it did not start this morning i pulled one plug and it was dry for the most part and was sparking it did fire momentarily but just died and i was getting late for work

it just seems like a lack of fuel issue to me

i did not crank it too long the starter motor on this bike does not like cranking for too long it seems heats up fast



that's not an oil leak it's sweat from all the horsepower !!!

 

[MONTREALMAX]

Ran another full bottle of seafoam through the gas saturday, i did not want to waste another weekend tearing apart the carbs figured i would give a cleaner one more go. It ran terrible for the first 30 miles or so, sputtering, stalling and huge hesitation. Limped it back to the house and parked it in the driveway where it stalled as i was dropping the stand. Tried to start it again but but no luck at all. I left it there overnight and was ready to take a hard look at the carbs on sunday. All the suggestions to look at the boots had me second guessing my first inspection.

Got up sunday morning and figured i would try to start it to move it into the garage. It fired instantly sputtered and smoked white for about one minute and then settled into a clean idle?? Let it warm for a minute and proceeded to burn through the tank of fuel mixed city highway driving without any sign of hesitation at any rpm. The only thing it did was stall when pulling in the clutch coming to a stop and it did that once rather than every time. Drove it to work this morning (yeaahh!!) and again no hesitation but it did stall once coming to a stop sign. Probably still a dirty idle circuit? (idle screws turned 2 1/2 out idle set at approx 1200rpm) long winded story short i am going to leave it for now and take the carbs apart at the end of the season. Not sure if the second can of seafoam had anything to do with the improvement......

Now on to the headshake at 30mph i do not like that at all !!!!

 

[dannymax]

Ran another full bottle of seafoam through the gas saturday, i did not want to waste another weekend tearing apart the carbs figured i would give a cleaner one more go. It ran terrible for the first 30 miles or so, sputtering, stalling and huge hesitation. Limped it back to the house and parked it in the driveway where it stalled as i was dropping the stand. Tried to start it again but but no luck at all. I left it there overnight and was ready to take a hard look at the carbs on sunday. All the suggestions to look at the boots had me second guessing my first inspection.

Got up sunday morning and figured i would try to start it to move it into the garage. It fired instantly sputtered and smoked white for about one minute and then settled into a clean idle?? Let it warm for a minute and proceeded to burn through the tank of fuel mixed city highway driving without any sign of hesitation at any rpm. The only thing it did was stall when pulling in the clutch coming to a stop and it did that once rather than every time. Drove it to work this morning (yeaahh!!) and again no hesitation but it did stall once coming to a stop sign. Probably still a dirty idle circuit? (idle screws turned 2 1/2 out idle set at approx 1200rpm) long winded story short i am going to leave it for now and take the carbs apart at the end of the season. Not sure if the second can of seafoam had anything to do with the improvement......

Now on to the headshake at 30mph i do not like that at all !!!!

MM-Sounds like you're closing in on the your carb issues.

Headshake/Wobble-there are lots of posts regarding this common problem. Check some of them out, the solution might be found there.

danny

 

[MONTREALMAX]

Thanks Danny think I'll start with the Walker frame brace and fork brace and see how that goes. Changing to Metzler 880 Marathon tires when I bought made no improvement from the original worn Qualifier's that were on it. Steering bearings are good. Thanks to everyone for your help again

 

[4gasem]

1 can of seafoam is awful strong... I think 6-8 ounces MAX are enough. I have had these issues as well. Try to keep no ethanol gas in it and if you must run ethanol then run seafoam too.

EVERY TIME I run ethanol I have carb issues. EVERY TIME!!! :damn angry:

 

[turbostang]

We do not have ethanol up here yet. Only two stations in Ontario can get it.

MontrealMax, I made a set of frame braces, installed solid motor mounts along with a ufo fork brace and racetech front suspension. Those changes made a world of difference.

 

[naughtyG]

I can't find non-ethanol gas here anymore! Every single station I've been to between Tampa and Orlando has a the (up to 10%) ethanol sticker on every pump :-/

 

[MONTREALMAX]

I am going to post a question in the suspension thread

i know that 1 can is strong but it seems to have helped and i was not in the mood to turn the wrenches last weekend....it is still not perfect carb wise but i think i am 75% of the way there

 

[dannymax]

I can't find non-ethanol gas here anymore! Every single station I've been to between Tampa and Orlando has a the (up to 10%) ethanol sticker on every pump :-/

I think all commercial stations in the states are selling the 10% ethanol.

The only place to get non-sthanol, that I can come up with, is one of the local airports. But that's 100 octane, I think, and a little hot for the v max. Besides there aren't any around here where you can pull up and get a bike topped off.

I just got some BG Supercharge II, gonna give that a try. It seems to be highly rec'd.

 

[82ndCowboy]

I think all commercial stations in the states are selling the 10% ethanol.

The only place to get non-sthanol, that I can come up with, is one of the local airports. But that's 100 octane, I think, and a little hot for the v max. Besides there aren't any around here where you can pull up and get a bike topped off.

I just got some BG Supercharge II, gonna give that a try. It seems to be highly rec'd.

Where'd you get the BG from?

 

[maleko89]

Robert, you have Advance Auto down there? That's where I get my BG products from.

 

[82ndCowboy]

Robert, you have Advance Auto down there? That's where I get my BG products from.

Yes we have em here.
Thanks, I'll check em out!

 

[MONTREALMAX]

Strange things still going on. The bike still stalls after pulling in the clutch lever and it comes back down to idle, still the some hesitation when rolling back on the throttle from low rpm's. It is much better since the cleaning sync and seafoam treatments but not perfect. I inspected all boots for the third time last night and threw some seafoam in for good luck it seems at this point.
Here is the funny part all of the symptoms get much worse as the fuel level in the tank drops and gets very bad once i am on reserve. The fuel filter was changed and seems clean but i will put another one in. I have not removed the gas tank or the fuel pump yet. How much fuel should the pump be pumping? L/min gal/min, just to eliminate it from the equation.