backfiring from left tailpipe

[MadMadVmax]

I have 98 that just hit 29000. I have a feeling it is less than as powerful as it should be (who knows? It's my first motorcycle and I've only put about 200 miles on it). I was riding with my friend who has an 87 Magna 700 and he seemed to keep up with me, though I probably never had it above 8000 RPMs.

Some things that I've noticed:

?I don't have smooth acceleration throughout the whole throttle.
?I have some popping out of my left tail pipe, but doesn't seem to be coming out of the right.
?I also seem to be getting piss poor mileage. There is not a button to reset my tripometer though, so I don't know exactly what it's getting.

Something else:

When I bought the bike, the dude showed me a little toggle switch right in front of the left scoop which he said was a switch to engage the V-Boost at 3000 RPMs instead of 6000 (which I read is actually 5700)

He told me that when he bought it, it was already disabled.....could that mean that I'm not getting VBoost at all??


Thanks guys...I look forward to all of the sage wisdom

 

[Frosty72]

Sounds like you need some carb work. The Vboost isn't going to affect the performance THAT much. There are guys on here who can fix your carbs up if you send them in.

 

[Frosty72]

You can look between the carbs and see the boost valve open and close when you turn the key. When you turn the key on, do you hear buzz buzz sound?

 

[MadMadVmax]

I do hear the buzz when I turn the key on. I think that in wide open throttle between 5 and 8000 RMPs, I do feel a lot of power. I do want to have my carbs gone through....anyone you know of that works on them? I guess it will be a matter of how much they charge, and if I can be brave enough and figure out how to get my carbs out without doing damage. It may be simple, but I've had bad mechanical luck in my life, and I'm so in love with my V-max that I don't want to take a chance on ruining anything.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

Since the bike is new to you, I would start with the basics: 1).Pull the plugs, check color and spark on each. 2). Do a compression check by grounding the plugs, hold the throttle wide open and crank it over, noting what each cylinder is putting out. 3). Check the fuel tank for rust and replace the filter. If all of the above looks good, then its probably a carb issue and will need to be dealt with by either peashooter/shotgun or compete disassembly and cleaning followed by syncing.

 

[MadMadVmax]

I've read the term "shotgun" for the carbs a few times, and I have no idea what that means. I am not really a mechanic, and though I can explain a lot of how an internal combustion engine works, I don't have the tools or savvy to take stuff apart confidently.

As far as the compression check, can you give me more details about how to do that in my garage? Since I spent all of my money on the bike, the title, the insurance, the helmet and the gas...I want to get as close to a great running bike as I can before paying someone to re do my carbs.

Thanks for the help...I hope the weather is nice tomorrow so I can ride my bike to school...(ride my bike to schoo has way more meaning now than when I was a kid!)

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

The shotgun and peashooter methods can be viewed by doing a search for them on this forum, at the top right hand corner of this page. Basically you will need a syringe and some seafoam, and will be injecting it through certain circuits of your carbs, to clean out any accumulated gunk. For the compression test, you will need a compression gauge. You can get them at a local auto parts store, or online from places like harbor freight. (Autozone has a free tool loan program, that might be your best bet). The problem probably is in your carbs, but its nice to have a baseline of what your engine condition is before diving into it. You don't really need any special tools to work on your bike, just a common set of hand tools will work fine.

 

[VMAX NV]

MadMad,
You sound a lot like me, I just got a 99 with 15k miles, I can change the oil, changed the springs/oil, install new brake pads, do minor electrical("crimp" fix, new turn signals), probably replace plugs, but the carbs/engine scare the crap out of me.
I would NEVER take apart my engine and I'm always reading on here how people are stripping out thier carb screws or they won't move or they turn them but nothing happens.
Luckily my bike is running pretty well( I do get the occasional little pop when warming up, not a full-on back fire but like a "pop-few seconds- pop" and seem to be getting bad mileage. Haven't ridded enough to really check it due to weather...
When I get a chance I will check/replace the plugs and syncing sounds easy enough, just gotta order the carb sync...
good luck my fellow NW rider...

 

[MadMadVmax]

I really love this forum. Due to weather I too, have not been able to ride. I'll look up the shotgun method of cleaning the carbs and change the plugs. I think that by mid summer, if the bike is still running a little "quirky", then I'll pay a reliable person to re jet, and sync the carbs. PRAY FOR SUN TOMORROW GUYS!!!!

 

[SpecOps13]

Finding a reliable person outside of this forum could be a problem. Too many people bill themselves as experts until the work is done. Then they're Idiots.... Good Luck..... If someone's close to you, maybe you can get what you need, done by someone here who really knows what they're doing...

 

[tugla]

as for the popping out of the left tail pipe..

if you end up taking your carbs apart for a cleaning, make sure you got the floats set correctly and also what could cause some of the popping is a worn out needle(needle in the float system i m referring too). letting a little fuel thru. just something to check while your int here anyways.