Just Purchased, 05 VMax issues

[mistic107]

I got me a VMax (yay!) a couple weekends ago, it's a 05 with 16k miles on it and I can having a few issues with it and need some guidance on what to do on them.

1. It will not start when cold with the choke fully on, I have to blip the throttle to get it to start up then it idles a little rough for a couple seconds then you can tell the choke is engaged and I can back the choke down. When I power it on I can hear the fuel pump clicking to load up the floats. It clicks 7-9 times or so. I can power it down and back up and the pump does not engage the second time which is good so it see's the fuel is there.

2. When taking off from a start, no matter if the engine is warm or not, it spudders for a couple seconds then kinda takes off. The idle is right at 1k when the engine is warm.

3. It has a 4:1 exhaust on it and there are exhaust leaks at almost every joint. I noticed that where the down pipe from the back of the motor meets the rest of the pipe moves up and down if I put pressure on the back part of the exhaust like there is no seal there at all. I have no idea what brand of exhaust this is but it seems very sketchy to me. The end pipe (no branding) was a 2.5" with a .5" baffle. I repacked it with a 1 3/4 baffle to cut down on the sound and hopefully help with some back pressure.

That is all the major stuff. I have done a oil change on it and went through and checked most of the fasteners around the carburetor and made sure they were tight. The next thing on my list is to inspect/replace the plugs and then the head gaskets as they were a little cracked.

Any insight would be great

 

[Kronx]

Congrats on the VMax! Sorry I don't have any answers to your questions(Im a newb), but you'll definitely have some pros respond to help. It's a great forum!

 

[mistic107]

Thanks Kronx!

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[adambweird]

Id pull the carbs and tear them down n give em a very thorough cleaning and sync them up when you put em back on. Pay close attention to the condition of your diaphrams, will cause some erratic behavior if theyre cracked. Wouldnt be a bad idea to inspect all the rubber joints for the carbs, vboost and to the airbox for cracks while the carbs are out.

 

[jfeagins]

If you were to pull the carb rack and disassemble them, be sure to notate which jets are installed, as that will come up in discussion later, especially if you can't get the sputter out by a simple carb cleaning AND fixing all the air leaks in the exhaust system. Because with the aftermarket exhaust, proper jetting is key to smooth running.

 

[fmcandrew]

+1 to all above suggestions...sounds like you're not getting enough fuel or too much air. The choke basically makes a rich condition when on...

 

[mistic107]

Thanks all, I have wanted to pull the carbs but to be honest I am a little intimidated by it. It's just something I am going to have do make myself do to learn about the bike.

On a side note, my fuel light seems to be coming on very early in mileage. Once at 84 miles then just now at 88. That seems really low does it not?

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[jfeagins]

Thanks all, I have wanted to pull the carbs but to be honest I am a little intimidated by it. It's just something I am going to have do make myself do to learn about the bike.

On a side note, my fuel light seems to be coming on very early in mileage. Once at 84 miles then just now at 88. That seems really low does it not?

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Roughly normal for around town riding, especially if you are using moderate to severe wrist action, or if the bike is running on the rich side. Only 3.2 usable gallons before the light comes on. .8 gal reserve. Total of 4 gallons in the tank.

 

[customizedcreationz]

Thanks all, I have wanted to pull the carbs but to be honest I am a little intimidated by it. It's just something I am going to have do make myself do to learn about the bike.

On a side note, my fuel light seems to be coming on very early in mileage. Once at 84 miles then just now at 88. That seems really low does it not?

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That is normal mileage. You will usually see around 90-110 miles out of a tank depending on how you ride. If you are lucky and ride alot of highway you might see 125. Some people see a little more and some see less. But you are not off base.

Your other problems might be remedied as well with the peashooter and shotgun carb cleaning technique. Google them and you'll find good info on them. That might solve your issues and you wont have to pull the carbs.

The exhaust , lets get some better pictures of it. You might need to tighten everything up on that, which might require pulling the system off and having a muffler shop shrink the connections if they are bad enough. Check your oring header gaskets, probably need to replace those if the system is that loose.

Does the Vboost work? Do you hear the servo working when you turn the key on? Take the fake tank cover off and if someone did jet work, you might have a stage 7 carb kit which would be 4 small pod filters instead of the stock air box.

Get some pictures and we can help you out.

Todd

 

[mckzx9]

When you say you tightened all the fasteners around the Carburator you didn't tighten the a/f screws? Your talking about the clamps on the rubbers I think.
Did you test drive the bike before you bought it? How did it run then?
I would suggest the shotgun and peashooter method. Search for the how to's in here they take you step by step.
Definitely take care of those exhaust leaks.
Hope you get her running better.

 

[adambweird]

That exhaust looks like a UFO 4-1 Dragstar. Ive got a UFO StreetPro 4-2 and replaced all the pipe to head exhaust gaskets and used Permatex Ultra Copper on all the slip joints to seal things up. I had exhaust leaks everywhere before i did that.

 

[[email protected]]

Looks like you have a UFO 4-1 exhaust on there. That is one loud mother!

I would start off by removing the exhaust. Check to make sure the exhaust gaskets at the cylinders are in good condition. Reassemble with some ultra copper RTV at the pipe joints. Particularly where the front left and right rear headers join. Get it all bolted together and then torque it all tight. Its a decent exhaust, just loud as all heck.

As far as the carbs, you might be able to get away with the pea shooter, or the shotgun cleaning methods. I'd be more apt to remove them from the bike, check the pilot jets for blockage (very common), clean everything up, put in some leaner mains (147.5 or 150) and shim the needle. Then, fine tune from there.

There is a wealth of information in the carburator section. Check the "sticky" threads at the top of the list. There will be how-to info on everything from removing carbs, to changing jets, rebuilds, float level check, synchronization, etc. It takes a little effort to read and absorb it all if it is new to you but, this is an easy bike to learn on.

Good Luck and let us know if you have any questions.

 

[mistic107]

Thank you all for the support.

The exhaust , lets get some better pictures of it.

Does the Vboost work? Do you hear the servo working when you turn the key on?

Todd

I will get some better pics of the exhaust tonight. I could be the UFO but i didn't notice any stamps on it.

Yes, the Vboost does work and seems to work really well at speeds.

When you say you tightened all the fasteners around the Carburator you didn't tighten the a/f screws? Your talking about the clamps on the rubbers I think.
Did you test drive the bike before you bought it? How did it run then?

Correct, I am referring to the clamps around the rubber seals. There is actuall a small leak around one of the seals and has some fuel build up on it. I didn't get a chance to test drive it at the shop so I can't really say how it ran then but as I haven't really done much with it I imagine it would be the same, I still would have bought it.


Thanks again for all the info. I will start tearing into it tonight after I get the pics up.

 

[mistic107]

Here are some pics. It doesn't look like it's been re-jetted but hard to tell.



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[[email protected]]

Definitely a UFO exhaust as already mentioned.

The pics of the carbs don't really help. Need to check the #'s on your main jets and pull the needles and see if the are stock and if they have been shimmed.

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[mistic107]

Gotcha

I was going through the shotgun cleaning and got to the part where I count the idle mix screw turns but I ran across this, Wtf is that? All the other carbs clearly have regular screw heads except this one.

Right side front carb


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[m-cman]

The screws are easily stripped. That one looks like it has been stripped. It can be a real problem getting out. There is a lot of info on repairing. Common problem. Just do a search.

 

[adambweird]

On the subject of your exhaust, Voodoo makes something called a speakeasy that will fit into the end of your slash cut that will tone things down a bit... or you can do what i plan on and cut down a Yoshimura RS-3 can (any will work, just what i have on hand n i like the Yoshi sound). Plenty of options out there.

 

[davesax36]

On the subject of your exhaust, Voodoo makes something called a speakeasy that will fit into the end of your slash cut that will tone things down a bit... or you can do what i plan on and cut down a Yoshimura RS-3 can (any will work, just what i have on hand n i like the Yoshi sound). Plenty of options out there.

Post pics and video when you do this...

Posted with my thumbs.

 

[dannymax]

Gotcha

I was going through the shotgun cleaning and got to the part where I count the idle mix screw turns but I ran across this, Wtf is that? All the other carbs clearly have regular screw heads except this one.

Right side front carb
View attachment 42881

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Sure looks like the head is all buggered up....it will need removed/replaced. As noted there's lots of info on this, look it all over before deciding how you want to proceed, it's real easy to ruin the whole carb body.

Which carb is it....one of the right side ones probly, eh?