Silver's ready to ride!

[Silver]

As most here know I've had a love/hate relationship with my current Zed. After totaling my first ZZR on Blood Mountain a couple years ago the replacement has been a bit of an ongoing challenge. It was short of a museum piece, an 02 with 7,000 miles on it. When I test rode it ran decent but I could tell the carbs had issues. I assumed a quick cleaning and adjustment would cure the issues so I bought it and brought it home.

Upon getting it home I opened up the carbs and they were the worst I've ever seen. Someone had already thoroughly screwed with them and they were full of gunk. All the pilot screws were at least 4 turns out, most of the o-rings were swollen from ethanol and were unusable. I also found that a couple of the diaphragms were pinched.

Continuing the clean up the intake valves were the most carboned up I've ever seen on a bike. Not sure how long they had the carbs set that rich but it had caused lots of build up in the top end. I took things one step at a time, cleaned up the valves, adjusted the valves (several were out of spec), purchased a used set of carbs (went through them and dialed them in), pulled the stock exhaust and added Holeshot slip-ons, set the K-tric, checked the coils, the grounds, etc.

The bike checked out, compression was good, the engine was tight but it never ran quite right no matter what I did. Finally out of answers I purchased a brand new set of carbs on e-bay for $375. I shimmed them, adjusted the pilots, put them on and synced them. The bike ran basically the same and I was about to give up and tear the top end off. I walked away from it for about a month because I was traveling for work and this weekend finally got time to work on it again. No matter what I did the sync fought me and the vacuum readings were inconsistent.

I checked the "zero" on my gauges and they were dead on. No matter what I did I kept returning to carb issues. These were a set of gauges I had used for almost 10 years and were always accurate. I decided to take the reading on cylinder #1 and use it as a baseline. It was 10 inches, as were all 4 cylinders. I put the #1 gauge on #4 and it was only 8"! I did this on all 4 gauges using #1 puling 10" as the calibration cylinder. Come to find out my trusty set of gauges all varied. The worst was between #3 & #4. The spread was 2 1/2" of vacuum.

I pulled the covers on all 4 gauges and set everyone to 10" on the #1 cylinder. Once I had that done I re-synced the carbs and the bike came right into line the way it should. I don't now if it was moisture in the garage or what but somehow my gauges got way out of calibration...so for the past couple years I've been fighting issues that were not bike issues but instead were due to faulty tuning equipment. (and prior I've synced dozens of bikes using these gauges with perfect results).

So as of today, the bike is running great! I also changed the oil, fresh plugs in the cylinders and put on the 16 tooth front sprocket. All I can say is the Zed is back and I'm stoked to ride as soon as the weather allows!

I still have a few things on my to-do list...the most important is setting up the suspension and sliding the forks up about 3/4". Regardless it is good to ride and it will only get better from here!

[montanazed]

I'm going to "do" the carbs and check the shims this winter (new air filter too.)

Is there a brand of gauges (cheap) that you recommend picking up to sync the carbs and what's the idea behind sliding the forks?

Thanks and congrats on getting the bike "back" in tune!!!!!!!!!

[Silver]

I'm going to "do" the carbs and check the shims this winter (new air filter too.)

Is there a brand of gauges (cheap) that you recommend picking up to sync the carbs and what's the idea behind sliding the forks?

Thanks and congrats on getting the bike "back" in tune!!!!!!!!!

I bought a set of these about 10 years ago from Holeshot when I was riding Bandits.

tool_carb_sync_gauges.jpg

If they are all even and accurate they work great. My set is now way out of whack and I will start looking at other options because I don't trust them to be dead on anymore.

Pertaining to the fork adjustment, I find the handling in the twisties is improved by bringing the front down a slight bit. I've also heard of guys raising the back slightly to achieve the same result. My preferred is the fork adjustment and once I get that done I'll set the sag and be ready to roll.

[spedxprt]

Congrats on getting things worked out with your bike and equipment, hopefully the weather will warm up for you soon!

[mehush]

Wow John. Heartbreaking in a way, but glad you got it figured out.

Was the recent thread about the carb sync tool responsible for your checking your guages?

This is exactly why I read all the tech threads. Knowledge is power, and even if I don't do the repairs myself, I have a pretty good understanding of a problem when it comes up.

[Silver]

Wow John. Heartbreaking in a way, but glad you got it figured out.

Was the recent thread about the carb sync tool responsible for your checking your guages?

This is exactly why I read all the tech threads. Knowledge is power, and even if I don't do the repairs myself, I have a pretty good understanding of a problem when it comes up.

Not really Mike...that decision was an impulse action in the moment.

FYI, I'll be flying into Orlando a week from tomorrow and will be free on Tuesday the 28th...I'll start a new thread.

[mehush]

Wow John. Heartbreaking in a way, but glad you got it figured out.

Was the recent thread about the carb sync tool responsible for your checking your guages?

This is exactly why I read all the tech threads. Knowledge is power, and even if I don't do the repairs myself, I have a pretty good understanding of a problem when it comes up.

Not really Mike...that decision was an impulse action in the moment.

FYI, I'll be flying into Orlando a week from tomorrow and will be free on Tuesday the 28th...I'll start a new thread.

Pack your bike, the weather is just right down here now.

[JeffS]

Wow John. Heartbreaking in a way, but glad you got it figured out.

Was the recent thread about the carb sync tool responsible for your checking your guages?

This is exactly why I read all the tech threads. Knowledge is power, and even if I don't do the repairs myself, I have a pretty good understanding of a problem when it comes up.

Not really Mike...that decision was an impulse action in the moment.

FYI, I'll be flying into Orlando a week from tomorrow and will be free on Tuesday the 28th...I'll start a new thread.

Pack your bike, the weather is just right down here now.

Carry on?....I see Southwest will cut you a deal.......

[Silver]

Wow John. Heartbreaking in a way, but glad you got it figured out.

Was the recent thread about the carb sync tool responsible for your checking your guages?

This is exactly why I read all the tech threads. Knowledge is power, and even if I don't do the repairs myself, I have a pretty good understanding of a problem when it comes up.

Not really Mike...that decision was an impulse action in the moment.

FYI, I'll be flying into Orlando a week from tomorrow and will be free on Tuesday the 28th...I'll start a new thread.

Pack your bike, the weather is just right down here now.

Carry on?....I see Southwest will cut you a deal.......

The best I could probably do is rent a Hardley on Idrive for something like a $100 an hour. Gotta love foreign tourists with fat wallets.

[BIG O]

Glad you got it figured out John.

Atleast you finally figured out it was the gauges and not something else.

Nothing worse than trying to track down a mechanical issue when it was an error caused by the tool being used to fix it.


Mike