Musky wrote:
I agree with him 100!!! The Roadies are well known for this problem. The carb that feeds the rear cylinder gets dirty while the carb for the front stays clean. I would seriously doubt anything they tell you. And 300 bucks is nuts

Jeff

I think you missed the sarcasm

Jeff in short your bike doesn't have two carbs so what they are telling you isn't true. One carb feeds both cylinders so you might try changing your plugs could be one isn't firing. At any rate don't let them do the carb thing with out you doing some cheap work yourself. It isn't really hard to do. Just my HO!

Yes, I did miss the sarcasm. As you can tell, I do not know much about carbs. I think I said once before that this is the area on a bike I usually try to avoid.

So far I have changed all 4 spark plugs, and there was no improvement. I did the seafoam treatment and there was no improvement. Yes Cougar, I did try the tissue up to the pipes. The front pipe pounded it and the top/back pipe lightly hit it, but it did not suck it back in.

Well, based on what you guys say I'm not going to let them touch my carb. I've got this big trip comming up and I don't want them working on it 2 days before I leave. As Musky said, I'll just let them do the tires, especially afer the service manager told me all Road Stars come from the factory running a bit lean. But, I'm still anxious to hear what they said about how they think it is running. I want to hear their diagnosis.

Just so I am clear, we have one (1) carb, and it feeds both the front and the rear cylinder. So if the carb was gummed up, it could not possibly only affect one cylinder.

Yes you've got it. I think you are doing the right thing at this point. Later after your trip if you want to jump into the carb you can be sure we will be here to help. Just don't let them suck you for $300. You will find this bke easy to work on. Let us know what the dealer says.

Sorry Jeff. It was a joke that didn't play well If you take your tank off you will see that the carb is mounted on a manifold that feeds both cylinders. so the carb can't affect only 1 cylinder. An almost universal problem with the Roadies is the rear cylinder running rich. There been a bunch of disscusions on why. Look at this link. It shows you a drawing of the manifold so you can see what we are atalking about.

http://roadstarclinic.com/content/view/53/96/

Musky wrote:
Sorry Jeff. It was a joke that didn't play well If you take your tank off you will see that the carb is mounted on a manifold that feeds both cylinders. so the carb can't affect only 1 cylinder. An almost universal problem with the Roadies is the rear cylinder running rich. There been a bunch of disscusions on why. Look at this link. It shows you a drawing of the manifold so you can see what we are atalking about.

http://roadstarclinic.com/content/view/53/96/

Thanks Musky! Good reading. I was over on the other forum once and a guy told me he had the same problem I did with the rear jug hitting weaker and he said he used a ported manifold and it worked great and solved his problem. I've always wondered why bikes don't simply come ported from the factory as stock. It seems like a no brainer. I think you are on to something here...at least this is more plausible than what the service manager is telling me about the carb.

Anyways: I did notice a lot of sarcasm in the link you sent me. Those I got. I probably would have gotten your joke, but while I was reading and trying to type, I had my 2-year old tugging at my sleave saying "daddy...daddy..."

;

Actually Jeff

yo said you had a 2003 which is the 1600

I believe the 1700 comes rich because they have different needle and main jet

and the 1600 is in fact lean from the factory

Maybe my fellow cinic members can correct me if i am wrong

1600's are lean from the factory. Actually, so are 1700's in the midrange where EPA testing is done. Outside that EPA testing range it gets a little screwey...

Yamaha did not change the carb or the needle when they went to 1700 (they might have by 07 - last check was on 05's). I guess they liked the flow properties on the existing needle. But the only way to make that work was to bump the main up rather remarkably to compensate for using the same needle. It would be like having an aftermarket needle's clip position real high, you can only compensate by bumping up the main (which will then be too rich at fairly open throttle positions).

On 1600 rejet for pipes, new needle, and airkit - have to increase main jet size. On 1700 rejet for pipes, new needle and airkit you have to decrease the main jet size (the new needle flows so much better you have to replace the oversized main).

GRAM

Thank you for the info Gram.

Right now I only have the pipes, but I do want to get an air kit and I'm thinking that porting the manifold sounds like a real good idea, So if the dealer comes back telling me I need to re-jet, then I will tell them to hold off for now. After my trip and when I get the air kit and the porting - then I can re-jet. That way I won't have to do it twice.

I guess I got confused, I really thought I remember reading here that all RoadStars came from the factory a little rich. Thanks for the clarification. I feel better hearing things from you guys first, before I talk to the dealer. I'm pretty good with cars (post carb era) and I often find that I am more informed than the dealer is.

You guys rock! And I will update this post on Tuesday night after I talk with the dealer. I'll let you know what they told me.

Jeff

Pop Rivet wrote:
Actually Jeff

yo said you had a 2003 which is the 1600

I believe the 1700 comes rich because they have different needle and main jet

and the 1600 is in fact lean from the factory

Maybe my fellow cinic members can correct me if i am wrong




Hey Pop

You're right. I was saying the rears run richer than the fronts.