In March I signed on here and complained about my brand new 07 Midnight Star 1700. It ran so poorly my GF's Shadow 750 could beat me in any race I wanted to run. It was dreadful. Mostly poor power and a backfire through the carb.

I read thousands of posts here and steered dealer to fix. To no avail. It always just ran 'Different' when I got it back. It never ran right and never could beat the 750.

I had new Jets put in.
I had the PMS adjusted 1/4 of a turn 20 times both ways.
I had 3 intakes put on it....
I put 16 new spark plugs in it (When it began fouling them.)

The fix?
Well here is how it played out 7 months and 12K miles of riding pain.

1st, It had an intake leak from the start. I complained about low power and mis and backfire through carb, I was told I was crazy.

Well at about 2K miles I got a New intake. It did run better but still Backfire through Carb. They started twisting screws and re jetting. (Hindsight teaches 2nd intake was leaking at Bolt holes)

I did get a lot of relief from Backfire through Carb by turning OFF not down the accelerator pump. But still no power and ran very rough, especially when cold. Choke did not work well at all.

With the Pump off though, I could zone in on the problem more and got dealer to look at it again. That's when they found Intake leaking at Bolt holes. They put a new intake on and fabric washers at bolt holes, It ran like a Top for 800 miles and same crap again.

This time they got serious and tore engine down to where they saw #1 Cylinder was totally clogged with carbon. Yes the 07 SVS! We figure from running with the bad intake leaks so many miles and all the jetting and twisting to make it run better.

So Today I have a NEW bike at 13K miles. Dealer covered all of this and finally got it running like a 1700. I have new Valves and lots of other associated parts an, they did BOTH cylinders instead of just the rich one.

I have fantastic power now, it runs right, Idles, right, choke works, and it's smooth running at highway speeds (It was like riding an air compressor before.) It even sounds better. I ran it at 5 am 30 degrees and no problems.

So, At 13K miles. and on my 2nd set of tires. I'm considering myself NEWBIE!

Thanks to all here who kept me sane through all this. All the tips were right on, I just had 3 problems at once!

Like I used to say when I was a Marine Recruiter.

"Well little Johnny, You'll have to come down and see me because it's hard to give a haircut over the phone!"

Had I not had SVS, a bad intake and wrong adjusted Carb and jetting all at once. I'd of had my problem solved here long ago.


MC

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Good deal! I'm glad you finally know what a 1700 runs like! It took me about 2 months myself before I knew and wow!

dang man, hope it didn't cost too much? Was any of it covered by warranty?

It tookk a while for them to get it right but I am glad they finally fixed your bike. I hope you have no more problems

Ron

Glad you found out what the bike is really capable of.

... and you're right about the haircut over the phone comment.

Doc

That's great news!

If you don't mind please list your dealer in our dealer listing (if they aren't already posted). It's always good to give kudos to those that do a great job.

Congratulations on your new Road Star!

How does it do with the GF's shadow now...

Thanks for the comments.
Yep it was all under warranty. (They even refunded a $19 charge they mistakenly made for a 1/4 turn on the PMS.) It's a upstanding dealer I have dealt with for over 25 years and they ONLY reason I bought a Yamai was this dealerships past with me. Even with used bikes I always got the best service out of them. And, they do send the mechanics to Yami schools annually and they hire people with certificates from power sports training institutes, for them, that's a beginning.

But man was that a tough one, 3 intakes, and leaking through the bolt holes followed by SVS. It had me bonkers!

Doc would have guessed it in 2 minutes had he heard it. I thought someone would have said something when I posted the video on how my tail lights work. LOL

But it's all good now.

Now I can put my heart into it.

The info here did help solve the problem.

Now let me try to register my dealer.

MC

Congrats on getting it worked out. It is never fun to have a bike not running like you think it should.