Worked on a friends bike now bike isrunning rich

[muaymendez1]

A Few months a go(5K mile) I dd the skydoc clutch mod and replaced the valve cover gaskets on his 99RSV. All as put back together and running Great. Now hes complaining of poor running and his pals smell raw fuel behind him and 37MPG when he used to get 43MPG.

Ill have the bike again this weekend but besides something falling into teh carbs Im lost and thinking this guy has another issue not caused by my hands.

 

Im at a loss for words because its mid summer I work 70 hours a week and now I have to cancell plans with my family thi weekend over it.

[SilvrT]

Can't see how it could be a result of what you did.

 

I have been self-employed in the IT business for many years as well as have done various other "jobs" for friends, family, and acquaintances. I've always stood behind my work and if something didn't go right, Early in the "game", I often wound up loosing out on my own leisure time activities. The one thing I learned is ... their world won't come to an end if you can't get at it when they want you to.

 

In your case, if they took it to a "regular" shop, that shop would do the best they could to accommodate.... but that might not be as convenient as the customer would like.

 

My advice to you is to manage your time ... do the best you can for them but save some time for yourself too ... they will just have to "deal with it" if they don't like it.

 

BTW, I am no longer self-employed .... I had no life then

[Squidley]

Did you remove the carbs at all when you replaced the valve cover gaskets? If you didn't then I would definitely question the mileage thing. Look for vacuum lines that may have come off or possibly the choke knob not fully retracting the idle enrichment shafts. I dont know how well you know this guy or what kind of friendship you have, but if you did not take money for it, I wouldn't be cancelling anything to work on this bike. If he's a good friend he'll understand and you can come to an agreement. If you did it for money, your not in a good position....

[phertwo]

Perhaps the float bowl height needs to be readjusted. If you are stuck with his bike and an ultimatum I'd probably start by pulling the carbs, cleaning them, adjust the float height, adjust the mixture screws, check all the pipes and connections. Check the air filters too.

 

I know what its like to have friends that have expectations of you because of your willingness to help. Good luck!

[KarlS]

I quit working on other peoples cars a long time ago. Because if something went wrong 6 months down the road completely unrelated to what I had repaired they would be pounding on my door telling me I screwed up their car. Most of the time there was no money involved, it was one of these "help me do this and I'll buy the beer". I do the work and they drank the beer. I "helped" a neighbor change his fan belts (remember them) and over 10,000 miles later his transmission went out, still can't figure out how I caused that. LOL.

[Bubber]

I quit working on other peoples cars a long time ago. Because if something went wrong 6 months down the road completely unrelated to what I had repaired they would be pounding on my door telling me I screwed up their car. Most of the time there was no money involved, it was one of these "help me do this and I'll buy the beer". I do the work and they drank the beer. I "helped" a neighbor change his fan belts (remember them) and over 10,000 miles later his transmission went out, still can't figure out how I caused that. LOL.

 

I noticed that you avoided the use of the word "friends" and I can see why. :rotf:

They have selective memories is all I can say.

[V7Goose]

A Few months a go(5K mile) I dd the skydoc clutch mod and replaced the valve cover gaskets on his 99RSV. All as put back together and running Great. Now hes complaining of poor running and his pals smell raw fuel behind him and 37MPG when he used to get 43MPG.

Ill have the bike again this weekend but besides something falling into teh carbs Im lost and thinking this guy has another issue not caused by my hands.

 

Im at a loss for words because its mid summer I work 70 hours a week and now I have to cancell plans with my family thi weekend over it.

I appreciate that you are trying to stand behind your work - unless you had an up-front disclaimer that you didn't warrant the work, I think that is very important, even if the work is done for free. That said, I'd also state that there is reasonable period in which any complaints or problems need to be brought to you, and for that kind of work, 5,000 miles and a few months seems to me to be beyond the reasonable time. Things do go wrong with a 10 year old machine, and unless it is found almost immediately after some work, it is completely UN-reasonable for anyone to suggest that you caused the problem and they were just too incompetent or uncaring to find it sooner.

 

As for your specific problem, you did not give us near enough information to help you. But I'll try and give you a few thoughts anyway. If you didn't remove the carbs or intake parts, there is no way I can imagine that you could have done anything to cause the bike to run rich or leak gas. If you DID remove the carbs, but did not open them, then I'd say almost the same thing. Maybe if you left the vent hoses off it could have some impact, and if the air plenums and intake boots are not correctly mounted (VERY common problem for some people), then the bike won't run quite right, so I'd suggest you tear that part back off and check if it is assembled correctly. And do not overlook the possibility that a plug boot may simply not be pushed fully on.

 

But back to my first point - I'd absolutely start with a frank discussion about what you warrant and what is reasonable. I'd describe the various possible causes you know of that could cause the symptoms and discuss the likelihood that ANY of them could have been caused by the work you did. Finally, tell the person what you are willing to do now to check the prior work you did, but make it clear that if all looks good, you will accept no responsibility for further work needed to resolve this new and UN-related problem he has discovered. Good luck getting it resolved,

Goose

[newventure]

I quit working on other peoples cars a long time ago. Because if something went wrong 6 months down the road completely unrelated to what I had repaired they would be pounding on my door telling me I screwed up their car. Most of the time there was no money involved, it was one of these "help me do this and I'll buy the beer". I do the work and they drank the beer. I "helped" a neighbor change his fan belts (remember them) and over 10,000 miles later his transmission went out, still can't figure out how I caused that. LOL.

I was self employed for 8 years, and went through this alot. Alot of folks wanted something for nothing. I did good quality work with over 20 years experience and when the economy started to go bad, and your good paying customers started this, that help me decide it was time to get out of it. Never looked back, now I have a life, less stress, and much happier. Sure it ws hard to give up what you started from nothing and being your own boss was great, but alot of hrs. and people looking for something for free. Then I would here people say their isn't any good repair shops anymore, gee I wonder why. Their prblem now not mine, life goes on. Just my 2 cents.

[SilvrT]

I was self employed for 8 years, and went through this alot. Alot of folks wanted something for nothing. I did good quality work with over 20 years experience and when the economy started to go bad, and your good paying customers started this, that help me decide it was time to get out of it. Never looked back, now I have a life, less stress, and much happier. Sure it ws hard to give up what you started from nothing and being your own boss was great, but alot of hrs. and people looking for something for free. Then I would here people say their isn't any good repair shops anymore, gee I wonder why. Their prblem now not mine, life goes on. Just my 2 cents.

 

Yep... DITTO all of that for me ... especially the part of having a life, less stress, and much happier .... albeit it cost me appx 1/2 of what my income was to get out and work for someone else (no mention of a divorce and bankruptcy) ... but it's been worth it.

[MikeWa]

Did you charge him for the previous work? This is not a new bike. Several months and 5000 miles from now something else will go wrong with the bike. Will he expect you to warrant that as well? End it now. Tell him it has nothing to do with the work you did. Then you decide if you want to spend any more time working on it. And what that will entail. If not send him down the road. Being used is not being friends.

Mike

[newventure]

Yep... DITTO all of that for me ... especially the part of having a life, less stress, and much happier .... albeit it cost me appx 1/2 of what my income was to get out and work for someone else (no mention of a divorce and bankruptcy) ... but it's been worth it.

Alot of folks don't realize the cost of tools, shop equipment, and just the general costs of running a business, in addition to years of experience and training that you have gone through to get to that point of being successful, and yet alot of people still think you owe them something. Been out of the business almost two years now, and yes I did take a drop on my income, but I have more family time and as you agreed less stress. I to this day turn side jobs down because I don't want to get mixed up in that stuff anymore. Still have all my hand tools, but the shop stuff is gone. Do my own work just to keep the hands from losing the touch. May have got off topic here from the original poster, but you have to be carefull in helping people, even so called friends, been there done that. I myself wouldn't get much more involved. Stuff like that can ruin a good friendship.

[newventure]

Did you charge him for the previous work? This is not a new bike. Several months and 5000 miles from now something else will go wrong with the bike. Will he expect you to warrant that as well? End it now. Tell him it has nothing to do with the work you did. Then you decide if you want to spend any more time working on it. And what that will entail. If not send him down the road. Being used is not being friends.

Mike

Couldn't agree more, well said...

[BradT]

Mike I agree, with your comments. AS Goose mentioned if you did not pull the carbs I doubt you did anything wrong

 

Brad

[muaymendez1]

I did pull the carbs to get the vakve cover gaskets replaced.

Its possible I left something loose but for the problem to come about 3000 miles later.

maybe some crud got caught up in the intake and clogging something up in there?

[phertwo]

So if you do fix the problem, probably something loose or gummed up, then who's to say that he won't come back another 5,000 miles later? Like everyone else has said though, make sure you end this potentially vicious cycle.

[Condor]

I did pull the carbs to get the vakve cover gaskets replaced.

Its possible I left something loose but for the problem to come about 3000 miles later.

maybe some crud got caught up in the intake and clogging something up in there?

 

If the bike ran good when it left your place, and what you did is doing OK, then after 3000 miles the guy has a new problem and treat it accordingly. A tank of bad gas could screw things up... The onus is on him.