RSV down while on vacation in Black Hills..uggghhh

[jryan]

My 2006 RSV has always fired right up & run like a champ.

5 days ago I returned from 100 mile ride where it ran as normal. 50 miles in I filled up with gas & it continued running fine the rest of the way.

2 days later when I loaded into toy hauler for vacation, it started hard & I had to keep the throttle on or it would die. Weird but didn't think anything of it...I should have...

 

 

I unloaded in the Black Hills & it started hard again. I had to stay on the throttle or it would die. As soon as I started riding I could tell something was wrong. It had much less power than normal but I was able to get on highway & get it to 60mph, but it was missing & sounded like crap. Got back to camp & felt all 4 exhaust pipes. The right rear one was warm, but not nearly as hot as the others...so I changed that plug...didn't make any difference.

While it was barely idling, I noticed a fuel smell & found fuel shooting out of some kind of overflow hose under the lower right front cowling. That hose appears to go back up in between the front 2 carbs.

 

 

What is that hose called? So when I call the Yamaha dealer I can give them some good info. To make matters worse, we're camped in area with no cell service, so have to run into town to look things up!

 

 

Any idea what's going on? Is a float stuck or something hosed up in the carbs?

[sldunker]

I had this same thing happen a couple of times on my 2007 RSV. Pretty sure it is a stuck float or a piece of crap between needle and seat.

What I did to clear it was take a long screwdriver and tap on inside of carbs. You will have to work on opposite side of carbs as overflow hose crosses. Take your screwdriver or other long tool and insert it on same side as leaking overflow tube. Run tool to other side of carbs and tap on both carbs. Do this while it is running.

If this doesn't work, start bike and turn off gas. Run bike untill it runs out of gas. Turn gas back on and start bike. May have to do this more than once, you are trying to flush out carb bowl.

[jryan]

I had this same thing happen a couple of times on my 2007 RSV. Pretty sure it is a stuck float or a piece of crap between needle and seat.

What I did to clear it was take a long screwdriver and tap on inside of carbs. You will have to work on opposite side of carbs as overflow hose crosses. Take your screwdriver or other long tool and insert it on same side as leaking overflow tube. Run tool to other side of carbs and tap on both carbs. Do this while it is running.

If this doesn't work, start bike and turn off gas. Run bike untill it runs out of gas. Turn gas back on and start bike. May have to do this more than once, you are trying to flush out carb bowl.

 

I'll give both of those a try! Thanks for the info...JR

[jryan]

Hey sldunker,

 

Was yours running...but running like crap while this was going on...like mine is?

[jryan]

I'll give both of those a try! Thanks for the info...JR

 

Unfortunately, neither of those worked for me. Gonna try to get into a dealer for service but looking like I'll be without a bike the rest of my vacation...sh*t!

[bikerjohn]

Try draining all the fuel and refueling

i had what seemed like a similar experience years ago and found out i had got bad gas at last fill up.

I ran bottles of fuel treatment and finally flushed thru.

 

Worth a try before going to the dealer

[videoarizona]

That would be my guess...bad gas. Contaminated fuel does happen in areas where stations don't get much traffic or have old tanks.

 

I had that problem as well. Turned out to be a stuck float. Fuel was pouring out of the hose. I tapped on the side of the bowl of the carb that was pouring fuel. Did it without bike running. Used the wooden handle of a screwdriver. Worked for me.

 

That said:

If you have bad gas, suggest you get to a place where you can work on bike...or wait until you get home. Drain tank and flush. Flush fuel line to carbs. Change filter. Nows a good time to m ove the filter up under the seat just behind the tank. Room there under the frame. Easier to change out next time...plus if you want to see the condition of the filter, just take off the seat and look.

 

Then use @cowpucs suggestion to find a hypo at a pet supply place (horses). Fill with a carb cleaner....disconnect the drain hose from each carb and shoot the cleaner directly into the bowl. Do this with each carb. Let it sit for a few minutes. Flush and repeat. Then with fresh gas in tank....turn the ignition and emergency run switch on until it shuts off. Do this 3 times. Because the fuel pump shuts of automatically after a few seconds, you need to turn bike off and on again to get the bowls filled. For me on both of my Ventures, the fuel pump usually slows down and stops on the 3rd time. (When the pump stops abruptly, the bowls aren't full...the bike shuts off the fuel pump as a safety thingie.) Then fire her up and see where you are at. I would do this before I went to the dealer. Chances are that's what they will do and it will cost!

 

If that doesn't work...come back and maybe we can find something else. If the bike was running well before you tanked up, then started running like crap....I'm guessing bad gas.

[sldunker]

Hey sldunker,

 

Was yours running...but running like crap while this was going on...like mine is?

 

Yes, had gas coming out of overflow hose on right side of bike behind air filter housing. Ran like crap with poping from the exhaust on decel.

 

Draining all gas and starting with fresh fuel sounds like a good idea also. Changing fuel filter would be good as we don't know if you got a bunch of crap in tank. Should be able to match up a filter at any auto parts store or even a hardware store.

[bikerjohn]

Try oRiellys for the filter they have a glass one that is small and cylindrical

[jryan]

Had bike into dealer in the Hills & they did run it in to "check it out" since I was traveling thru (gotta give em that)! When they came back & told me they thought it was a carb issue, but I need to replace all plugs, petcock, and air filters as well as soaking carbs & replacing Needle Valve set...for $1100 and wouldn't be done until I was scheduled to come home...I told them no thanks. When he said the air filters were plugged up, I kinda lost it cuz I just replaced them about 400 miles ago...so my "getting screwed sensors" kinda went up immediately!

$750 of that was for labor.

 

So now I'm home, where I might not have a ton of knowledge, but at least I have more tools!

 

I'm a bit leary to pull the carbs out unless I need to. I'm guessing it's not fuel filter either since fuel shoots out of fuel hose and out of vent with no problems.

 

So to start with I'll remove tank, drain fuel, pull out petcock & check condition, pull out fuel filter & check condition, replace plugs (just cuz), add new fuel with some kind of additive (hopefully Techron Complete Fuel System Cleaner) & retry it.

I'm gonna try Cowpucs idea of shooting carb cleaner directly into each carb bowl if I can get at the drain hoses.

 

If that doesn't work after running awhile, I may have to pull out carbs (I found instructions in Tech Library).

 

Is that a good start?

 

 

 

That would be my guess...bad gas. Contaminated fuel does happen in areas where stations don't get much traffic or have old tanks.

 

I had that problem as well. Turned out to be a stuck float. Fuel was pouring out of the hose. I tapped on the side of the bowl of the carb that was pouring fuel. Did it without bike running. Used the wooden handle of a screwdriver. Worked for me.

 

That said:

If you have bad gas, suggest you get to a place where you can work on bike...or wait until you get home. Drain tank and flush. Flush fuel line to carbs. Change filter. Nows a good time to m ove the filter up under the seat just behind the tank. Room there under the frame. Easier to change out next time...plus if you want to see the condition of the filter, just take off the seat and look.

 

Then use cowpucs suggestion to find a hypo at a pet supply place (horses). Fill with a carb cleaner....disconnect the drain hose from each carb and shoot the cleaner directly into the bowl. Do this with each carb. Let it sit for a few minutes. Flush and repeat. Then with fresh gas in tank....turn the ignition and emergency run switch on until it shuts off. Do this 3 times. Because the fuel pump shuts of automatically after a few seconds, you need to turn bike off and on again to get the bowls filled. For me on both of my Ventures, the fuel pump usually slows down and stops on the 3rd time. (When the pump stops abruptly, the bowls aren't full...the bike shuts off the fuel pump as a safety thingie.) Then fire her up and see where you are at. I would do this before I went to the dealer. Chances are that's what they will do and it will cost!

 

If that doesn't work...come back and maybe we can find something else. If the bike was running well before you tanked up, then started running like crap....I'm guessing bad gas.

[videoarizona]

Had bike into dealer in the Hills & they did run it in to "check it out" since I was traveling thru (gotta give em that)! When they came back & told me they thought it was a carb issue, but I need to replace all plugs, petcock, and air filters as well as soaking carbs & replacing Needle Valve set...for $1100 and wouldn't be done until I was scheduled to come home...I told them no thanks. When he said the air filters were plugged up, I kinda lost it cuz I just replaced them about 400 miles ago...so my "getting screwed sensors" kinda went up immediately!

$750 of that was for labor.

 

So now I'm home, where I might not have a ton of knowledge, but at least I have more tools!

 

I'm a bit leary to pull the carbs out unless I need to. I'm guessing it's not fuel filter either since fuel shoots out of fuel hose and out of vent with no problems.

 

So to start with I'll remove tank, drain fuel, pull out petcock & check condition, pull out fuel filter & check condition, replace plugs (just cuz), add new fuel with some kind of additive (hopefully Techron Complete Fuel System Cleaner) & retry it.

I'm gonna try Cowpucs idea of shooting carb cleaner directly into each carb bowl if I can get at the drain hoses.

 

If that doesn't work after running awhile, I may have to pull out carbs (I found instructions in Tech Library).

 

Is that a good start?

 

 

Yep. One thing at a time. You will get to bottom of this as long as you don't "shotgun it".....just one thing at a time and test.

 

I also agree with Techron. Good stuff. I doubt very much you will have to remove carbs. But that is easy to do. Just take them out together as a unit. If you then take the bowls off and clean them..then put them back in...you won't have any adjustments to deal with. I could be wrong...but almost always...when fuel comes out of the overflow tube...it's a stuck float. Whether it's stuck due to contamination or something broke....I don't know.

 

Go for it!

[jryan]

Hey guys, regarding my supposed stuck float (fuel coming out RIGHT carb vent hose), tomorrow I'll be reconnecting the carbs & give the bike another try. Just thought I'd let you know what I've done so far & see if there's anything else I should do before hooking everything back up. Let me know...JR

 

Here's what I've done so far (with the help of videoarizona & lots of Tech articles):

 

• Drained gas, pulled petcock (looked good), and checked tank (looked good)
  
• Bought new ethanol free gas & added Techron to it...ran for 10 mins, sat for 2 hrs, ran for 10 minutes, sat overnight...same issue with fuel coming out RIGHT side carb vent hose but not as bad as before. I traced that hose back & mine is NOT connected to the LEFT side carbs, but to the RIGHT sides instead...so apparently the stuck float is one of the right ones
  
• Pulled surge tanks & found quite a bit of oil...cleaned up & lowered my oil level to 1/2 way up sightglass instead of 3/4 like it was
  
• Was going to inject carb cleaner thru carb drains but since I wanted to remove the pilot screw caps & was already this far, I followed Tech Library instructions and removed carbs completely
  
• Removed float bowl covers (everything looked pretty clean) & inverted carbs, then blew thru fuel hose lifting each float for a few seconds.
  
• Was able to remove 2 of the floats & clean everything thoroughly, but the other 2 couldn't be removed without pulling carbs apart (which I didn't want to do)
  
• Cleaned everything I could with carb cleaner
  
• Put float covers back on & then injected carb cleaner thru each drain hole & let it sit for an hour. Then emptied & flushed with gas
  
• Drained everything again
  
• Changed all spark plugs (and air filters were changed a few hundred miles ago)
  
• Before reconnecting everything tomorrow, I'll move carbs onto bike & attach fuel hose to them, then operate the ignition to run the fuel pump & fill the bowls...then continue turning key off/on & see if anything leaks anywhere...including coming out vent hose again. Not sure this is valid test without the bike running...but assuming nothing leaks then I'll reinstall everything & give it another try.
  

[jryan]

Got everything back together & seems to run normal again!

Thanks everybody for the help & Tech Library information...I'd have never tried pulling out carbs without step by step instructions!

[Patch]

so for next time, try standing the bike up, then with full bowls and help I guess so she can't tip over, rap the bowls as was mentioned.

[jryan]

so for next time, try standing the bike up, then with full bowls and help I guess so she can't tip over, rap the bowls as was mentioned.

I did rap on the bowls with bike running, but it wasn't standing up straight.

However, once I tore into it, I discovered that the hose spewing fuel under the RIGHT lower cowling was actually tied into the RIGHT side carbs instead of the LEFT like most documentation says. So I was in fact rapping on the wrong carbs! Oh well...