John Vernon
New member
ive been working on and riding motorcycles my whole life, i know what im doing but either im having a brain fart or over looking the obvious... ok hears what happened. my friend just bought a honda shadow that had been sitting for a long time. he was riding down the free way when the bike started to bog down (like it was out of gas) and smoking out of the exhaust. he brought the bike to me to look at, i started the bike and it idled fine but the second i tried to go off idle it would bog down and die so my first thought was clogged jets. i cleaned the carb which was completely clogged up and full of old gas n dirt, put it back together (never touched any fuel/air adjustment screws) replaced his fuel filter which was older than dirt and falling apart, and replaced all of the fuel lines... now that everything is clean and checked for problems i.e. the needle was fine, the diaphragm was fine so on and so on. i start the bike... it idles... but again wont get off idle and dies... it spits fuel out of the carb when it does this and the needle starts to lift... but it just bogs down n dies... another thing ive noticed was the fuel filter isn't fully filling with fuel, i replaced the vacuum petcock but still same thing... please help i have a feeling its something stupid but like i said i think im having a brain fart here lol thanks
thank you for your advice, I'm not so good with carbs. I'm taking EVERYTHING back apart now and cleaning it in more detail. the pilot jet and needle jet were completely clogged, I figured that was it... its been a while since I've worked on carbs guess I forgot a lot of it lol thank you for your help and ill let you know what I find or if it still doesn't work after.
*update* carb is now as clean as the day it was made, bike idles, AND now revs up.... but... when letting off the throttle the carb backfires... I hate carbs... fuel injection (although way more complicated due to electronics) is sooooo much nicer to work on with the right equipment...
thank you for your advice, I'm not so good with carbs. I'm taking EVERYTHING back apart now and cleaning it in more detail. the pilot jet and needle jet were completely clogged, I figured that was it... its been a while since I've worked on carbs guess I forgot a lot of it lol thank you for your help and ill let you know what I find or if it still doesn't work after.
*update* carb is now as clean as the day it was made, bike idles, AND now revs up.... but... when letting off the throttle the carb backfires... I hate carbs... fuel injection (although way more complicated due to electronics) is sooooo much nicer to work on with the right equipment...