Problem with my 2000 Drifter 800

[Troll]

That jetting thing is supremely important. People break out baffles or change the filters without doing any fuel flow changes, and that's the biggest problem they can create. With my injected 1500, it always ran rich, for what ever reason, so I made air cleaner mods to let in more air, and it fixed that problem... I didn't have the "need for noise" so I was targeting a specific problem.  I just finished setting up my W-650 Cafe' bike, last night. I opened up the air box to allow more flow. Always suspected there was some kind of restriction keeping the engine from making the power it should. Took me about 4 days to get it right, with a lot of trial and error. I make my own jets, so I started out with the Dyno-jet kit that was already installed when I bought it, and incrementally changes needle heights and jet sizes until I was happy. The up side is that the driveability has improved over what I had to start with.. for example, I can run it down to 1500 rpm in 5th gear, cruising in town, and it will pull cleanly and strongly up to 4000 rpm, where the improved airflow lets the engine take advantage of it's 4 valve heads. When it hits 4k, it's like opening the four barrel on a 413...AMAZING, especially for a 40 inch parallel twin! People either don't know, or don't care about fuel delivery...or perhaps the mystery of the constant velocity carb. scares them....

[Guard]

Got "Old Yellow" back from the shop this past Friday, Todd and the boys down in Kawasaki of Rome (Georgia) really know their stuff. Boiled and resealed the gas tank. Rebuilt the carburetor. They tried it out at this point and didn't like the way the bike was running. Did some research and due to the bike's pipes being modded went back and got the right jets for the carburetor. They called and told me to come try her out.
Like I said before, I traded for this bike and the guy had done several mods to her. I have never seen or heard another Drifter 800 in person. Several 1500's but they are a diffrent sound all together. When they said they would start her up and get her ready for me, I was shocked when she started to sound off.
Gone was the poor little engine that wheezed and sounded like she was on life support. Nice deep rumble that sounded like a motorcycle instread of a lawn mower with allergies. After taking her a spin around the parking lot I noticed it was no longer a chore to idle her around.  Got her on the road back home, lot more power, did not seem to be working near as hard to maintain a constant speed. At what seemed to be the same RPM i was doing 12-15 mph more than what I was capable of doing before. The only issue I noticed is the tendency for her to occasionally back fire when you come off the throttle fast. May take a little fine tuning to get rid of some of that.
I am even more happy to be a drifter rider than ever, Took her on a 150 mile Poker Run Saturday and she did great. About 150 bikes in the run and everyone had to come by and take a look at Old Yellow. But if you ride a drifter you know what I'm talking about.
Thanks for all the intrest and support

[alamogeorge]

Be glad you didn't take it to my truck mechanic. It would be a month and counting before you saw her again. I had a similar problem on my truck and it was a relay getting stuck when it got hot. Paint makes sense. It was clogging up and then would start when it all settled back down. It probably would've been no time before it clogged and stayed clogged.

[ratze]

yep, the ole girl was starven of fuel after all. thats great, easy enough fix to. yea the cap has ta breath in order ta let the fuel drain. youve got a great motor bike mate. RIDE ON.

[Guard]

The diagnosis is in.
First let me state that I love Ole Yeller, I traded a 99 Honda Shadow Ace VT750, even, for her and I still believe that I got the best deal of the year when I did.
The guy I traded with said he had painted her himself.  Not that is  the best paint job I had ever seen . But he did a nice enough job of it.
HOWEVER, what he apparently did not do was tape up the gas cap hole before he started to spray.
The bottom of my tank had a quarter inch of yellow mud and gunk in it. There were also the beginning signs of interior rust that I had not observed.  My mechanic is now in the process of cleaning and then sealing the inside of the tank, replacing and rebuilding everything else that is gummed up down to the carburetor. Once all this is done,  He  thinks  the problem will be fixed . Fingers crossed.
It will be next week before I get the bike back, I will update as soon as Know if that was the whole problem or not.

[ratze]

well good luck, iam shur ole yeller will b jes fine. keep us posted an let us know how she turns out. God bless.

[Guard]

Well, I have tested and tested, got the bike warmed up, still same result of not starting.   Checked with petcock in all positions, full choke , half choke, no choke.
Opened throttle halfway, full throttle.    Bike getting strong blue spark.    Hooked up battery tester showed good, charged battery anyway.  No change.
Wait 20 mins, she fires right back up again.  I have had enough, as I am aware that i am not a bike mechanic, I have delivered the bike to the kawasaki dealership in hopes that I will not be raped to much in fixing the darn thing.

[chief]

gas,air, spark.

start with the basics, petcock in right position, choke in right position, good fuel, all switches checked and in right position, fully charged battery... then replicate problem and check spark, carb etc as previously indicated.
since you say it cranks strongly, I would suspect a fuel related problem.  Though why this would be a problem only immediately after a ride is a question...

[ratze]

spot on troll, under these conditions first check the spark, if good. shes either starven of fuel or flooded, by holding the throttle in the wide open position if she starts u know its flooded,i which case the float level is probly the culprit, on the other hand if shes starven try placen the petcok in the prime position. (horizontal) let us know wat u find. curious

[Troll]

I've been thinking about this, and it's not an uncommon problem with cars, too. You'll have to do some basic diagnostics to rule out various things. The engine is a single carb, like a harley sportster, so one will effect the whole engine. First thing you need to do is reproduce the symptoms in a place you can check things. The first thing to check is spark. Don't fiddle around taking out a plug from a hot engine...aluminum heads have a tendency to get really mad at you for that.  Connect a plug to a plug lead and hold the body of the plug against the cyl head, and crank the engine. You should get a fat, blue-white spark...if you don't then you know where to begin looking. If the spark is good, then the only other thing that could be an issue would be the fuel system. This engine has a simple carb set up, so anything that needs to be done will be easy. If the spark is good, I would suspect the carb might be over flowing into the intake tract. This would temporarily flood the engine with liquid fuel, but the heat of the heads would evaporate it after a while. This probably wouldn't be a problem with the engine running, although the fuel mileage would suffer, but the time spent during what's called hot soak could really be a problem. I realize the 800 has a vacuum operated fuel valve, but if the float level in the carb were wrong, the fuel would bubble out the main jet until the bowl level was correct, even though the fuel supply from the tank was shut off.

[Guard]

Engine Cranks very strongly, just as stong as it does when its cold. Once the bike has cooled down it fires right up every time.

[chief]

Does the engine crank strongly but fail to start?

Without further info it could be the battery. If the battery isn't charging properly the bike will behave in a similar way. After it sits for a bit it recharges itself enough to start the bike. I'd test the battery... needs to be load tested as well to rule out the battery being the problem.

[Guard]

 I having an issue with my bike and was hoping someone might have an idea whats causing it. The bike starts up and runs fine I can drive it anywhere and it seems to do fine. However after it has warmed up and been ridden 10-15 miles it will not restart for 10-20 mins. Omce it has cooled down it will fire back up and run great. It doesn't quit, just wont restart after turning it off after its been ridden. I was at 1st thinking carbs, then got the idea of coils, not sure and would apprecaiate any imput from the fellow riders here. Love my bike, Its named Ole Yeller.