Carburetors and related fun...

[Benzito]

My '00 SV650 began running rather rugged, recently. It idles very poorly, sounding little the pistons may be running fuel starved (or maybe rich) to the point where the engine almost stalls, then backfires, then slowly idles down, then repeat...

I only put premium fuel in it (and never from Arco!) and have run it through a tank then tried different fuel, but to no avail. I then lifted the tank and pulled the fuel line out of the carbs and found it to be pumping fuel just fine. So... next stop on the list... the carburetors.

I took them off just to get a feel for whats going one. Being a product of the fuel injected generation, I have very little experience with carburetors. It sounds like quite a chore to do the cleaning of them yourself, and I was wondering if it was worth it, or if it's probably a better deal to just take them in for service and bend over for shop fees.

If anyon has any ideas or comments, that'd be great! It's been getting sunny out here in Seattle and I need to have my bike running in top shape for the limited number of days we get to ride out here.

[svrash]

Did you check the spark plugs?

[embee]

check the choke cables and plungers. They tend to get corrosion near where the cables go into the plungers, stopping the return springs getting them fully closed.

Drain the float bowls and clean out any silt, they usually get a little in there along with some condensation.

If yours has the idle adjuster screws plugged, it's be worth getting the plugs out and remove the idle screws so you can blow through the passages.

I'd always do the minimum amount of stripping first, unless they're really dirty there's probably nothing fundamental wrong. Drain, blow through jets, reassemble and try again. It's not a big deal if it's your own bike to take them off again if necessary.

[Benzito]

So, on a whim, I decided to check the electrical system 'cuz I've heard rumors of older Svs dropping an ignitor coil. I checked them with the multimeter and got the spec'd resistance, but could only draw about 7V through the cap. The spec says 150. Then I traced the electrical back down through the ignitor coupler and back to the signal generator. Here they spec inf. resistance between the white wire and ground, but I get about 3 kOhms. So... I'm wondering what the history of these signal generators is. It doesn't look like a piece I'm interested in replacing.