Garage mucked up my bike

[Biker Biggles]

Before you take it back Id make a list of everything you have found wrong or not put back properly.That will demonstrate to the garage that you had a good look to see why it was running so badly and may encourage them to accept that they made a pigs ear of it,and fix it.

[Bibio]

carb balancing has nothing to do with fuel getting into the exhaust

all you are doing is 'lining up' the throttle slides so as they all open at the same rate. therefore each cylinder gets supplied with the same amount of fuel at a given throttle position/rev range

[Bibio]

one crude way to tell if its a plug or coil... is idle the bike for about 5 minuets to get the exhaust down pipes nice and hot then drip some water onto each exhaust down pipe and see if it 'spits'.. if one of the pipes doesn't spit.. then its cold ... therefore the fuel is not being burnt ...

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

Before you take it back Id make a list of everything you have found wrong or not put back properly.That will demonstrate to the garage that you had a good look to see why it was running so badly and may encourage them to accept that they made a pigs ear of it,and fix it.

That's a good idea Biggles.. Cheers

Originally Posted by Bibio

carb balancing has nothing to do with fuel getting into the exhaust

all you are doing is 'lining up' the throttle slides so as they all open at the same rate. therefore each cylinder gets supplied with the same amount of fuel at a given throttle position/rev range

Ah I see. I've got another day to investigate futher before I approach the garage about it. Just one quick question Bibio... supposing that what you say is the only problem... is it safe to ride it 5 miles or so? Also will the petrol in the exhaust be safe when the pipes get hot?

[Bibio]

yes ... for about 5 miles... mostly yes .. sometimes the end can can catch fire but its rare.. i wouldn't think it would only after 5 miles..

mostly what happens is that you get some lovely flames shooting out of the exhaust when it burns the excess petrol...

if you dont get any joy with the garage gives a shout.. i'll pop over and take a look at it for you.

Originally Posted by Bibio

yes ... for about 5 miles... mostly yes .. sometimes the end can can catch fire but its rare.. i wouldn't think it would only after 5 miles..

mostly what happens is that you get some lovely flames shooting out of the exhaust when it burns the excess petrol...

if you dont get any joy with the garage gives a shout.. i'll pop over and take a look at it for you.

Thats really kind of you Bibio. I'll see how I get on on Monday.

Thanks again everyone.

Just remembered a story from one of my mates who served his apprenticeship as a Mechanic. He was re-fitting a car wheel after a job and cut his hand somehow, went away to get it cleaned up, and when he came back the car had been returned to the customer who had just turned up to collect it. Half way up the road the customers wheel fell off! Not surprising when you realise the guy hadn't finished tightening the wheel nuts!

[KnightRider]

What happened with the garage? Any progress?

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Bibio

carb balancing has nothing to do with fuel getting into the exhaust

all you are doing is 'lining up' the throttle slides so as they all open at the same rate. therefore each cylinder gets supplied with the same amount of fuel at a given throttle position/rev range

I doubt this would get this bad, however on the carb with the more worn linkage, the butterfly will be closed. Because pilot jet is downstream of butterfly all vacuum will go to fuel (pilot circuit) and that one will run rich. On SV with TES, as far as I can figure the high vacuum of imbalanced carb opens TES valve as well as sucking pilot fuel. Therefore carb which has high vacuum reading will run very rich, other cylinder will run hot.

Originally Posted by KnightRider

What happened with the garage? Any progress?

OUTCOME:

Mechanic denied, denied, denied. He will take no responsibilty for the state of my bike. Said it would take him another hour to put it back as it was and he would charge me for it. Yeah right! It really ****es me off because I could have paid a five year old to balance my carbs with the same outcome. Surely you pay for "the job" rather than the time. A good mechanic should know how long a particular job will take and quote appropriately. Maybe I'm just being naive. Basically he said he gave me advice before he started and I didn't take it. I asked.. "what advice was that?"... he said that balancing the carbs may not "improve" how it was running. I said that I DID take that advice and decided to give it a shot anyway. I told him that if he had told me before hand that there was a chance he would make make my engine worse, then there is no way in hell I would have paid him to "give it a go".
Anyway... a few bucks poorer but a bit wiser I think. Lesson learnt...
IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT.... DO IT YOURSELF!!!