Help me please, El Tigre has stopped running

[oregonsteamer]

He guys, So my 96 recently started acting up, it has 36k has always been well maintained and as of recent it began giving me trouble.
first off it started acting like it had a mis-fire or hesitation if you will and if you gave it throttle, it died. So i put plugs in, checked wires, cleaned carbs. the usual. rode fine for a bit. One day I ride and it starts getting no neutral indication when hot, obvious problem, safety switch. replace that and the harness, oil switch is bad. Fix that and it now has the same problem but has progressed to this. I kick it over it fires, then dies, fires then dies, etc. I cant get the thing to run at all except to fire and die. I feel  pulling my hair out at this point  because I honestly don't know what the deal is. I don't want to dump 1000$ trying to chase parts either to find out that it was a relay or something. does anyone have a clue? Getting fuel BTW and fuel sys has been flushed. new hoses and new air filter. It seems I'm missing one component of an internal combustion engine... the Bang part, at least a consistent bang.
any ideas are greatly appreciated.
this all started after a cold winters nap BTW. Sat in my garage all winter. thought I had it fixed now I'm back at the drawing board. Starter solenoid any possibility, seems like a weird thought, but it clicks an aweful lot.

[Bixxer Bob]

Mustang's the Guru and he'll be along in a while, and I'm pretty sure he'll say you might think you've cleaned the carbs, but you missed the idle jets and galleries (everyone does, including me the first time I did a set).  I'm more worried about the clicking solenoid.  How's your battery??  If it's even a little bit weak you can blow your sprag clutch then it's big bucks to fix.  I did it on my Trident when I didn't know better.  Luckily the dealer fixed it under warranty.

[Mustang]

sounds like carbs to me ...............................ran fine before ya parked it I bet .

you say it's getting fuel but I bet it aint goin thru the pilot circuit .

you need a can of carb cleaner and take the jets out (mains and pilots )
spray down inside the pilot holes and may have to push a pc of thin wire thru the pilot circuit .
make sure you reassemble the carbs correctly ,
mikunis or keihins ?

[oregonsteamer]

Mustang,
This issue has actually been more intermitent. It ran great before it sat for a couple months yes. Then ran fin for a short bit after, but progressively have had problems that have gotteb worse. Now.... well it won't start. I may have missed parts, I'm def not perfect. They are miki's that are on there and I honestly dread pulling it back apart. It was a pain esp, the getting it back together part. However I supose its chwaper than coils or ignition parts. I'm just bit stumped. Do you have a diagram/ info on tearing down the carbs?
I had a really pain getting the carbs and airbox all back in last time. Kinda was a discouraging process, esp considering most of my tank screws are stripped and I had to remove the tank with fairing connected. I duno its become a head ache. But when she's ridin she's awesome.. happy trails pans and trunk, heated grips all the comforts you can want

[Mustang]

it's the carbs ...............................

[Bixxer Bob]

Use the search button; thee's loads of info on here about carbs, fitting, removing etc.  Likewise how to fix your tank nuts.  It's called getting to know your Tiger.  A bike that's 10yrs old or more is always going to be more hands-on 

[akendall1966]

Mustang,
This issue has actually been more intermitent. It ran great before it sat for a couple months yes. Then ran fin for a short bit after, but progressively have had problems that have gotteb worse. Now.... well it won't start.

Got to admit that's pretty much the symptoms I had, thorough carb clean and it ran as well as ever.

[threepot]

This should help. Not exactly the same carbs,but similar
http://www.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial.pdf

[oregonsteamer]

tore them down tonight,honestly not that bad, like I said before It hadnt been that long since I had them cleaned. but my question is, do these vacuum lines go to something, because as it sat they went to no where. the 2 meet at a T and then 1 that went to free air? seems weird. any guesses? I will put it together tomorrow night, but any help on that would be appreiciated.

[Mustang]

you talkin about the vent hoses ? because there isn't any vacuum hoses .

the vacuum port on each carb is capped with a rubber plug ,,,,,,,,,,,no hose .
the vacuum port is on the top of each carb.

the carbs can look spotless and still be fucked.
the problem is in the little tiny drill holes in the pilot circuit . they get a white powdery oxidation from the aluminum and the moisture that the ethanol corn squeezin's attract. you can't see it

you need to soak the bodies in carb cleaner and use compressed air . ultra sonic cleaning won;t do shit .
may even need to run a small wire thru the passages .

and sea foam is your friend , ignore the directions on the can , dump the whole can into the gas tank.

use Stabil when you park it for more than a few weeks  also .

one thing concerns me ................

Starter solenoid any possibility, seems like a weird thought, but it clicks an aweful lot.

are you trying to start with a weak battery ?
if that engine can't spin fast enough it will never start after resting all winter. use jumper cables to the car battery if you have to .

[97tiger885]

My 97 has similar symptoms with starting after sitting.  It will run fine for months then refuse to run cleanly or start after sitting for as little as two days.  My solution is to hook up a second battery to the first and crank away until it runs.  I pour in some Sea Foam. If it is smoking, I let it idle until the smoke clears and it will move without stalling. Once it is not smoking, I run it for 20 miles or so. 

It has not refused to start within 10 minutes of fiddling.  Being lazy I have avoided removing the carbs for cleaning.

I have a voltage meter mounted on the dash.  This allows me to crank and crank while minimizing the risk of destroying the sprag clutch.  The second battery allows me to keep cranking past the point where the voltage drop  in the first battery would force me to stop and recharge it.

[oregonsteamer]

still nothing. Bikes wont fire, now my choke wont move and my throttle has not spring back pressure. I'd make some one a great deal on a tiger with lots of great stuff if someone else want to deal with it. I'm spent, I can't find carbs anywhere for a decent price and it wont run so its really just taking up a shit ton of room in my garage.
It seems odd it wouldn't fire at all. but i don't know. something is wrong and I cant afford to spend thousands to have a MC mechanic to fix it.

[oregonsteamer]

also if anyone (hint hint mustang) is interested in possibly rebuilding my carbs for me at a cost obviously, I would possibly interested as well.

[oregonsteamer]

Back to the damned drawing board. Spark- check, air- check, fuel- pretty sure (tried starter fluid still no fire) compression-check. What the hell am I missing here. Suck squeeze bang blow......its all there but nothing happening