Dead steamer

[otptiger]

Help I put the steamer up for the winter and just now put a new battery in her.
She fired up but will only idle with the choke up to 1500rpm and will take no throttle. any ideas?
Thanks
Brian

[aeronca]

hey brother, first thing i would do is check the float bowls in on the carbs. might have some crap built up in there. maybe run a little carb cleaner through it, it might clean out any junk in the jets. start there. good luck and keep us posted.

[Mustang]

Help I put the steamer up for the winter and just now put a new battery in her.
She fired up but will only idle with the choke up to 1500rpm and will take no throttle. any ideas?
Thanks
Brian

run it let it run , it will take a while and will slowly start to improve and once you can actually give it gas , take it for a ride and be patient , leave the choke on if you have to. It won't hurt anything , slowly you will be able to get her up to speed and once it is starting to run better , wring it out , get up on the freeway and get some miles into it , it will clean out , it is a powdery mix of old gas and aluminum corrosion clogging up the low speed circuit , usually happens every year to at least one of my steamers .

[EvilBetty]

Off topic, but living in Ohio... shouldn't a dead steamer be referred to as a Cleavland Steamer?  :lol:

[aeronca]

only if its brown :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[otptiger]

Mustang how long should i keep this thing idling? 20 min yesterday and another 30min today with not much change. It will almost die with a bit of throttle then shoot to 2500rpm back to 1-2 k
Brian

[Mustang]

ride it ......it's the only way you are going to clean it out , leave the choke on , it's not really a choke anyway it's an enrichener let it idle at 4 k or more with the choke and ride it . it should start to come out of it .

take off the side panel and make sure little critters didn't make a nest in your airbox over the winter

[nightrunner]

It might be time to give up and open up the carbs for a good cleaning.   Or perhaps drain the tank and carbs and try it with fresh gas, and maybe some cleaner additive.  Its pretty common they get gunked up over the winter.  Some fuel stabelizer in the fall is a good idea.  

Of course I cant help but recall this happened to me and it wasn't the carbs.  I was trying to wake it up from winter hibernation many years ago and it would idle rough or not at all.   It drove me nuts cleaning the carbs with no improvement.  Turns out that is when the crappy stock coils decided to go south.

FWIW.  Good luck

[otptiger]

Well it looks like I am going to have to pull the carbs. it looks like they have never been touched it still has the caps in the mixture screws.

What should those be at? 2-2-1/2?  Any tips on what I should get on order parts wise for the carbs, only 11K on the clock.

Thanks
Brian

[Mustang]

what year is it
up to and including 97's had mikuni carbs and 98's had Keihin carbs

[otptiger]

Thanks Mustang it is 1996 with Mikuni carbs.
Brian

[Mustang]

the mikunis work pretty good the way they are set up from the factory , on my 95 I have never touched the mixture screws and  have never felt the need to .
on my 98's however they worked better with the mixture screws set at 2 1/4 turns , you probably don't need to do anything other than pull the float bowls and get a can of spray carb cleaner like GUMOUT and give them a bath unscrew the pilot jets and make sure they are not clogged with debris as well the main jets .shoot some compressed air thru the orifices and put em back together making sure that you don't disturb the float settings .
with the carbs out now is the time to give the air filter some attention .
with only 11 k on it I doubt anything is worn in the carbs .

also at 11 k your valves are probably still at an acceptable clearance but it wouldn't hurt to pull the valve cover and check while you have the bike apart . this thread will show you how to check the clearances on the valves
http://tigertriple.com/forum/index.php/msg,34259

and if you haven't pulled the carbs yet , make sure it is not the coils giving you the problem , spark issues on the steamers will make you suspect the carbs when there is nothing wrong with them , coil problems are a very common fault on the triumphs  with the 885 carb'd motors , t birds tigers trophys sprints they all suffer from it . It's not a matter of if it will happen , it is when will it happen

[nightrunner]

Have you had the carbs off before?  First time is usually a right of passage (ie PITA).  If not its maybe not obvious that you will slide the airbox straight back and then work the carb bank out the side.  Then if you want, the airbox can be slid forward and removed.  I would remove the choke cable and slide the carbs to the right side.  The throttle cable is harder to remove and you can even do the work without removing it if you wish.   Use the drain valves at the bottom to drain the bowls at some before the carbs are flipped over.

And find the point where the one fuel line splits into three.  Pull the hose off there and you'll find a tiny little filter which may be clogged.  A lot of owners remove it and install a better one in-line.  I did that but left the little one in as a backup.  FWIW

Cleaning is fairly intuitive like others have said.  I would pop the tops and check for any holes in the diaphragms as long as the carbs are out.  Also FYI the fuels screws have a range of 0-3 turns.  After 3 turns they are beyond the range where change will occur and you go to the next size pilot jet.  Mine were like 2.25 to 2.5 turns out before I rejetted.  But I have a 98.

Lastly, when you go to mount the carbs, coat the inside rims of the rubber boots with wheel bearing grease or even vaseline.  Do both the airbox boots and the intake boots.   You will be amazed how easy it is to remount the carbs and get them off the next time.   Also you'll get a better seal when you tighten the clamps

Good luck with it.