Possible fuel issue with my 06 Venture

[chag67]

I purchased the bike in March of 2013. Used 87 octane (no ethonal) from March to June. I have been using 93 octane since June of 2013. For some reason, last week I went back to 87 no octane. One day prior to filling up, I used a leaf blower to blow all the water off the bike after a rain. Stupid me forgot to cover my baby.

 

Since the blow dry and the new fill up, my bike is struggling to maintain idle, especially at start up. I have messed with the idle knob on the right under the tank. No help. When I pull out the choke to help warm up, like I've done many times, and start in the morning, it immediately shuts off. I have to warm up using the handlebar throttle.

 

What do you guys think could be the problem?

Bad gas?

Go back to 93 octane?

Coincidence on timing and just need a new fuel filter?

Could the lead blower messed up something in the engine or something?

[chag67]

Oh and it's "popping" quite a bit more than the occasional pop when idling. I can also smell fuel when I rev the engine while in idle. Never smelled fuel before.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

How aggressive were you with the leafblower? If its a highpower unit, you shouldnt get too close to all the guts under the tank..about 5 feet back is plenty close enough.

 

It may have damaged one of the carb boots or possibly loosened or cracked a vacuum hose on the inlets. Also check the spark plug wires and boots...and fuel lines...anything that could have been jarred loose.

 

I would check everything you can to see if you got too close with the nozzle.

 

Or it could just be coincidence, and you got some bad gas, maybe plugged the fuel filter, or some crud in one or more jets.

 

Try pouring a half a can of Seafoam in the tank and try to run it for 5 minutes or so, get the Seafoam into the jets, then shut it off for a day...let the stuff sit in there for awhile.

 

Hopefully you will figure it out.

 

 

[chag67]

Sadly I got close. Within a foot. Sigh.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Sadly I got close. Within a foot. Sigh.

 

Ok...well you know, 200 mph windblast from that nozzle sure could have damaged something...its possible.

 

You may just have to look very carefully...wiggle some hoses, use your fingernails and press on the carb boots...looking for anything that could have been damaged. A tiny crack might be enough to let air in or gas out.

 

I wont beat you up over this....stuff happens to all of us...I have plenty of stories of my own...

[V7Goose]

I would not have expected using a leaf blower (or even an air compressor hose) to have caused any problems at all. Based just on your post, I don't think I have any definitive answer for you, but I'll give you some general thoughts.

 

First of all, use of any gas over 87 pump octane is nothing more than a complete waste of money for this engine. It is designed to run on 87, and anything higher provides ABSOLUTELY ZERO BENEFIT. But buying ANY gas without alcohol adulterant is better that the crud most of us have to buy with that nasty stuff in there. If you can still get pure gas, keep buying it.

 

It is possible that somehow the forced air might have gotten water up in the plug on the ignitor box - unlikely, but might be worth while getting to it and making sure the contacts are dry and corrosion free. Also remove your air filters and make sure you didn't accidentally blow some stuff into the box openings.

 

You mention popping and the smell of gas - neither of those things is right, and they clearly show something is significantly wrong with your combustion. The 2nd gen bikes in stock trim will NEVER pop at idle (and only very very rarely at any other time) unless something is wrong with the bike that needs to be fixed. Typically popping in the exhaust comes from too much unburned fuel, so that fits with your saying you smell gas.

 

Start by inspecting the two vacuum lines and the two rubber caps on the vacuum ports on the intake boots. Make sure there are no cuts in the hoses and replace those cracked caps if they are more than two years old. Next, make sure that all the plug caps are properly attached toe the plugs. If they all seem OK, then I'd unscrew each one from the wire and ohm them out - anything over 10K is a problem.

 

When all is back together and you are ready to test it, be prepared to do the finger touch on the header pipes to look for a jug not heating up as fast as the other. You only have about 30 seconds after you start the bike for this test, so do not waste time. As soon as it starts running, reach in UNDER the header pipe to touch the inner pipe (NOT the chrome heat shield). Within 10 or 20 seconds each one of the pipes should be very hot - after 30 seconds or so, they will be hot enough to burn your finger with even a very brief touch. If any pipe is less hot than the others, you have found the cylinder that is not burning correctly.

 

Let us know what you find and we'll see where we need to go next.

Goose

[chag67]

Wow. Thanks.

Is this something that someone with little to no mechanical knowledge can do?

 

I am a visual person as well and work better off pictures or showing me once. I doubt my bike mechanic will let me watch to learn.

[cowpuc]

If it were mine I would start with the plug caps (as already mentioned), remove caps from plugs and see if there is water in em, if so a shot of carb cleaner and blast em out with compressed air will help dry em - wear glasses..

Another thing I have noticed is the smaller "D" plugs like we use dont take to kindly to being blackened from over choking OR, possibly in your case, having plugs shorted from being wet.. You could have just fouled a plug or two in the process of trying to start it wet.. Might wanna try replacing the plugs in her...

I always start with the easy stuff first

Puc

[djh3]

You could pull the fuel line off the bottom of the petcock. Drain some gas into a clear container. Let it settle a few minutes and see if it seperates. Fuel will float to top and water at bottom if that is the problem. If it were a vacum line I would think when you pulled the choke it would richen up the mixture and "fake" the motor into thinking it was getting more fuel and smoth out. Not a hard fact but thats been my experience. You can use carb cleaner or brake klean maybe even WD 40 to look for a vacum leak or broken carb boot. Get bike running and spray different areas and see if RPM go up or it smooths out. Definatly llok for the 2 vacum lines and 2 rubber block off caps on the carbs. Its the port you use to sync carbs. On the exhaust pipe check the othe thing is if you have a crayon of some type you can start the bike and next to the head touch the crayon. If it melts really easy its working, if it dont then it aint firing. If you do it by the head then that is the only cyl pushing hot exhaust thru it.

[chag67]

When I pull the choke after I get it running, it immediately stalls out.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

When I pull the choke after I get it running, it immediately stalls out.

 

After you get it running? Huh?

 

When the bike is cold, the choke is a starting aid, not a warm-up aid.

 

Pull the choke about 1/2 way, more or less. Then start the bike, possibly using throttle to help, and immediately start to slowly push the choke in to the point where it will still idle. You should not be using the choke to let the motor rev up for warming.

 

If the motor is warm, or outdoor temps are above about 60 or so, then only a small amount of choke should be needed...just barely pull it out.

 

If the motor is hot, you should not need any choke...maybe a slight blip of throttle when starting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chag67]

Yes. I know that. Sorry I wasn't clear. It won't start at all with choke out. When the engine is cold, I have to use the the handle throttle to start the bike. It won't start if the choke is out (engine cold).

[cowpuc]

Wet air cleaner..

[chag67]

Also I know that after the engine is warm the choke is not needed. That being said, I could (before) pull the choke out slightly and the engine revved up a bit. Now, if I do that, the engine immediately cuts off with the slightest pull of the choke.

[spike13]

if you are smelling raw fuel i dont think it's a carb problem i would check the air filters and plugs could just be time for a tune-up. i got caught in the rain once on an old honda and she started running bad turned out it was a cracked coil letting rain in water and electricity do not mix well good luck finding your problem hope it's easy enough:080402gudl_prv:

[RandyR]

the smell of gas is what happens when 1 cylinder isn't running. You should try v7goose's method for testing the heat at the exhaust pipes to determine which one.

 

It takes no mechanical ability what-so-ever

[steamer]

I purchased the bike in March of 2013. Used 87 octane (no ethonal) from March to June. I have been using 93 octane since June of 2013. For some reason, last week I went back to 87 no octane. One day prior to filling up, I used a leaf blower to blow all the water off the bike after a rain. Stupid me forgot to cover my baby.

 

Since the blow dry and the new fill up, my bike is struggling to maintain idle, especially at start up. I have messed with the idle knob on the right under the tank. No help. When I pull out the choke to help warm up, like I've done many times, and start in the morning, it immediately shuts off. I have to warm up using the handlebar throttle.

 

What do you guys think could be the problem?

Bad gas?

Go back to 93 octane?

Coincidence on timing and just need a new fuel filter?

Could the lead blower messed up something in the engine or something?

 

If it was running ok prior to the leaf blower and fill up, then I would suspect you blew some water into a ignition wire causing a miss fire or dead cylinder. or you got a bad tank of gas. The gas is easy to check as someone here said. Just pull the gas line off the tank and turn the petcock to reserve, pour some gas into the clear jar and see if there is water at the bottom . I've had water in the gas more then a few times. Now if it's water in the ignition system, then you need to start pulling plug wires and electrical connections apart and blow them out using very low pressure air. Put a little dielectric grease on the connectors and reinstall. Oh, if it was popping prior to this, you need to sync your carbs also.

[djh3]

WD 40 sprayed up in the plug cap should displace the water and somewhat add some water resitance to it. I have been told the WD stands for "water displacment" True or false I dont know. But it works.

[uncledj]

WD 40 sprayed up in the plug cap should displace the water and somewhat add some water resitance to it. I have been told the WD stands for "water displacment" True or false I dont know. But it works.

 

I believe I heard somewhere that WD40 was formulated to displace water and protect the metal on Titan rockets.

Water Displacement......40th formula they tried.

[Cougar]

8 years using a leaf blower to dry bike off and it has never been a problem for me. and I also get closer then a foot in places.

[StarFan]

Chris.

 

Check the Carburator joint hoses (see picture below). I had a very similiar problem after synchronizing the carbs on my 1998 Tour Classic. It has caps instead of the hoses that yours have and I forgot to put one or two of the caps on. See if one of the hoses on either side has come loose or off or is leaking.

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/Carburatorjointhoses_zps0442affe.jpg

[chag67]

Interesting. I started the bike today to run it a bit since it's been too cold to ride the past week. It started right up using the choke. No popping. No fuel smell. I'm wondering if I just got water in one of the plugs and it's now gone.

 

I'm still planning on changing plugs and wires anyway. I just haven't had the time to take the project on yet. This will be the first time taking the tank off and I'm a bit worried. I'm not mechanical at all.

[Cougar]

Chris , why are we changing the wires at 7 years?

think they are bad already? mine are still going strong after

13 years now .

[chag67]

No reason. I'll probably just change the plugs and put the ones everyone here talk about.

[M61A1MECH]

Chris

 

You know you can not change just the plug wires, they are molded into the coils, you can change the boots out but not the wires by themselves.

Here is a link to an IPB showing the parts.

http://www.powerpartsplus.com/pages/OemParts?aribrand=YAM#/Yamaha/ROYAL_STAR_VENTURE_-_XVZ13TFV_-_2006/ELECTRICAL_2/XVZ13TFV_(2006_MOTORCYCLE)/ELECTRICAL_2_(XVZ13TFV_-_2006)

 

Each coil and wire assembly is about $80.00 plus shipping.