97 Valkyrie Carb Question

I know several of you have previously or currently own a Valkyrie, so I have a question about a carb problem with my '97 Valk. A friend of mine has been riding this bike the last 2 years, in hopes he could buy it. However, due to finanaces and health issues that did not happen so, I now have the bike back in my possession. The bike will only start in full choke position, and you have leave the choke partially closed to get the revs up to get it rolling. However, once you are going 10-20 mph, you can open the choke all the way, and it then runs like normal, and cruises through all gears and at all speeds without hesitation or any kind of carb problem. At first I thought it was a carb sync problem, so I pulled the intakes off and checked the butterfly position of each carb just to make sure one of the butterfly valves was covering one-half of the first of those four tiny holes. (Read that on the internet)

About two years ago a service station attendent accidently put diesel in the tank, so my buddy says. He had a back-yard mechanic friend clean it out somehow and got it running. Not sure if he remove the carbs and clean them or what. He says, it has been running fine since then. But, I don't think he really rode it that much, just couple times a month. I have owned a couple other Valks before and on one bike had the carbs cleaned and rebuilt and it was super responsive and fast, but very expensive at about $700. I might also try to run a couple cans of Seafoam through it to see if that helps.

It is hard to find a good Honda shop around here that has a mechanic that knows how to work on a old carburated Valk, so I am hoping someone on here can lead me in the right direction. There is a guy from Arkansas that has a number of good videos on Youtube and I might try cleaning the carbs myself.

I had a '99 Valk Interstate and I wanted to see how far I could go on a tank...............big mistake, sucking fuel from the bottom of the tank introduced some foreign particles into the carbs. It didn't run too good and by lightly touching the pipes I could tell a couple of cylinders were colder than others. To make a long story short after a couple of tanks with carb cleaner through it, it got better. Your problem is alittle different, after sitting for awhile your low/idle jets have gotten gummed up from old fuel...............if you are lucky try the above it may clean out those little guys. I have a couple of old CB750/550 and when I screw up and let them sit too long I get what you describe, need choke to idle. I pull the carbs drop the bowls and spray carb cleaner in the jets and carefully run an acupuncture needle down it followed with a little shop air, this works every time. I have learned to use Sta-bil in every tank and ride as often as possible. Good luck.

Sounds pretty normal to me for a 97 Valkyrie...My 99 did similar things on occasion and I put a 1/2 bottle of Seafoam in tank a couple of fill-ups and the thing ran fine until I traded it a couple years later.....Not discounting other things may be wrong, but my son-in-law in Oklahoma rides a 99 Valk which has 28,000 miles on it and he is now having carb issues and the dealer has also quoted him a pretty steep price to re-build/calibrate the carbs...I suppose that is why most bikes today have FI which seems to be much less hassles......

Will it idle after running?

DO yourself a favor and use TECHRON , buy 2 bottles just in case. Try Auto Zone or Sam's Club. It does a better job than Seafoam.

OR if you have a connection with a auto repair facility, the BEST carb cleaner is BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner , you may not ever heard of it, but that is because it is not sold directly to the public through retail stores. You can find it on e-bay. I have used this and it is NOT cheap but a lot less than a rebuild, the results are amazing.

One of the quotes from the below link "well kept secret as BG only supply Dealerships, no auto parts supply stores have access to it"Read the following comments including post #8 ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...m-cleaner.html


Find a dealer near you that MIGHT be willing to sell a can over the counter ... http://www.bgfindashop.com/locator/index.php

:ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BG44K-BG-44K...b4c859&vxp=mtr

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scotrod

Will it idle after running?

---

No, I rode it for about 30 minutes at highway speed and when I got home, it still would not idle without the choke half way closed. Even running at highway speed, I could pull in the clutch and let off the throttle, and it would die.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phantom

DO yourself a favor and use TECHRON , buy 2 bottles just in case. Try Auto Zone or Sam's Club. It does a better job than Seafoam.

OR if you have a connection with a auto repair facility, the BEST carb cleaner is BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner , you may not ever heard of it, but that is because it is not sold directly to the public through retail stores. You can find it on e-bay. I have used this and it is NOT cheap but a lot less than a rebuild, the results are amazing.

One of the quotes from the below link "well kept secret as BG only supply Dealerships, no auto parts supply stores have access to it"Read the following comments including post #8 ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...m-cleaner.html


Find a dealer near you that MIGHT be willing to sell a can over the counter ... http://www.bgfindashop.com/locator/index.php

---

My brother-in-law is a parts manager at the Ford dealer, so he may have it. Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phantom

DO yourself a favor and use TECHRON , buy 2 bottles just in case. Try Auto Zone or Sam's Club. It does a better job than Seafoam.

OR if you have a connection with a auto repair facility, the BEST carb cleaner is BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner , you may not ever heard of it, but that is because it is not sold directly to the public through retail stores. You can find it on e-bay. I have used this and it is NOT cheap but a lot less than a rebuild, the results are amazing.

One of the quotes from the below link "well kept secret as BG only supply Dealerships, no auto parts supply stores have access to it"Read the following comments including post #8 ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...m-cleaner.html


Find a dealer near you that MIGHT be willing to sell a can over the counter ... http://www.bgfindashop.com/locator/index.php

---

+1 on the TECHRON Saved the former owner's neglect on my Norton carb. Cleaned up the ethonol induced issues with my Vincent carbs and fixed my stalling problem with my BMW K1200GT....Really!

The BG product is very good... your low idle jets are gummed up.... drive around at low speeds.... under 45 and that will help clean the low speed jets... after about two tanks pull her down, if not running right, and D & C .... and ALWAYS use Stabil

If you are still not convinced about the BG44K, here are some more reviews ....

http://www.amazon.com/BG-44K-Fuel-Sy...owViewpoints=1


FYI, my Diesel Mechanic, Local Porsche Dealership, BMW and Mercedes Dealerships use it.
It wouldn't surprise me if one of these shade tree repair shops would charge their customer for a carburetor rebuild but instead use a can of BG44K to fix the problem. The product is that good.

Yep, idle circuit/jets plugged/restricted.

Tank flush / fresh gas wouldn't hurt.

Riding w/cleaners might work,,, worth a try.

Berryman's B-12 used to be pretty good.

Put a post on the Valkyrie Rider Cruiser Club Tech Board.

There are people there who are incredibly good with Valkyries and can help with anything.

Rick

the best way to fix your carb problems are to rebuild them. as old as your bike is, it is in need of new orings, float needles and seats, take your carbs to a dealer that has a ultrasonic cleaning tank, this is what we use to clean carbs. the float needles soon will start leaking fuel into the left had cylinders, when this happens you may hydrolock the motor, and damage the staters gears, this is a motor pull to repair. also replace the fuel valve diaphragm, they are starting to leak fuel into the left bank, threw the vacuum hose that opens the fuel valve, turning off the valve makes no difference, and it will drain the fuel tank into the motor. the best way to store this bike is drain the carbs of all fuel, fill the tank with a fuel additive. in both of my dealer ships we do not leave any fuel in carbs, even on the show room floor, it is a pain, but drain everyone after running them, this is the only way that we can be positive, not to have any running issues, any stale fuel will also wet foul the spark plugs, some plugs are 15.00 each and take over a hour to install.. dale

Ya, What Dale said..... and this is one of the major reasons I sold my Valk...you DO have to be a mechanic to own one. I used to turn the fuel off about a 1/2 mile from my house to get most of the fuel out of the carbs... Hydro lock it ZERO fun as well... if the bike will clean up enough to run OK for you then run it, but I can almost guarantee you will be pulling the carb pak... great bike, just too old...sorry

The inlet needle valve seats have a very small screen on the inlet side of the seat .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Steve 0080

you DO have to be a mechanic to own one.

---

This is off-topic, but,,,# 1 argument on 'other' boards for carb vs FI,, "I can work on it",,,

Well, if that's how you like to spend your time,, :shrug:

Again, not knocking the OP in any way, or other Valk owners, but dang,,, the MC community as a whole still has some folks clinging on to the past due to fear of what they 'don't understand'.

Never could quite figure that out,,,

Back to the original topic

Hope the OP has Lady Luck shine on him and he can get going w/o a tear down,, however,,,,,, if keeping the bike is 'the plan',,,, a full rebuild may be in order/worth the time/$$$$. Most likely will run like new when done,,,

Would like to hear how this adventure ends,,,