My bike was in storage for a year and I had a time starting it this year. It runs very bad at idle and trying to take off and at a steady speed below 5k rpms and I can hear it sputtering at constant throttle. If I open it up, it power wheelies in 2nd gear but I have to keep the choke on if I come up to a stop sign. I've put fresh gas in, fuel filter, checked plugs, added Sea Foam fuel system cleaner so far and put 120 miles on so far and still runs bad. HELP!

 

Welcome zx9! When you store your bike (or even don't ride it for a couple months) the crap they put in the gas anymore will begin to sludge in the jets. You can drain the bowls and run fresh fuel and it will sometimes STILL not clear. You may need to pull the carbs and manually clear the jets using a very small wire. (I speak from experience...) I know it's a PITA to do this, but that would be my guess.
Glad to have you with us. Let us know how it goes.

 

Sea Foam is not a cure all in a past tense use. Sounds like you need to manually clean, soak and check synch your carbs to get a good baseline.

Welcome to KF

 

I've never had the carbs off the old girl. Will I have to re-adjust everything when I take them apart and put them back together? I'm assuming it's the pilot jets that are plugged?

 

I know Sea Foam isn't a cure-all but it has done some pretty miraculous things for me in the past with other vehicles and of course was hoping it would save the day again in this case but as of yet it hasn't. Once I get to the carbs under the tank an all, what's the procedure of getting to the pilot jets etc?

 

Cliff's Notes: (Who the hell is Cliff, anyway??) Pull the tank off. Loosen the carb boot screws. Disconnect the throttle linkage at the carb end. (May need to loosen a bit at the throttle, but maybe not.) Pull carbs straight back and off. (Probably have some fuel draining out, so no smoking or flames.) Put on the bench, and unscrew each carb bowl; I usually do one at a time. The Jets will be the brass "thingy's" with a hole in the middle and a flat slot. (Jets are also a marginal pro football team, but I won't go there...) Tap the butt end of the screwdriver just a tick, with a plastic or rubber end mallet...not a "whack!" Unscrew and pull the jets. Take a thin piece of wire ( I use s/s safety wire) and gently poke through each hole you see. It might help to have a small ---cut-off plastic gallon milk jugs work well--container of petro-based cleaner to wash things out. You should see some small boogers on the wire when you poke through. Can use air (gently) for a final blow job. (Wait; that didn't sound right...or ....maybe it did?) Take a peek at everything else while you're in that far. Re-assemble--yeah; easy for me to say.

**...and, Oh yeah; DRAG will walk you through the sync procedure!! LOL

 

hahaha, heck of a deal. No biggey actually. The hardest part in all of this is letting the carb parts sit overnight in the dip. (for us impatient peoples that is)

edit: The throttle cables are probably the biggest pain.

 

Sounds fun! Now to find the time to do it!