Hey guys, first time post
2006 Eliminator is being a bit of a pain in the ariss atm. Ultimately it HATES cold starts, and stalls all the time at low revs/idle even after ~50mph+ journeys to college and back of 5 miles.

I'll begin with the cold start - its now worse than ever and will only keep a stable idle with the choke on. If you take the choke off, it either stalls, or gives a pathetic idle.
When the choke is off however, you have to (try) and keep the revs up, or it just cuts out - regardless of how much you fiddle with the idle screw, and if you put the idle screw up too high, the throttle just hangs all the time.
The problem with keeping the revs up is that this morning (it did this before, but not this bad), if you open the throttle, the revs just die and it backfires all the time. Hence, this makes it now impossible to move off because as soon as you give it revs, it just dies and stalls.

There is also a fair amount of light smoke coming from the exhaust when cold, which I'm pretty sure never happened up until just the other day. I checked the oil, and it is at the lowest, but I ordered a filter on friday and already have oil, so I can change it myself as soon as I get the filter.

One other thing to note is that it has a brand new (4 day old) carburettor on it. These issues were happening with the old carburettor and the reason I changed it was because the pilot air screw on the old carb had been cross-threaded in, and I thought that perhaps it was getting too little air. The new screw has been turned 1&1/2 turns out as in the service manual and has exactly the same size jet as the old carb. Both are geuine Mikuni BS28.
Battery has been topped up and recharged (if that matters) and the spark plug is near new, and has something like 1k miles on it. It is a good colour as I checked this yesterday.

Anyhow, I'm abit befuddled but it could have been worse - I could have paid £200 for the carb from a dealer, but paid £61 on fleabay (which was the ONLY place on the net I could find one!)

So, I don't know what you guys might suggest?
Cheers!

 

Welcome to KF. Nice description of the issue as well

Normally, I play with the 2 1/4 turns out on the primary circuit. You may want to try that since the choke is telling you that it will run with the choke but not just only on the idle jets.

 

I see mate.
Well I've booked the bike in for a valve check (and adjustment if nescessary) tuesday morning. The bloke reckoned it about 40 squid so I thought there no reason not to try it, and anyway it would've needed a check in 2000 miles for it's next service anyway.
If it still runs like an OAP after that, or the clearances are good, I'll have a crack what you suggested. Either way, I'll let ya know. Cheers matey.

 

understood, I normally do my valve checks just after break in. Yes, let us know and good luck.

 

Still not brilliant, even after valve adjustment and oil/filter change today. Although, it is better, the idle is still weaker than I feel it should be when cold. For example when I pull the throttle and let the revs die again, it usually stalls when the revs fall back down.

Also, the issue where I pull the throttle and the revs die down and the engine splutters still exists. I'm beginning to feel that it's creating a dangerous riding condition as there's just no power to pull away/pull out with, and if I need that power, I'm pretty much helpless.

So its now had:

• Brand New Carb
• Valve Adjustment
• Oil and Filter Change
• New spark plug (tried the old one aswell - no difference)

Still, its not exactly perfect, although I'm beginning to think that's all I can do, as I don't want to spend any more money on - I'm doing my Mod 1 test tomorrow, and so (if I pass ) I may aswell live with until I can ride my CB500 sitting in the shed, lol.

I'll try fiddling with the air screw one last time at some point this week like you suggested matey, but failing that, it seems that everything else is beyond me, having eliminated the most obvious symptoms.

Anyhow, sorry for the MASSIVENESS of this post, lol.
Again, I'll keep posted as to whether or not the air screw thing works.
Peace out