Hey guys,my wife's XT 225 with just under 500 miles on it has developed a problem. I bought it last July, and she has ridden it some and I have too when I'm not riding my bike. Anyway I was following her the other day and noticed that whenever we came to a stop sign or changed from 45 mph to 25 it would start smoking kind of bad. Once we got off the road I took it for a spin, and sure enough every time I would ride for a while and then come to a stop it would start smoking a light colored smoke. If you ran the throttle up for a bit it would go away. Here is my theory, and with your input maybe I can get this thing figured out. About 3 months after I got her bike I read about the fuel/air screw adjustment. So I did that. out 3 turns and it seemed to help. She didn't ride it too often in the winter, even though I installed the heated grips. So I'm thinking its loading up on fuel when the rpm's slow down. Maybe the adjustment screw either worked out farther or fell out. I have read that you should put a small dab of silicone in it to keep the screw from turning on its own. What do you guys think?

 

What color is the smoke - black or blue? Does it smoke just sitting there idiling, or just when she gets off the throttle? If the smoke is black, you might be running into a rich condition on deceleration (pilot jet or fuel/air screw). Also, have you cleaned out the spark arrestor yet? My Dad's XT225 has a bolt on the bottom of the muffler - you take it out and rev the bike a couple of times to blow the carbon out. Maybe it's just full of carbon and blowing it out the pipe.

If the smoke is blue, you've got another problem-you're burning oil. Usually when an 4-stroke engine smokes on deceleration, that's an indication of hardened or worn valve seals.

 

Hmmmm, the smoke is actually kind of white or really light blue. But it doesn't smell like oil. I'll try the spark arrestor clean out, but I have a 5 year warranty on her bike as well, so if I can't figure this thing out I guess I can take it in. I was hoping it was something simple, It really doesn't smoke until you ride and then come to a stop. Weird.

 

If avalve seal is bad itusually smokes when you decelerate and on initial start up.

 

a friend of mine just went thru the exact same thing and it was the head gasket not the vavle seals. (he changed them first) . his bike is 10 yrs. old with some very hard miles on it though.

 

We bought my wife a new TTR 225 in December 2002. It started smoking a little after about 6months,so I took it back to the dealer. They tore it downand founda tear on one of the valve guide seals, whichthey replaced and that solved the problem.
Also adjust the air screw after it warms up.Turn it in until the engine falters, then back out until it falters, then go about halfway between. Roll the throttle on fast to see if it takes the gas, if itstutters back the screw out a 1/4 turn at a time until it takes the gas ok.
I solved the carb problm on her bike by putting my old standby carb onit, aTM33 carb. Then I really solved the problem, I sold it & got her a 2006 KLX250.

 

Ok here is the dealio. I called the shop and told them about my wife's bike. I asked them if they could get it in the shop along with my bike to get the valves checked, I think they are floating a little. Anyway I told the guy that I was going to check the fuel screw adjustment just to rule that out. Well I pulled the side cover off, loosened the carb screws and tried to spin it so I could get to the screw, and then I remembered that the first time I did this I had to remove the tank, to be able to do it on this bike. So anyway I found out that with the carb where it is supposed to be I could get to the air mix screw with a 2 inch driver extension and a straight bit, so I check the adjustment, and it was right on 3 turns still. So I figured I was just going to drop off the bike at the shop along with mine on Friday since I was heading over to Puyallup to pick up 10,000 lbs of landscape blocks on Friday anyway. So here is where the good part is. I got ready to put the cover back on the air cleaner side and noticed that the 3/8 hose that comes from the valve cover/head area to the air box was pinched, and I don't mean it was slightly pinched, it was at a 180 degree pinch, then I figured out what happened. When I did the air screw adjustment 4 months ago and took off the tank I must have got the hose on the wrong side of the gas switch, and it got squished. So that is the breather hose that allows air trapped in the head to get to the air box. Now since it was totally blocked off, it was forcing that air out the exhaust, which had picked up oil as the air does in there. Well After figuring that out, I started the bike and it warmed up so fast that I was shocked. It also would not smoke no matter what I did. Rode it around, and not even a speck of smoke. YEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






Here is the picture, and it seems I'm not the only one to do this, a guy over on the 225 site just posted that the same thing happened to him.

 

Is it great when you finger out your own problems! Good job Deej.
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>^,~,^< Ted
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condos in Jomtien

 

Yes it is, thanks man, its almost as good as finding a big bag of money in the woods,......still waiting for that one to happen. Now where did DB Cooper hide all that money? [8D]

 

I just thought it was weird that two other guys on the xt225 site had done the same thing. Oh well I'm just glad I figured it out.