R1100RT air screw location?

Hi,

I think it's time to deal with the dreaded dirty air screws on the TB's. I've been on the GS for a while and decided to get out the RT but now it's just barely idling. It's always been too low since I've owned it. On the right side of the RT I can see what looks like an access hole in the plastic and a fairly large slotted screw down there. But I don't see one on the left side. I would really like to try and back the screws out an eigth of a turn and see if that helps, but I don't want to take all the plastic off if I don't need to.

It's possible to get access to one idle screw and one throttle cable (right side only, by using the access hole you've found and removing the screw that secures the little plate in front of your toe. So you could make adjustments that way without removing all the body work and you could do a complete sych removing only the left panel. If you want to take them out and clean them, you'll need to remove both panels. Not that bad after you've done it a few times.

Some people keep really good track of which fairing screw came from where. I've found that if I just keep a separate baggie labelled for each side, I can keep it pretty well sorted.

Oh I've done it many times. Never really liked putting it all back together. I guess I just better put it back in the barn to work on it. Not much room now that the wife rides her own bike! I don't have a sync but may be able to borrow one. Any tips? I was just going to crack the screws a little and hope for a few rpm.
Jay

Jay,

Lots of good stuff here on the ibmwr pages with some variations. If you've had the bike 6000 miles or more and/or don't know when the last service was done, I'd recommend making sure everything is right: adjust the valves and then synch the throttle bodies, doing more trouble shooting if that's not successful.

Messing with the idle screws could throw off your throttle body sych, even if you ease each out an identical amount. You could count how many turns it takes to gently tighten them all the way, then remove them and clean off any grunge, bottoming each out and then opening to where it was, again possibly upseting the balance once back in. You'll know because the bike will vibrate a lot more. Best to just clean them and tweak the synch at idle and speed.

Especially the first time you do it, it's smart to set a fan or two in front of the bike to cool the cylinders. That'll buy you some time to get it right before the bike gets too hot. It gets faster with not very much practice.

If you get or borrow a TwinMax, Carb Tune or homemade synchronizer, it's really not that hard - it takes a bit of patience and fiddling to get it right since tightening the locknut affects the adjustment, but quite doable.

I find getting all the fairing screws to line up with the little clips more frustrating than doing the actual synch, so if I'm going to touch a throttle body, I'm going to synch them up.

You're not due for a new fuel filter (24K miles) are you?

Good luck!

Gene

Buy/make a screwdriver handled hex key tool. Drill 1/8 inch diameter in the cut off end of a worn out phillips driver & force a length of 4 mm (?) hex key stock into it. It really makes removing & reinstalling the fairings so much easier.

It's more likely that the air passages at the "Big Brass Screws" (BBS) are dirty and blocking the flow of air. Opening up the one screw a little might increase your idle but it will add to the imbalance and it won't solve the real problem. It's really only about 30 minutes - take off the two side panels. Check your valve clearances if you haven't done it in the last 6,000 miles then clean out the BBS and air passages. Count the number of turns to seat the BBS gently to the bottom - that will be your starting point later. Remove the BBS, clean it off. Remove the vacuum hose at the bottom of the throttle body, then spray an O2 safe carb cleaner into the air passages. Put the BBS in to the bottom and then unscrew it to the starting point. Ride it 10 miles to warm it up and then use a twin-max or other balancer to get the idle balanced and also at 2500 or so RPM.

I believe that the hex screws on the panels are 3mm.

m_stock10506 said:

I believe that the hex screws on the panels are 3mm.

Click to expand...

THX for the correction.

+1 on cleaning the throttle bodies & BBSs too.

Thanks guys. I've gotten pretty fast on the fairings, just hate doing it. And checking the valves is old hat for a classic car guy like me. I've done it twice on this bike. The bike only has about 26k on it, and no I haven't changed the fuel filter. Need to do that too.

Be anal when checking the valve clearance - especially for the intake valves. Check that .001 over is a no go and that .001 under is a free go.

FWIW - On my 2000 R1100 RT I deliberately set the right side very slightly looser (like .001 looser) than the left. I was trying to eliminate a nasty surge & that might have been part of the solution, by delaying the intake opening very slightly with respect to the left side.

and bow to the east three times before starting.....................