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hard starting - 1986 R80RT
- Thread starter galaxie
- Start date
stevenrankin
Active member
Kurt asks the big questions. I will ask you about maintenance, when were the valves set, points if you have them, timing (regardless of points)?
How many miles on the carbs? Has the bike been used a lot or has it sat a lot, just out of storage?
Valves have to be adjusted properly first. Points if you have them have to be in good shape and adjusted. These two things need to be addressee before carb adjustments. St.
How many miles on the carbs? Has the bike been used a lot or has it sat a lot, just out of storage?
Valves have to be adjusted properly first. Points if you have them have to be in good shape and adjusted. These two things need to be addressee before carb adjustments. St.
kbasa
Well-known member
Steve offers a key post, along with Lee's directly above: when was the last time you did a valve adjustment? If I have problems with bad starting or dying at idle, it's usually remedied with an adjustment of the valves as first step.
stevenrankin
Active member
1986 R80 RT carbs are fine valves set to spec no points plugs new may have something on gas
Okay, thanks for this.
Has the bike sat for a long time with gas in it? Fresh gas may help.
Also, how old and what kind of shape is the battery in? Is it fully charged and holding a charge? Does the bike turn over slow as if the battery is dying or fast but won't catch? You may want to do a load test on the battery if it is a cranking speed issue. St.
Okay, thanks for this.
Has the bike sat for a long time with gas in it? Fresh gas may help.
Also, how old and what kind of shape is the battery in? Is it fully charged and holding a charge? Does the bike turn over slow as if the battery is dying or fast but won't catch? You may want to do a load test on the battery if it is a cranking speed issue. St.
Difficult cold starting is almost always gunk in the little jet in the bottom corner of the float bowl that feeds the enricher. Even one side obstructed can give you trouble. If, when the motor does start, does it sound like it's running on one cylinder?
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stevenrankin
Active member
Bad gas will do a job all the time. Even fresh gas from a pump can be bad, I got a big shot of water in my RS one time filling up on a trip at a small town station. Boy that caused a lot of cursing each time the bike died and I had to drain the float bowls. St.
pglaves
#13338
Which explains why whenever we travel I have a bottle of IsoHeet along with us.
stevenrankin
Active member
I am curious Paul as to how much water Isoheet would absorb out of a tank of gas? In my case I got quite a shot it took hours to work it out. St.
kinterridge
Member
Steve, I think that would be hard to determine because what other variables are involved, even like how much moisture is in the air in the tank. I did find this info about pure iso alchohol "The hygroscopic nature of IPA is very pronounced. IPA exposed to the air will absorb moisture rapidly until it reaches an equilibrium value of 65% IPA to 35% water."
pglaves
#13338
Steve, I can't quantify that. But a bottle is intended to be able to work in up to 16 gallons in a car tank. So far it has worked fine in our much smaller motorcycle fuel tanks. I am sure though that a huge dose of water would overpower even a full bottle of treatment. I would note that in most motorcycle tanks water can build up over time and not be quickly picked up by fuel pumps or petcock inlets. Thus rusted or corroded fuel tank seams even in bikes in frequent use. I typically will add a couple of ounces of Isoheet with a couple of ounces of Techron fuel system cleaner every couple of months and/or as part of a 6000 miles service. Years ago I had to clean up and seal up a corroded seam on the bottom left of a K75 fuel tank caused by the long term settlement and retention of water in the tank. Since then I have routinely tried to prevent that from being needed again.
stevenrankin
Active member
I have never had an issue with moisture building up in my bikes, gas tanks as they don't sit long enough. LOL, I have as I wrote gotten bad gas from a station both in my RS and one time my boat. In the boat, I did use dry gas because of the high moisture environment the tank was in.
Funny story: My neighbor now long passed was a character and one time his son's Camaro was not running past idle. Charlie came across the street to ask me to take a look and see if I could figure out what was going on. He had three empty bottles of dry gas in hand and told me he had added them to the tank. Well, yeah, one bottle would clear up a bit of moisture in a full tank of gas but I informed him the extra two bottles might cause problems as the dry gas doesn't burn the same as gas. Anyway, I got in the car and noticed the gas gauge was on empty, "oh Jimmy just put in gas, must be the gauge is broke". Nope, I couldn't get the car to run past idle. After a lot of messing around, I gave up and suggested my friend's garage to be the next place to go. Surprise the next day the car was on the road like nothing happened. I asked what the problem was, turns out the gas tank was empty. St.
Funny story: My neighbor now long passed was a character and one time his son's Camaro was not running past idle. Charlie came across the street to ask me to take a look and see if I could figure out what was going on. He had three empty bottles of dry gas in hand and told me he had added them to the tank. Well, yeah, one bottle would clear up a bit of moisture in a full tank of gas but I informed him the extra two bottles might cause problems as the dry gas doesn't burn the same as gas. Anyway, I got in the car and noticed the gas gauge was on empty, "oh Jimmy just put in gas, must be the gauge is broke". Nope, I couldn't get the car to run past idle. After a lot of messing around, I gave up and suggested my friend's garage to be the next place to go. Surprise the next day the car was on the road like nothing happened. I asked what the problem was, turns out the gas tank was empty. St.
