Advice on a… motorcycle?

[TeenageAngst]

I know this is a car repair forum, but I’ve kinda exhausted my usual sources of info, and the people here are much more mechanically inclined.

I’ve got a 2005 Ninja 250R that I’ve had sitting for 2 winters now. Last year in June a guy I knew who works on bikes offered to clean the carbs for me for a song, and he did, but the engine still just wasn’t running right after that. He said it was the spark plugs and I believed him, but I didn’t get around to changing them before winter hit. I ended up letting it sit with a half tank of gas with Seafoam in it.

Well, I finally dragged the bike out, ripped all the faring and the gas tank off, and changed the plugs. I also charged the battery and drained the float bowls to check for corrosion, but the gas that drained looked clear, so I figured it was okay. I hooked everything up and gave it a crank, and it finally turned over.

The problem is it won’t stay running. With the choke on it will very gradually work its way up to about 5k rpm but then die the minute I try to lower the choke or anytime I touch the throttle. The throttle part is what has me baffled the most, any time I so much as try to crank the handle the bike dies. I’m not really sure what’s going on.

Topic

[crandall]

The Ninja is a cool little bike, I learned to ride on one.

I would recommend completing the tune up by:

1. Changing out the fuel filter.
2. Changing out the air filter.
3. Put in fresh gas.

[TeenageAngst]

I actually pulled both filters and they’re pretty much fine. Everyone else is pointing me towards the pilot jet being clogged, so I yanked the thing apart and pulled the carb off it. Now I just need to wait for my JIS screwdrivers to arrive :<

[crandall]

Hope you are able to isolate the problem. If it is the carbs, you will learn the process of checking/cleaning them out and will probably never go back to outsourcing it again since you will know how to do it.

Safe riding.

[Peter]

1. Clean the carbs
2. Adjust the idle screw (use the factory setting if you have a stock filter and exhaust)
3. Synchronize the carbs

[TeenageAngst]

Looking at the interior of the float bowls today and the shape the jets were in I can say I’m pretty sure I found my problem. One I could see through the pilot jet, the other I couldn’t, and both main jets looked pretty nasty. I’m thinking once they’ve had a nice long soak and gentle brushing in some carb cleaner they’ll be acting much better.

Edit: Just wanted to update, I thoroughly cleaned my main and pilot jets and float bowls, gave the carb a once over with the cleaner, and got her reinstalled. Everything looks clean as a whistle now and I can’t wait to fire her up this weekend. Thanks for the advice.

[Author]

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