starter hesitation!

[ForbidInjustice]

I saw a similar thread posted, but symptoms are a little different, so I posted.

I bought my 2000 Gixxer 6 about 3 weeks ago, and since then, the only real maintenance I have done is new spark plugs. The bike hesitates when starting.. most of the time even with the choke on.. and I have to give it some throttle to start it up almost all the time. It stays on, gets warm.. coolant gets to about 120°, and then it starts to die, and dies [if I don't give it gas to keep RPMs up]. Once it warms to around 130° or so, I can let off the gas slowly, close the choke, and it's good to go.. any sooner, it'll drop to 1k on the tach.. lower, lower.. die.

When I'm riding it.. a lot of times it will chug along.. somewhat feels like I'm in the wrong gear, even though I'm not. I stay in that same gear, give it some gas, and it stabilizes. It does it in just about every gear when I let off the gas and cruise in gear.

A co-worker said dirty carburetor fits the symptoms. The bike shop that I am planning on taking it to charges $50 an hour for labor, $150 to clean carbs.. so I'd rather get some good opinions before opening up my wallet to something that may not need doing anyway.. or something that I may be able to do myself.

Always appreciated!

[Clint]

What's the recent history of the bike? A treatment of Seafoam may help, and you can probably clean the carbs yourself with a little reading and patience. It's not difficult if you follow some instruction or buy a manual.

[ForbidInjustice]

I can see that not very many people read this part of the forum.. I should have posted in the main.

I don't know the history of the bike before 3 weeks ago, except that the 15000 mile maintenance was done on it.. I probably should try to get ahold of the guy and get more information about what has been done and when it was done. I've only put about 200 miles on the bike.

I got a service manual on CDROM, so I have the .pdf file, and the pictures are a bit foggy. Sometimes it's hard to tell where things are. I probably lack tools as well. I fear that I'll take apart the whole carburetor.. and forget where things go when I'm reassembling it.. or put something on wrong and do some damage. I know nothing about them.

Seafoam helps clean the carburetor, right? Available at any auto parts store?

[Superbird]

hehe sea foam..... it works but it will knock you on ur butt with all the black smoke that comes out of engine when you put it in a vac line

[ForbidInjustice]

I don't understand.. vac line?

And why would the engine smoke?

[knocking me on my butt doesn't sound like a good thing, either.]

[JRW_Assassin]

I would go with the sea foam or another good carby/injector cleaner (like nulon) before getting a shop to do it... all they will do is pull apart the carbies, and spray carby cleaner directly into them. It might come to that, but i would try an in-fuel solution first.

[ForbidInjustice]

Thanks.. I will go tomorrow and get the best stuff I can.

Anybody else with comment/suggest, please.. post post post!

[ForbidInjustice]

I bought a can of B-12, which I was told is quite similar to SeaFoam, and the autoparts store actually sells a lot more of it. It is 4 bucks cheaper per can.. they say buying seafoam is just paying for the name. Anyway, it's a fuel treatment, and you can also put it in the oil as well. I'm going to put 4-5oz in with each fill up.. he said I should notice results by the end of the can.. hopefully this will work, as I really don't want to take it into the shop..

but do the symptoms that I mentioned above point to the carburetor being dirty? or could it be a variety of things?

[JRW_Assassin]

In my opinion, it points to the carbs/fuel system being dirty. If not, i would think things are going to start to get expensive...

[87gsxrnut]

Bring it down here.

- Nut

[ForbidInjustice]

Where to, Nut? A 30-minute seminar from you would teach me everything I need to know! There's a case of non-domestic beer in it for you..

[Trapper]

Do you think he's some kind of Beer whore?