bike is not running good at idle

hey can someone help me with an engine issue? my 83 maxim 550 runs great on the highway but dies at idle speed, and is really finickey when starting( sometimes will fire right up other times will crank&crank but will not kick) already cleaned the carbs and sealed the carb boots with urethane , it seemed to run ok with out the air filter (still erratic ) but when reinstalled the bike refused to start, so i removed the air filter and it still wont start , any ideas,

 

sure your idle jets and passages are completely clean if so you will probbibly need to sync the carbs. did you try checking for air leaks with starting fluid if you havnt make sure tou spray the throttle shafts when they get old they wear out and crumble also check compression thats a good start process of elimination. when the carbs were out of sync on my maxim x the only way i could get it started was with a shot of starting fluid .

 

1. Have you synched the carbs?

2. Do you have a colortune to set the mixture at idle?

These will affect your idle.

 

I had a similar problem with my bike, it ran like there was a vacuum leak at idle but ran great at higher throttle/rpms, no amount of carb cleaning/tweaking/sealing/adjusting would help. I'm pretty sure I've finally narrowed my problem down to a bad coil. So it might be a good idea to test for spark before you tear down the carbs again and again (like I did). Ignition problems are apparently quite common for these bikes.

 

I had a sililar problem, rebuilt carbs problem still present. Found a vaccum leak in the fuel petcock diaphragm. Rebuilt the petcock and my idle issues when away.

 

thanks for replying, the info you guys shared has been very helpful, i went out to the shop awhile ago and got it started with choke&prime and a lot of cranking, ran just fair, did not want to idle below 3k on the tach and was really baulky when you give it fuel, but thats with the air filter out and the filter cover on, not sure about the carb as a buddy cleaned it for me, this time. i cleaned it myself a couple of months ago but to no avail. i've noticed fuel leaking somewhere around the petcock before and cleaned it (taken completely apart)but with similar results, not sure how thorough i was with the carb though so i 'm gonna start there and "bench synch" them as well. does the lack of air filter affect idle though?

 

do not have a color tune, are these necessary for tuning or will a bench synch do? i'm goin to check the spark again right now too , thanks for the advice guys.

 

If your Bike won't run for you unless you remove the Air Cleaner, ... You've got the Carbs set-up to be too Rich.

Don't pull the Carbs and Bench Sync them.
Pull them and go completely through them.
Make sure you do the Emulsion Tubes (Nozzles)
Passages
De-oxidize the Diaphragm Piston Bore and Shine them
((Clunk-Test))
Bench Sync the Throttles with 3X5 Card after setting the Float Heights.

After you have your Carbs all ready to be Fine Tuned ... we'll Get you tuned-up nice.

 

hey rick, thanks for the info, i read your carb cleaning link(very awesome article) but my carbs are mikuni, is there much difference between them and the hitatchi?

 

Not that much jmick, I used his guide to help when I cleaned my carbs. The hardest part for me was getting my float pins out. They can be tricky! I suggest a automatic center punch. Works great!

 

The Mikuni's have a Pilot FUEL Jet that is RECESSED in a Housing.
You want to make Absolutely SURE your Screwdriver FITS the Slot on the Pilot FUEL Jet --> with NO Free play.

It there is room for the Wings opposite the Slot on the Jet to move too, ... The Wings will move WITHOUT the Body of the whole JET moving.

If that happens, ... the Slot becomes damaged and the JET impossible to extract.
Take your time and make Screwdrivers that FIT those Jet Slots.