So....bike ran like a top for most of the past 1500 miles. Regular oil changes, only difference was drilling out pilot jet cover and running the pilot/idle screw at around 2 turns.
About 100 mi. ago, bike developed a condition where it would kinda' bog/hesitate on acceleration until warm, then run great. Occassionally it would seem to "surge" if held at constant throttle grip position.
This seemed to get a tad worse, and then 2 days ago I made the mistake of checking my air cleaner. Discovered inside was gunked up a bit, and wondered if that was the issue. Drained/cleaned the bottom of airbox and washed the air filter (had to order a new one, none local). Let air filter dry, reinstalled. Removed spark plug and used emory cloth to polish electrodes (appearance was light tan/whitish on insulator)

Reinstalled plug and air filter (seemed dry...)

Went for ride and got 2 mi. before bike just died and refused to crank. Removed air filter and there was 2" fuel in bottom of airbox. After draining, and left for 2 hrs. bike cranked.

Filter was soaked, so I pitched it, and managed to ride the bike back home the next day (2 mi.) without the filter. Wasn't "crisp" on throttle, but ran "OK".

Soooo....any thoughts on what caused all this? I'll have the new filter to replace on Tues. and will try it, as well as a brand new plug. Bike ran great before this, and hoping it's nothing major. Will have the carb removed and rejetted next week too.

Cheers,
~Ted

It sounds like your float may be sticking.I would put in new air filter and some carb cleaner and go for a ride.Is the petcock on "run" and not on "prime"? You should not need to re-jet if the exhaust & intake are stock.By your description of the plug your mixture is fine.Did all this start when you moved carb to drill out pilot jet cover?

The initial problem sounds a lot like a slight vacume leak.......or a partially plugged idle jet.

The latest problem was caused, no doubt, by "washing" a filter that wasn't intended to be washed.
Even though it appeared to be dry, the fibers many have matted together and effectively blocked off the air input.

Yeah, I knew it wasn't supposed to be washed...it was more an experiment than anything. I have run some Seafoam through a couple tanks previously. Once I get the new air filter Tues. and install, we'll see how things go. Cheers,

~Ted

While Seafoam is good for routine maintenance, when you suspect you need some "heavy duty" cleaning other products do better. Might want to try some Berryman's B12 Chemtool.......at 1/3 the price of Seafoam.

Installed the HiFlo Filtro filter today and will get the Berryman's tomorrow. Will post results. ( I hate when posters solve an issue but never report back what worked or didn't)

I'm beginning to fear that you are proceeding down a dangerous path here......that is, making modifications to a bike that was not running quite right in the first place.

When you do that, two things can happen:

1) In the process of the mods, you will accidentally stumble onto the original problem and fix it..
OR
2) The original problem is never addressed and all your mods just make it worse and WORSE.

I hope you are #1......but lots of folks end up being #2.

The best course of action is to get the bike running correctly with all the stock parts BEFORE you start any mods......so you can tell whether or not the changes you make are having the desired result or not (ie. did you do it right).

Easy -- thanks for the warning... yeah, it was running "right" before, and I'm dropping by the dealer today to get it running "right" again. The only mod I've made (haven't done Berryman's yet) is the HiFlo Filtro in the stock airbox. I thought that was a drop-in replacement?

When I take the carby/bike to the dealer, I'll make sure the float's in good shape and no particulates in carb jets.

Cheers,
~Ted

I don't know about that.

I do know that a normal, stock engine is SOOoooo close to being too lean already that any less restriction from the filter pushes it over the edge and it doesn't run good at all.

I suspect that might be the case with the HiFlo but don't know for sure.
Why else would it be called "HiFlo" ???

With the pilot jet adjusted the bike will run fine with the HI-FLO filter.Been there ,done that.

UPDATE 7/28/10:

Today I drained the tank, then removed the carb. I looked in al the passages and made sure they were clean, blowing them out and examining. I checked the needle in the diaphragm and found it was a single-position circlip. After reinstalling the carb and partially blocking the air filter (HiFiltro), still ran like crap. Very boggy on accelleration with a stumble past 1/2 the rpm range.

Removed carb again and modified circlip needle slightly. I shortened the "top" and tapered it like it was, then added the stock washer and one additional washer underneath the circlip and above the plastic spacer. The 2nd washer is just a touch thinner than the stock one, for a total of maybe 1.75 "effective notches" lower on the needle. I re-installed and removed the blockage from the air filter. Went for a ride, and voila! Almost like new!

The "pickup" still isn't perfect, but I got 78 MPH on the freeway, so that beats the barely 60 I got before the circlip mod.
I plan to re-tune the idle circuit to regain the pickup, and will post my final here (though each bike will vary, so don't take it as gospel.)

I also added some Berrymans, but I doubt it's having an effect as I found no blockages.

Will post back later this week or early next. Thanks for the help!

~Ted

You have gone this far with success you will have no problem changing to larger main jet if need be.Good-Luck.Keep us posted!

UPDATE: Removed 1 washer from the 2 I'd shimmed the needle with, and replaced the stock air filter with the HiFlo Filtro unit. RUNS GREAT!!!! So glad to have it back to "normal". Of course compared to the MSF course bike I used this past weekend, it ran great before!

So.....some of you may have to add 1 shim or move the circlip 1 notch down if you replace the stock filter with the HiFlo Filtro unit. For those of you that didn't, I don't have an explanation... Cheers,

~Ted