What's wrong with this picture?

All pilot needles are supposed to look the same right? It appears this may be the cause of my inability to have a stable idle below 3k and my hot restart problems. What do you all think? I've ordered a used needle off of ebay.

 

Yep that'll do it.

 

You should look up the pilot needle hole to see if the tip of the needle is broken off in there. The ham-fisted and those that use torque hammers can screw that in too far where it imbeds into the carb and some times snaps the needle off in the jet.

 

True!^ You can see in there with a torch. Finger-fucked-compromised bikes are more challenging. Kind of like getting a mongrel at the pound, you have to invest alot of time in it/her/him. :wacko: Everything needs love, good you saved something from the rubbish heap.

 

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely inspect for the broken needle. If it is imbeded in the jet, will I have to take the carbs appart...?

 

Look at the tip of the screw first. If it does not appear to be sheared, you may be ok. If so, try threading a very thing gauge of wire in through that port to see if it bottoms out or will thread in. If it dead-stops on you, the air adjust port is plugged and it will cause that carb to not pick up enough fuel at idle. It will also interfere with rev power up to at least half throttle if not a little higher. It will run rough and feel sluggish as you try to rev up.

While you MAY be able to push that tip out with something threaded in from inside the carb, it might just be jammed in there and the body may need to be replaced.

 

Torque hammer should fix it right up...

 

If tip is stuck inside, you could try blasting compressed air (at least 80 psi) into the tube that the idle jet sits in after removing the jet. Just might work !

 

Just don't stand in front of it when you do!