2002 Volusia running rough

I bought back my original 2002 Volusia and in the 8 or 9 years since I had her originally she had done only 900 miles, (6,500 miles since new) all works well but at low throttle in all gears she is as lumpy as a lumpy thing on lumpy day. Once the revs are up no problem it runs and pulls great. I have to ride it with more revs and lower gears around town otherwise it is like riding a bucking bronco! Now I guess its the idle jet/needle clagged up. I have put two doses of Red Ex petrol treatment into the tank about 4 times the normal dosage but its no better.... I am not confident in ripping out a carb etc so any advice tips or local to Tamworth UK someone that knows who or how to do it? Happy to pay someone for their help

Many thanks Tony

Always try the simple things first, Redex is a bikers saviour. Put not a cap full in a tank of petrol but a whole bottle f the stuff in a tank full of fuel. Fill the next tank up with just petrol but the next tank put a whole bottle of Red ex in again. It's worked for me before, worth a thought.

Check your plugs too.

Thanks for the advice, I think its more fuel than plugs but I have some ready to fit as well.

Always worth replacing the plug leads as well - they deteriorate over time

seafoam...really good stuff...my vmx was a pain on rough idling and bottom end hesitation slapped a tin in ,ran it for 5 mins,let it stand over night and... wallah,sorted

I had not considered the plug leads but it makes sense, Sea Foam, do I put that into the tank or direct in the carb?

Hi toeknee,...i just put it in tank then ran it for 5mins and let it stand,iv read posts before when they have drained carbs and poured it in but that was in really extreme cases of bad running,yanks swear by this stuff

Any places you know I can get this to try?

You can get it off eBay Tony, I'm not sure there's many stockists over here?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEA-FOAM-Motor-Purge-Diesel-Petrol-Engine-Injector-Cleaner-Fuel-Stabiliser-/351189584457?hash=item51c487ca49:g:2bAAAOSwQItUEagI

Thanks for the link, I guess its worth a go rather than strip the carb off :)

Must get some of that as well Sim, thanks for the link mate!

Ok Seafoam arrived, it says 1 fluid ounce per gallon into the tank, was thinking of emptying the bottle in... is that wise 

Probably better following the recommendations on the bottle Tony

I put a quarter tin in about a gall and half i had left in bike Tony,didn't make it smoke or anything

Ok thanks I have half a tank so half a tin should be ok??

With most fuel cleaners its always...more the better,iv found that to be mainly true ,with seafoam you can fill the carbs and let stand then just run.Somewere on the tin or on there site it says you can add a certain amount to your oil???? what that achieves i dont know unless it washes the internals.
Hope it cures this for you as well Tony

Well I ran the bike for 5 minutes to get her warm, it just would not tick over unless a bit of choke was on.... I tried turning the throttle stop screw by the Pair Valve housing, tried it back and forth but no change so I put the seafoam in and will leave it overnight. 
The throttle stop screw which you turn to increase or decrease tickover.. Which way increases tickover, clockwise?
If this does not work I will have to get it stripped down at the local garage :O(

Clockwise usually increases the tick over Tony.

Took off the K&N air filter off stock one back on runs rough wont tick over evenly keeps cutting out a few revs and its ok just wont idle even when warm, so much Red Ex and Seafoam in the tank I think thats not helping ;O) I guess next step is get it to a service man and a carb stripdown and clean....

Ok just had a chat with the garage that are looking at the bike, carb clean but mixture screw was right out, set to about 1.5 to 2.5 turns as in manual and it wont run on tick over, set it to 3.5 turns and seems to be fine??? No signs of air leaks etc, yet to be test ridden. Spark plugs changed at same time not that makes any difference just they were the original ones! 
I am wondering if the diaphragm may be knackered??

Just ordered a Carb repair kit and Diaphragm from  http://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/
£42 with next day delivery so at least I know the carb is sorted then.... I hope !!

good luck toeknee, if you can take some pics/video when you strip down the carb might help some others on the forum   not to mention being really interesting to those of us with Fi.

Well I am at a loss, two weeks the garage has had my bike, I bought a carb repair kit and a new diaphragm he fitted it all checked the carb which was clean but cleaned it and checked the jet, but it still wont run smooth on low revs, it stutters and tries to cut out, once the revs are up its ok, he has given up on it as he has no idea what it could be except he thinks its an air leak somewhere....  So I am at a loss what I can do now, he was decent enough to say I owe him nothing for the labour but I would rather have paid a couple of hundred pounds and had a working bike :( :( Not sure where to go now.........

Only thing that springs to mind Tony is that it may be drawing air on the inlet manifold (s), don't know if they're plastic, rubber or alloy on that model but check for cracks if they're rubber or plastic.

Thanks Old Lunar, I think the garage guy was thinking of that, its now on its way to a Suzuki dealer to put it on a diagnostic machine to find out where the problem lies... Hopefully in a non expensive bit :O)

It's a strange one for sure Tony? Hope you get it sorted at minimum expense.

I'd refuse to pay them anything above the £66 for the diagnostic check Tony, their over enthusiastic mechanic had no authorisation to carry out any further work without your agreement, sounds like another main dealer rip off to me 

Tough it out Tony...its not acceptable for them to do that !

ToeKnee wrote:

 They say it is not running on the back cylinder and will ring me tomorrow to let me know what the cause is and a price for the repair... 

If it was a carb problem? surely it would be running crap on both cylinders not just the back one, they only have one carb feeding both cylinder, has anyone checked over the ignition side of things yet?

simbo wrote:

I'd refuse to pay them anything above the £66 for the diagnostic check Tony, their over enthusiastic mechanic had no authorisation to carry out any further work without your agreement, sounds like another main dealer rip off to me 

AGREED. I also would only pay the £66 you had agreed to pay, the fact that their mechanic got carried away and did work without your approval, should be at their expense and not yours.

Lowey wrote:

simbo wrote:

I'd refuse to pay them anything above the £66 for the diagnostic check Tony, their over enthusiastic mechanic had no authorisation to carry out any further work without your agreement, sounds like another main dealer rip off to me 

AGREED. I also would only pay the £66 you had agreed to pay, the fact that their mechanic got carried away and did work without your approval, should be at their expense and not yours.

Just to add to my post, the dealer claims that the parts your mechanic fitted were incorrectly fitted and the route of the pipes is incorrect, you only have their word for this, any damaged could have been a result of their mechanic's intervention.

if you've only booked it in for a diagnostic check, why did they strip it?  Did they tell you what the diagnostic check would include beforehand?

I also feel a mention in the retailers section is advised to warn others.  Did you get round checking the coil & leads?

As stated above I'd not pay anymore than the £66- & state that they were in the wrong to do anything else to the bike without your express authorisation & they are now liable to return the bike in the condition it arrived in & not in the dismantled state it is in now!

I agree with the other guys here Tony, they had no authorisation to do anything other than the diagnostic and had absolutely no entitlement to proceed without consulting you.

gutted for you I side with the others in that they should not have gone any further without your permission, if you know and trust your mechanic I might be inclined to take what the dealer said with a pinch of salt . leaves you in a very bad place though be interesting to hear what your mechanic and dealer have to say to each other

Any updates Tony?

The dealer service manager rang me Saturday as I was on my way to work, he said the mechanic had been on the bike for over 8 hours up to now and could not find out why the bike was not working on both cylinders,it was obvious they were struggling. I said to them that if they couldnt find the problem being main dealers who could! He said that all of their mechanics were fully trained and that they have one mechanic the senior one who is one of the top ten qualified in the UK for Suzuki. He was going to put that guy onto it Tuesday. He said that they have to find the problem as I think they will feel embarrassed if they do not... I was worried about cost of all this but he said they cant find the fault so they cant charge me for all the hours and it looks at the moment like its stopped at 3 hours charge. However I feel they would like me to take the bike away as is so they can forget it. I want them to continue as if they (main dealer) cant fix it who can! I checked with previous owner who I originally sold the bike to and he has not had any work done on her only service every year and was surprised I had the issues as it was perfect, I spoke to the independent dealer I bought the bike from in the summer, he said they only had the bike a week and only did a service and MOT and pre delivery check, so he could not understand why I was having the problem. I said to both that dealer and previous owner if there was any issues I would not be looking to lay blame but just have a starting point for the main dealer to fix it. I believe that NO Spanner Has Been Used on this bike so it is a one off fault that just happened.
So I am waiting until Tuesday when this top mechanic is going to work on it, I have one nagging concern that the only non standard thing on the bike is a Datatool Alarm that I had fitted when the bike was new in 2002, it was fitted professionally and has worked well, but maybe that is affecting something if its going wrong?? I did tell the Suzuki dealer to disconnect it if they wanted to eliminate it and I was not bothered if they threw it away.
So long update with no news :) Oh I have booked a few extra shifts over Christmas as I am going to need that money for the dealer bill..... Wife wont be happy with me working all over Christmas as she is well pissed with me selling a perfectly good 2003 Volusia so I could buy back my original one...Just hope that it gets sorted and I can keep the cost below £500 ish

Couple of questions.  When you bought it, did you test ride it - was there a problem when you first got it, or did the problem begin after you bought it?  If you bought it from an independent dealer, did you get an kind of warranty?  If you bought from a dealer, you have consumer rights - it may be worth approaching him - either it already had the problem, or it developed soon after you bought it.

Don't put too much faith in main dealer - they said they were unable to replace a seal on my diff unit as they "didn't have the right tools" - me & my cousin did it my garage using a cordless impact driver & a spare wheel.  I'd rather use a keen, independent, one-man operation - they have a lot more to lose in the reputation stake.

All the best with it - keep us updated - I'm sure we all feel your pain

This needs fixing, if for now other reason than the tension is killing me!!

The problem with main dealer mechanic's they are normally not fully trained motorcycle mechanic's, they are trained to do servicing and replacing parts, not finding problems and rectifying them. As already been said in an earlier post a local independent bike shop is the place where you will more than likely find a fully trained good motorcycle mechanic with good fault finding skills
 
Over the years with both motorcycles and cars this has been my experience. However this is purely my opinion and not intended to offend any main dealer motorcycle mechanics or anybody else.

The Alarms a good shout Tony, someone else had an undiagnosable fault and it turned out to be the alarms immobiliser kicking in. good luck I hope everything turns out ok 

Well Tuesday came and went and no phone call, so I rang them today to be told it was sorted and mechanic was finishing off and doing job card and they would ring me in a bit, said it was a vacuum pipe and fuel pump problem..... well 4 hours later no call, I guess it wasnt that then 

Man - that's so frustrating.  Why don't they just wait till it's running ???? If it is only a vacuum pipe it'd be a right result.  Fingers crossed for you !!

Just had a call from the dealer, they have fixed it and done a road test all working good again, apparently they have done the following, carb rebuild, jets and settings redone to proper positions, calibrated throttle and fuel pump, replaced vacuum hoses that were perished replaced the seal/ring on the inlet to rear cylinder that had perished (which is probably why it was drawing air not enough fuel).
I asked the price and sat down ready to hear the bad news, but like the X Factor they would not give me a instant price.... I have to speak to the service manager in the morning "as he was doing a deal on the labour" I was told.... I will take Valium when I get up to ease the pain I may be getting I guess!
I will let you know the cost but as a precaution I have listed the wife on eBay......

Sounds like a thorough job, glad you got to the bottom of it Tony    best buy a rubber ring to sit on now pal? I suspect they'll arse rape you 

Pleased to hear the problem has been sorted, now it's time to put your haggling skills to work. Good luck.

Point out that they didn't ask you for permission before undertaking so much work.  Mind you - you may be pleasantly surprised - they may actually be concerned about their reputation.  Just in case you're in for a rubber-ringing, what the reserve on the missus ??? 

Good to hear it's sorted though - the rubber's probably perished through not being used.  At least you'll have a happier Xmas