Motorcycle Repair: Yamaha V-Star 1100 running rough/bucking, yamaha v star, engine brakes

Question
Falcon,

I tried the STP on the way home last night.  I added approximately 1/3 of the bottle to about 3 gallons of gasoline - should I have dumped the whole bottle in?  I also pulled the air cleaner and there was an oil colored gooo around the middle part.  It felt and looked like dirty oil but smelt like old stale water.  Also, there was this hose that was about 4" long but had a cap on one end and the other end hooked up to a nipple on the back of the air box.  This hose seemed full of the goo too.  I pulled out the carb cleaner and sprayed everything down and wiped it all clean.  I also started the bike and sprayed some carb cleaner up into the intake manifold as far as I could stick the long red hose up it.  Lots of brown stuff rolled out and I used a rag to mop up the excess.  

I know I need a manual so I will get that first thing but I figured the carb would have been accessible but it seems as if to get to the carb I will need to pull the gas tank.  Is that normal?

After that I put everything together and it ran a bit rough but steady and wasn't stalling nearly as much as before.  This morning when I started it with full choke, it was closer to normal.  On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being perfect and 1 being horrible, I would say it was about a 4 today where yesterday it was probably a 2.  It was still experiencing power surges/bucking and going into what I would call a "bog" from time to time during my commute in - you kind of feel like it's going to through you over the handle bars as it unexpectantly engine brakes.  It runs fine at 65-75 with no surging but at lower speeds when I was pulling into my garage it was sounding mighty sick and slightly bogging/bucking again.  It caught a few peoples attention pulling in and they were looking at me with kind of a confused look on their faces unsure exactly what I was doing.

I will start making inquiries into another Yamaha dealer and see if they can get my bike back and running once again.  I will also look at the manual and see if adjusting the clutch is something I want to tackle or not.  I think if I want to get serious about any servicing on the bike, the first thing I need to get is a stand so the thing doesn't fall over on top of me.  I haven't read any recommendations from you or others to buy a stand but I would think that would be the next words out of your mouth after get a manual.

Thanks again and if you have any additional comments or diagnosis from my new information I am very interested to hear it.

-Tim


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Followup To
Question -
My Bike is a 2003 Yamaha V-Star 1100 Custom with an exhaust modification (loud) that I bought used with about 3000 miles on it. I am a newby to bikes and have been riding since fall 2005.  Hopefully this won't be TMI but just to give you some history, the bike just came out of the shop 3 weeks ago for true and tires (got Michellen's - don't recall model but they seem good) and I just had the 3000 mile service on it about 4 months ago and have since put on about 1500 miles as I drive it to work and back, weather permitting, but it has been running perfect except for a slight backfire on full release of throttle but they wanted like $70+ to fix it so I decided to hold off.

So this morning I had about 3/4 gallon in my main tank when I started it up and first thing I noticed was that even with full choke, it wasn't running right and had a very slow and rough idle - even trying various different settings on the choke.  After a 2 minute warmup, I pulled out onto my street and got into second gear and tried to accellerate up to 30 and it started bucking...intermittently going to full power for a brief second and then back to a "bogged" down mode - the neighbors were giving me strange looks. I quickly switched the petcock? to the reserve tank and played with the choke but it still ran rough.  I had to run it at about half-choke as no-choke would stall and full choke was too fast once it warmed up some.  I was able to make it to the closest gas station and filled it up with Premium, I have always put 93 in it.  It still ran rough until I got on the highway (1 mile from gas station) and was able to throttle up to 65-75 and then it seemed to run fine.  When I got to work and pulled into the parking garage it seemed to be running like normal again or at least much better then earlier.

My guess is that it has something to do with the fuel system as it had a very similar feeling to what you get when your tank gets low and it starts sputtering with a power loss but I still had over 3/4 a gallon in my main and even on reserve it continued to run rough and that doesn't seem to answer the question why the choke was acting strange as well.  The bike has been sitting in my bone-dry garage for about 5 days (because of all of the rain we have been getting) and it ran perfect last time I drove it so what would make it suddenly run so crazy?  I think I read something about them changing the gas mixture here to an Ethonal? blend instead of whatever other filler they had been using - not sure if that already happened or is still ongoing.  

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your advice/answer.  

Also, I don't want the question police after me but I have a quickie and hopefully easy one.  After I got my bike back from my 3000 mile service, my clutch has been slipping even when fully engaged.  I noticed it the second I picked it up on my first shift but being green figured it was something residual from the oil change that would go away.  I asked them to look at it 3 weeks ago and they said it's set per manufactures specifications and that their mechanic saw nothing unusual with it.  I asked them if they test drove it and they said NO.  I was a bit pissed at that point.  They said they could test drive it but it may take a few days as they were very busy but I needed the bike the next day for commuting.  

For an example of the slippage, if I was going about 40 in 4th gear (cold or hot) not touching the clutch and I dump the throttle, previously you would have to hang on for dear life but now it kind of just slips for a few seconds until it finally fully engages.  My service center (Coleman Power Sports) I go to is the same company that originally sold the new bike to the person I bought it from so I would think this sort of thing would be covered under warranty especially as it appears to have been "caused" by them while in for service.  The service people seem to be annoyed with my accusations and I feel they are giving me the run around.  There aren't any other Yamaha dealers that I know of in my area but there may be some within an hour or two drive but who's to say they won't give me the same treatment.

I live in Prince William County in Northern Virginia - about 22 miles south of DC if you or your fans have any suggestions.
Answer -
Hi Tim.

First thing to do is to find another shop.  Sounds like they are too busy to properly service their customers.  Remember that a shop does not have to be a dealership to have factory certified mechanics.  Look around; ask questions of some of the independant shops as well as the opinions of other riders in your area; make some phone calls and find out what shops will best suit your needs.  Sometimes, the smaller maintainence only shops will be able to service you better.

As far as the running issue, it could be the conversion to the ethenol, but you may want to check the entire bike over.  Dump a bottle of fuel treatment (STP with jet fuel is what I recommend) into the tank and run that.
 Let me know what happens with that

As far as the clutch, they didn't properly check it when they last adjusted it.  Get the repair manual and adjust the clutch  yourself.  It isn't difficult and you can do it at your leasure.

Good luck and ride safe.
FALCON
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Answer
Hi Tim.

You will need to pull and clean the carbs, so we are on the right track with things so far.

 The fact that there was a small improvement with the recommended fuel additive means that there is a bit of gumming up in the carbs that is really beyond the ability of the fuel treatment to correct.

 You will need to remove the tank to properly access the carbs for removal and re-installation.

Make sure that you have the repair manual before you try to clean the carbs or do an adjustment to the clutch.

Let me know what happens.
Good luck and ride safe.
FALCON