Desperate with my Carbs
 

Hello Fellow riders.
I own a '99 european firestorm since last october.
When i bought the bike,she was running propably too rich,many pops,black smoke,engine whole between 6-8k and poor top end performance.Mivv Titanium slip-ons installed.
First visit to the mechanic.He said that i have to replace the KN filter with stock,he changed spark plugs with iridium,cleaned carbs,configured tps at 490 ω and setted the mixture his way.after the delvery the bike was pulling like a train,the sound changed dramatically and i was very happy with the result since i noticed the fuel consumption; 50km with 12 lt of gas!!!!I decided to open the carbs myself to inspect jets etc.I found factory needles with 5 positions,#48s pilots,170 rear and 172 front factory mains.Also the Slide has a 3rd hole drilled.
I took the carbs to another mechanic and i asked from him to find the stock things inside so i can achieve better fuel economy.He told me that it doesnt matter and it can be tuned properly with the factory kit.So i transfered the bike there,another money,another time lost.After 5 days i took the bike.Hell,she was obvious that a lot of power lost!!!!!No bangs or smoke,but no torque like the first time or happy smiles :( not even wheelies! Fuel Consumption achieved 20km more,now 70km with 12lt.
Trully dissapointed by his work,i decide to read almost everything in this forum about carbs,tps etc.(no pair air system or reed petals ,no carb restrictors in european model)I opened again my carbs.He installed the KN again,Solex main jets 168 front 170 rear,needle clip position 1st from top and mixture screws front 1 1/2 and rear 2 1 1/2.But the weird thing is that he GLUED the slides on top to sit into carbs!!You can understand the damage to them:confused:
Today i decided to go a more normal setup alone.I bought the mains 178 and 175 jets,closed the 3rd hole and positioned the needle clip at 3rd position.i followed the stock mixture screw from the manual,3 turns front 4 rear.Installed the stock filter again.The Hard part was to clean the top of the slides from the glue and i think that there is a bit of damage although no cutting occured.After Finishing the bike i started the engine.Unfortunately,the bike can rev very poor and it feels like the slides cant open full so it revs till 5k :( i dont even tried to ride her...I think now that the slides are damaged and the fault isnt to the new jet setup etc.
I feel that a lot of people here love this bike and know almost anything about this V.Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated,because i dont want to sell this bike,i really love its character ,but almost 10 months now i dont move her due to carb probs.I think that i have to buy stock carbs from ebay and that should be the solution? Thanks and sorry for this long post

hey my friend... it does sound like you got screwed by your mechanic :(.. I would first try finding new slides... before replacing the whole carb... if you can not find slides, then I would get a new carb replacement.. hopefully someone with more knowledge will tune in.. just from what I have learned from here/being at shop alot that is what I would say.. the glue sounds like it is disrupting the slide so it cannot open and close normally.. and if you changed to #48 jets, I would try 2 1/4 turn front 2 1/2 turn rear.. how many holes are in the front carb, how many holes are in the rear? do you have pictures? pictures help to see if damaged or not.. I would not sell your hawk, it just seems your carbs are having trouble, not the bike :).. the members here will help you get it going, have faith in them!! they know more than I could have ever have hoped!!! just trying to chime in, and help a bit.. :rolleyes:

-shane

Hey Shane,thanks for your reply and your advices.I am re opening again the carbs right now,taking some pictures.i will try to put seal gasket to the slides because before the slides maybe moved from the upper cover guide area so thats the reason the bike cant rev more than 4k.i closed the third 'dynojet'' hole both slides,should i shut the second stock hole also in front?i ll set and the screws as u mentioned,i ll fire up in some minutes