Early this week i woke up my 04 250 out from a deep sleep(8months). After riding for a few days on the original fuel, the bike began to sputter along a long trip home. Anticipating a gas shortage, i turned on to the reserve but it cut out nonetheless. After depositing fuel to the bike it started ,but would not respond well to throttle action and would begin die after the rpm's began to climb. The bikes response to to input from the throttle seems to be pretty consistent in that it will not stay running after climbing to around 6000 rpm. You could only get to 6000 every minute or so after letting it set. I am guessing a carb obstruction but have no concrete experience in fuel systems. Bike will idle thats about it. All help is greatly appreciated .

Volvo9de40 (04' 250r Ninja)

 

It sounds more like starvation to me. The in-tank strainers, petcock, lines and float needles / seats need to be checked for an obstruction. Running ok at low RPM / load but losing power when you speed up indicates to me that the fuel supply has become static due to a blockage.

 

Thanks. I am going ahead to check the petcock but how would i go about check the float needles?

 

The carbs would have to come out, and float bowls come off. There's two ways to approach that. If you would like to gain some experience in working on your own bike, take the carbs off and have a self-teaching session with how they come apart and go back together. If you're not comfortable with that, take it to a tech.

The floats are inside the bowls, and are hinged to the carb body. The needles are attached to the floats and are normally aimed up inside the carb body, where they control fuel flow into the carb. As the bowls fill with gas, the floats rise upward, pushing the needles into the seats, slowing the flow of fuel. This keeps the proper amount of fuel in the bowls so the carb can do its job of feeding the engine. If the seats are clogged, the bowls aren't getting enough fuel to sustain high rpm / high load situations and your engine acts as if it's starving for fuel. The worst case scenerio about riding around with this condition is that you're essentially running your engine lean, which can burn valves and pistons, and cause the engine to run hotter than it should. In short...it's not good.

It takes paitence and a good selection of tools to do carb work. It's a great learning experience if you have the tools and a good place to do it. If not, take it to a dealer or independent bike shop and describe your symptoms. They'll probably know what's wrong and can give you a rough estimate. Good luck.

 

Yeah, time for some carb cleaning most likely.