DiscoBayJoe
Member
Ok, So I bought a 2005 Bulldog a couple months back. Put about 500 miles on her and had a small check list of things I thought were wrong. The biggest thing I noticed is she seems to be jetted or adjusted too rich. She pops on decel and will backfire on startup when she doesn't fire on the first crank. I'm 3rd owner, who knows what's gone on. I was told she has a 585 Cam. She's now got about 6500 miles.
Carburetors are like voodoo magic to me, so I thought I'd have a shop look at it. I park her in a garage at my office and 200 yards away is a motorcycle shop with a good reputation and a dyno. Seems like a decent idea.
Took it over there to talk to them, and the guys were super friendly. When I explained what I had going on he mentioned it could be an air leak of some kind and spray'd a bit of brakleen (is that an odd cleaner choice?) on the outside of the carb manifold trying to get it to stall, which it never did. We shut her down and he then busted out a screwdriver and tried to play with the carb settings. He tightened what I understand to be the idle mix screw all the way in and then backed her out something like a turn and a half, whatever he said is normal. After that she wouldn't start. He fiddled around with it and tried to start it until the battery went dead. She's not out of gas. I left the bike there and walked back to the office.
Came back the next day and they said my battery was marginal, too low to run the ignition so they swapped me in another battery and it was good to go. $225 for a battery + an hour of diags. The said the popping on decel was probably all related to ignition/battery problems. She fired right up and I drove her back the 100 yards to my office.
Today, about a week later, I fire her up and attempt to go for a real ride. I get about the same distance from my office as the shop (couple hundred yards) and she dies. Won't Start. Put it in reserve just to make sure i'm not wrong on the fuel, still no luck. I end up draining the new battery pretty quickly trying to get it to start. One of the guys from the shop sees me out there and walks over to offer help and tells me that it's probably a bad ECM, as they've had to do that before for other big dogs. Pushed her back into the garage.
I've only had her a handful of months and about 500 miles, but she never once hiccuped on me (other than the decel pops) until we played with the carburetor. It seems crazy coincidental that I blow the ECU at the exact second we fiddled with the carb. I wasn't the one who turned it, so I don't know where it was originally set to put it back.
Questions? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Carburetors are like voodoo magic to me, so I thought I'd have a shop look at it. I park her in a garage at my office and 200 yards away is a motorcycle shop with a good reputation and a dyno. Seems like a decent idea.
Took it over there to talk to them, and the guys were super friendly. When I explained what I had going on he mentioned it could be an air leak of some kind and spray'd a bit of brakleen (is that an odd cleaner choice?) on the outside of the carb manifold trying to get it to stall, which it never did. We shut her down and he then busted out a screwdriver and tried to play with the carb settings. He tightened what I understand to be the idle mix screw all the way in and then backed her out something like a turn and a half, whatever he said is normal. After that she wouldn't start. He fiddled around with it and tried to start it until the battery went dead. She's not out of gas. I left the bike there and walked back to the office.
Came back the next day and they said my battery was marginal, too low to run the ignition so they swapped me in another battery and it was good to go. $225 for a battery + an hour of diags. The said the popping on decel was probably all related to ignition/battery problems. She fired right up and I drove her back the 100 yards to my office.
Today, about a week later, I fire her up and attempt to go for a real ride. I get about the same distance from my office as the shop (couple hundred yards) and she dies. Won't Start. Put it in reserve just to make sure i'm not wrong on the fuel, still no luck. I end up draining the new battery pretty quickly trying to get it to start. One of the guys from the shop sees me out there and walks over to offer help and tells me that it's probably a bad ECM, as they've had to do that before for other big dogs. Pushed her back into the garage.
I've only had her a handful of months and about 500 miles, but she never once hiccuped on me (other than the decel pops) until we played with the carburetor. It seems crazy coincidental that I blow the ECU at the exact second we fiddled with the carb. I wasn't the one who turned it, so I don't know where it was originally set to put it back.
Questions? Thoughts? Suggestions?
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