Did I perhaps balance it a touch too lean?

I'm pretty sure the cable is in one piece, but I suspect it might have slipped out of the Bowden box or is jammed in there somehow. Since the bike idles quite nicely now -- at least when it's warm -- I'm not going to worry about it too much for now; I'm going to replace all the cables this winter anyway; I might even do that over the long American Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Thanks for all of your help, everbody!

Bohdan
 
Pulling the box out that has the cable splitter thing is a real pain the the ass, its on the under side of the battery tray and working all teh cables around and re-fitting it is a night mare - who ever desingned it must have been a miserable ......

just a heads and warning - I have done it twice and it takes a good after noon to do it

Hay Ewe
 
An update

Okay, so I did some more work on the bike yesterday -- new plug wires, new alternator belt (both planned routine replacement), and I pulled out the Bowden box to take a look. Everything seemed to be in order there as far as placement of cables.

I did another TB balance since I had pulled the cables and got the balance even better than the last time. I started from scratch but still end up with no effect from the cold idle. I suspect the free-play again, but I'm not sure I understand two bits about it:

a) I've got the throttle cable adjusted to 0.5mm play and the cold idle cable adjusted to zero play. From previous posts, it's been suggested that I have too much play up high and not enough down low. What I can't figure out, though, is once I've done the TB balance, how can I adjust cable play down low without upsetting the balance? It seems to me that if I move the barrel adjusters, I'll inherently change the balance, unless I move them both the same amount? But to add play down low, I need to turn the barrels in and the LH barrel is already bottomed out to get the initial free-play.

b) The problem with the cold idle cable almost appears to be that the cable is too short. :eek Almost as if, even in the "off" position, the cold idle is enganged. I say this because if I pull the cable out of it's seat on the grip -- effectively making it longer -- there is no effect on idle. When I do this and then try to move the lever to either "on" position, the lever won't move but tries to pull the cable back out of my hands. :eek

I'm thoroughly confused now. Any more suggestions for me? I feel like a dumb-arse for not being able to figure this out.

And to review, I did the TB balance as per Haynes: adjust throttle and cold idle cables to 1mm between the adjuster barrel and locknut (when the nut is in the locked-down position), TB cables with 2mm slack. Conduct TB balance (3500-ish rpm first: LH barrel bottomed out, RH barrel up about 1.5 or 2 mm; then idle speed adjust using BBS's: no tweak necessary, idle and balance even at 1100 rpm, both screws out about 1.5 to 2 turns). Then adjust cold idle cable to zero play and throttle to 0.5mm play.

Help!! :surrender

Bohdan
 
Revelation?!?!

I think I just had a revelation! Maybe. I've been thinking about what I've been doing and what all of you have suggested with needing more play up top and less on the bottom.

When I've been adjusting the freeplay at the TB's, I've been doing so by pulling the cable sheath out of its seat and feeling and watching for the cable itself to move rather than watching for the TB sector itself to move. Granted, the difference is a tiny fraction of an inch, but that's all the cold idle needs anyway, eh?

So here's what I'm thinking I need to do: Re-do my TB balance, but with a few small tweaks to my "technique."

* adjust the initial play as before, but at the TB's, set the play by when the sector itself moves, not just the cable being tightened up.
* Then do the TB balance as usual and adjust the free play at the cold idle and throttle as usual.

This should result in the TB cables being a bit tighter and the throttle cable being a bit looser. In other words, I'll effectively shift the Bowden box closer to the throttle and farther from the TB's. (Or, to think about it the "other way," the throttle cable will become longer and the TB cables will become shorter.) The net result will be that the throttle cable will move a bit more before the Bowden box disc does, but once the disc moves, the TB cables will respond immediately. The cold idle cable, on the other hand, will move the Bowden box disc immediately, thereby moving the TB cables immediately. End result is that the TB's get opened a tiny crack like they need to be.

Am I right? Am I right? :bounce1:bounce1

Bohdan
 


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