Annual Maintenance 2018

Cold temps and snow on the ground signals its time for annual maintenance on the Trials machine. Your bike has served you well over the past season, now it is time to give it the service it needs.

I recently went into a carburetor on a Sherco 300 ST. When ever i remove a carb for work i always drain the fuel from the float bowl into a small white container to see if the fuel is contaminated with particles and/or water.
If you ever wondered what water in the carburetor float bowl looks like, take a look at the attached video.
After cleaning the carb the bike runs like a cut cat with its tail on fire.

Buying bad fuel can have water in it, along with other problems.
At one time i was getting my ethanol free fuel from a station and i was always getting water in the carb, come to find out the fuel coming out of the pump was contaminated with water. I switched to a new station for my ethanol free fuel and the problem went away.

Fuel can also get water in it from condensation in the fuel can and/or fuel tank, ethanol based fuel is know for pulling water into the fuel, see an earlier post for more details.
Water can also find its way into the fuel from washing your bike, forcing water into the fuel tank and/or the float bowl through the carburetor vents.

I also found water in a float bowl on a bike that had a missing cap on the domino twist throttle. My theory is that as the bike was washed, water collected in the twist throttle body and ran down the the throttle cable, which has a direct shot to the float bowl on the carb. I found water drops on the top of the carburetor slide when i was checking the needle for proper adjustment, which set directly above the float bowl.