sparkymarky does the jet kit/ids2 dance (longish)

[markw@abtcorp.com]

so there i was. after test-riding an Aprilia Falco and a Triumph Sprint ST in the last 2 weeks, I was pretty obsessed about a new bike. Mostly, I wanted to twist the throttle and go, like right freakin' now! Unfortunately, my wicked witch of a wife won't let me take part of the home-equity line of credit we just got to do some house stuff and spend part of it on a new scoot. Can you believe it? So instead of spending 11 grand, i figured I could get away with $300 or so, which would keep me from buying a new bike for at least a month or 2, so i puttered on down to the local "bikes r us" and ordered a Supertrapp IDS2 muffler and a Dynajet kit. I went with the IDS2 because Gino said it didn't suck (and he doesn't look like a redneck kook, so he's probably OK), and because I liked the idea of being able to use fewer discs and keep it quiet if I couldn't live with the noise required to get max power. I was afraid that the big gun would just be too loud to live with on a quiet dirt road with neighbors close by and lotsa dirt riding in the national forest. 3 days later, my stuff came in, so I swang by the shop and picked it up (trying to carry a muffler kit on a motorcycle is hard). Now my original plan was to wait and do all the work this weekend, seeing as how I'm having minor foot surgery (to remove a neuroma, or nerve cyst caused by tight shoes and too much athletic stuff, if you must know) on friday, so for several days or a week I'll be unable to ride, so I won't have any dire need to do it all at once (I really hate driving to work, so I try not to do anything I can't finish in one evening). Naturally, as soon as I got home, I started on the muffler part, figuring it was the easier bit, and it wouldn't kill me to run excessively lean for a day or two until I got around to dealing with the jet kit. The muffler went surprisingly well, considering my complete lack of motor vehicle wrenching experience, and the completely vague and sometimes bogus supertrapp instructions. I could not believe how much the stock muffler weighs. It must be about 375 pounds. No wonder they bolt it to the frame in two places. It would probably just break off if there were only one bolt. I got everything tightened up and then went to deal with the discs. I figured I'd install 6 (supposedly about equal to stock) and put some more in after I did the carburetor. Even though the instructions had no diagram or anything about how the discs should go, it appeared that the only possible way was to get screwed into 3 little holes inside the muffler. The only problem was that two of those holes were unusable because the threaded inserts didn't line up with the holes. Lesson #1, put the discs in before you go to the trouble of getting everything else together. Luckily, I had already learned lesson #2, which is to buy from the local shop if at all possible, because I went back there the next today (tuesday), and gave them the muffler back, and they ordered me another one, which should hopefully be here thursday. No UPS shipping, no phone calls, no problems. So I got home from work and decided to go ahead with the jet kit anyway. I printed off the last two pages of the carburetor primer on the dualsport website, got out my manual, got out yet another set of vague instructions, and set to work. Since I'm lazy, I opted for the "installing the kit with the carb on the bike" method. I had to remove the engine mount over the carb (the same one you remove to do the valves) to turn the carb sideways enough to really get to the bottom of it, probably because I left the choke (enricher) in place. Top end was fairlyeasy, even tho a friend dropped by with his 5 yr old and distracted me with a beer for 1/2 hr. The needle dropped right in, and I made sure to be extra careful with the diaphragm (I've read a few posts about ham-fisted mechanics who've torn it or squished it or made it sad somehow). Drilling the hole for the slide widget (i assume enlarging this hole allows more vacuum pressure more quickly so the throttle respons a little faster???) was a little dicey because i seem to have misplaced the chuck key for my drill. instead, i just held on really tight to the chuck and ran the drill enough to tighten the chuck on the bit as much as i could (with bare hands). Then I drilled with little pressure and lots of rpms. The bit slipped once or twice, but ended up going through smoothly. Then I moved to the bottom part, drilled out the plug for the mixture screw. I forgot to pull the remnants of the plug out, which made everything more difficult until I went back and read that part after everything was buttoned up again. I used the 140 main jet, figuring that was more likely to work well with a relatively quiet setting on the muffler, and also wouldn't be too excessively rich with the stock muffler. I set the mixture 2 1/2 turns out because that's what everyone said seemed to work, even though the kit recommended 3 1/2 (it was only around 1 turn in stock form). I had a lot of trouble getting the float bowl back on, and I screwed and unscrewed the jet and collar and played around, and even took off the top and checked the needle and everything. (During this process, i realized that one of the two washers I was supposed to put at the top of the needle had made its escape. I never found it, though i'm pretty sure it didn't make it into the carb anywhere. Luckily, the kit came with 3 washers, so i just grabbed the last one.) The float bowl seemed to be hanging up somehow, so it wouldn't fully close (at first i thought the jet/collar assembly wasn't fully seated, but i checked 8 dozen times). Finally, I noticed that the pivot pin for the float had slipped out of it's holes and was getting in the way. Doh! That's what happens when you turn the carb on its side. Thankfully, I hadn't forced anything enough to bend or break it, so i buttoned it all back up and went for a ride. Oh yeah, I drilled a 1" hole in the top of the airbox to increase airflow to the filter (a no-toil filter that claims to be higher flow than stock. whatever), and also so that my filter would maybe get dirty on both sides instead of just the one side like now. Observations: 1. that annoying "pop pop pop" under engine braking is gone. woohoo! 2. It's definitely quicker to jump. much easier to spin the rear wheel hooligan style on the corners of the dirt road i live on and get a bit sideways. 3. It might be a touch stronger. It's hard to tell from a pure seat of the pants judgement. I expect a little more noticeable oomph when i get the muffler and install it. 4. I didn't get to judge whether it starts easier or with less choke because I had cleaned all the gas out of the float bowl and fuel lines, so it took 15 seconds or so of cranking to get enough gas down there to fire it up. 5. It seems to somehow run smoother at small throttle openings, like at 25mph through town. I could be imagining it, but it just feels a little less harsh. 6. It seems to be a little cooler. Normally the fan kicks on by the time I get to my house (at the top of a 1/3 mile dirt climb), but this time it was only about halfway up. 7. the kit instructions sucked. I'd have had trouble without you guys. Thanks especially to (i think) jime moorehead, who just did the same to his bike, and is also a mechanical feeb, and gave me the confidence to undertake the task with no adult supervision, and also to ron la mantia, who wrote the carb primer on the website. 8. Since even with the carb leaned over, the mixture screw is frickin' hard to reach, I figured out that one of my little screwdriver bits (you know, the ones that come with the 6-in-one el cheeso screwdriver right by the cash register at home depot and Orchard Supply and other hardware stores), judiciously wrapped with duck tape to expand the diameter of the hex-shaped part (that's supposed to fit into the screwdriver handle, but instead was held by my hand), works pretty sweet for getting in there. Might not work if your screw is hard to turn, but my bike is only 8 months old, so it was easy. hopefully, once i get the exhaust, i'll be able to resist buying a big bike a little longer, like until the 2001 bandits are available. -mark weaver