Ultima ZT2 surging

[davis2]

I have an old motorcycle that I don't ride often enough. Every few years, I find myself cleaning carbs. I've tried a variety of solvents, but Berrymans, at 100%, works better than anything else I've tried. I only use it at 100% on metal parts like jets.

I have a feeling that a carb cleaning is in my near future.

 

[TobyU]

I have an old motorcycle that I don't ride often enough. Every few years, I find myself cleaning carbs. I've tried a variety of solvents, but Berrymans, at 100%, works better than anything else I've tried. I only use it at 100% on metal parts like jets.

This is exactly the first thing I was able to get such miraculous results on that I have been using it ever since.
It was a '79 gs850 motorcycle whose carbs were slightly restricted etc and this stuff did wonders.
You have to be careful not to drip anything on the paint though because it can strip paint instantly.

 

[TobyU]

I have a feeling that a carb cleaning is in my near future.

Most of the carburetors have a little drain at the bottom you can stick a hose on and a screw to open to allow fuel to drain out of the bowl.
You might be able to drain some of the fuel through like this and shake it around and tilt it towards that side as you're doing it to get a lot of the crap out of the bowls without even removing the carburetor or the bowls.
Sometimes this helps them run a lot better and then your cleaner will help too.

 

[TobyU]

Funny, but my cub 782 started running rough about 3/4 of the way through mowing today. So I tried some berrymans, but at the levels they specified on the label. We'll see what happens.

It certainly won't hurt but I find that at the levels they recommend it's not going to do too much too quickly.

Most of their recommendations are also pretty vague.
Do you remember what it actually said on the bottle?
I'm thinking most of these treatments which are like a 12 oz bottle or something say to add to a tank of fuel of 12 to 15 gallons or something like that.
Only a few additives I've read give a percentage and that's usually with oil additives.
So it looks like a lot of these gas ones end up being about 1 oz per gallon.

If something is decently clogged or restricted in your fuel system, 1 oz in a gallon a fuel isn't going to do much.
That certainly more of a maintenance thing.
I routinely use this stuff and push mowers and the newer ones have a smaller tank than the old ones but I don't think any of them even held a half gallon.
The specification is .211 gallon on the newer one so that's not even a quart.

I often put two to three ounces in these. They typically aren't even full when I do this I would say on average about half full.
So with a full tank even if it was a quart, I would already be at four times the recommended concentration and then since it's not even a court and since the tank is probably only half full or slightly over half full, I'm at about 7- 9 times the concentration.
So I guess you could say it'd be like putting seven bottles of this stuff into your car's tank with a full tank of gas.

I want results!
As I've said before you have to be careful and not put too much in there because if you put half the can into a push mower you will probably swell up the inlet needle or seat in the carb and cause a problem.

But I have found it's better to err on the side of adding a little too much because you just might get some results and not have to mess with it as opposed to too little where you'll have to take it apart and clean it out anyways.
No different than if you add too much and screw it up and you have to take it apart and I replace needle valve in it anyway.

 

[Peva]

Plus as Rivets some of us work all week at our own shops. Personally my shop is operated 6 days 10 hrs/day every week. Sundays are my day to get my own things done. I only stopping now as I awaiting a couple of my gals to lay. Then I going the grocery store, Auto parts store, HFT a couple items and then when get that done it my housework and yard work plus formatting and updating my business software with new price files.

Now we also need the actual model numbers of mower and the model and spec numbers of the engine for us to see what you in front of you as we are not all seeing.

Now there three base versions of the Kawasaki 691V (FS, FR, and FX). Idle speed is set at a base of 1450 with a governed idle speed of 1550. If not done correctly then governor will act up.

From the service manual these are the idle speeds
View attachment 68694

Also note that just because the hydro oil was change does not mean something else hasn't happen in the meantime. I just had a mower that was running when the customer picked it but before it got unloaded at the customer's home it started acting up. A piece of metal that another didn't keep track of started causing problems.

"Sundays are my day to get my own things done. I only stopping now as I awaiting a couple of my gals to lay."

Please post pics of gals!

 

[TobyU]

"Sundays are my day to get my own things done. I only stopping now as I awaiting a couple of my gals to lay."

Please post pics of gals!

I have to admit you got my attention with "gals to lay".. but I believe I was thinking something entirely different than what you meant.
The picture in my mind would be good for several months of Sundays. Lol

 

[davis2]

It certainly won't hurt but I find that at the levels they recommend it's not going to do too much too quickly.

Most of their recommendations are also pretty vague.
Do you remember what it actually said on the bottle?
I'm thinking most of these treatments which are like a 12 oz bottle or something say to add to a tank of fuel of 12 to 15 gallons or something like that.
Only a few additives I've read give a percentage and that's usually with oil additives.
So it looks like a lot of these gas ones end up being about 1 oz per gallon.

If something is decently clogged or restricted in your fuel system, 1 oz in a gallon a fuel isn't going to do much.
That certainly more of a maintenance thing.
I routinely use this stuff and push mowers and the newer ones have a smaller tank than the old ones but I don't think any of them even held a half gallon.
The specification is .211 gallon on the newer one so that's not even a quart.

I often put two to three ounces in these. They typically aren't even full when I do this I would say on average about half full.
So with a full tank even if it was a quart, I would already be at four times the recommended concentration and then since it's not even a court and since the tank is probably only half full or slightly over half full, I'm at about 7- 9 times the concentration.
So I guess you could say it'd be like putting seven bottles of this stuff into your car's tank with a full tank of gas.

I want results!
As I've said before you have to be careful and not put too much in there because if you put half the can into a push mower you will probably swell up the inlet needle or seat in the carb and cause a problem.

But I have found it's better to err on the side of adding a little too much because you just might get some results and not have to mess with it as opposed to too little where you'll have to take it apart and clean it out anyways.
No different than if you add too much and screw it up and you have to take it apart and I replace needle valve in it anyway.

Bottle says 1oz/gal. It didn't fix my problem. The carb was clean when I took it apart. I cleaned it anyway, and replaced the fuel filter. It had been on for a couple years anyway. When that didn't work, I looked at the electrical stuff. I found a bad coil. Plugs had weak spark, but only ran on 1 cylinder. I had to try an Amazon coil, but only risked $30.

 

[davis2]

I have to admit you got my attention with "gals to lay".. but I believe I was thinking something entirely different than what you meant.
The picture in my mind would be good for several months of Sundays. Lol

Get your mind out of the gutter... There's no room for me!!!!

 

[davis2]

"Sundays are my day to get my own things done. I only stopping now as I awaiting a couple of my gals to lay."

Please post pics of gals!

Look at your dinner plate. Chickens lay eggs...

 

[TobyU]

Bottle says 1oz/gal. It didn't fix my problem. The carb was clean when I took it apart. I cleaned it anyway, and replaced the fuel filter. It had been on for a couple years anyway. When that didn't work, I looked at the electrical stuff. I found a bad coil. Plugs had weak spark, but only ran on 1 cylinder. I had to try an Amazon coil, but only risked $30.

I would have no faith in 1 oz per gallon fixing anything in fact I would guarantee and bet money on that not doing anything.
This is why I say I've used it at much greater concentrations because I have gotten results from this.

If you found out later it was not fuel related but rather ignition, then you should have started your diagnosis process a little differently.

I have this down to a science because I see hundreds and hundreds of mowers that don't start every season.
So many people do things the hard way or the slow way which is starting with a spark plug normally but that's almost always a complete waste of time.

If a mother will not start at all and the first thing you do is giving an external fuel source straight into the intake underneath the air filter.

If it then starts to runs for a 3 or 4 seconds then you know it's mechanically sound otherwise.

If you have one that runs especially if it's a twin but is not running well or underpowered, then it's a little more difficult but still easy to figure out.
The fastest, but not the most accurate would be to give it a little bit of choke as it loses power to see if it recovers and if it does and seems to have close to full power, then it probably has a restriction and the carburetor and or jets.
However this can be a little hard to determine unless you have a lot of experience with them and it doing this exact same thing so I find it easier on a twin to first guarantee it's running on both cylinders.

To do this I get a thick glove, because I hate to be shocked, and then a rag or a towel.
I pop both spark plugs off and stick them back on so they are just barely on the plug.

Then I started and running at a medium speed, not slow and not fast just a little past slow so medium and then I use my rag and my gloved hand to pop one spark plug wire off and hold it away from the plug so it's no longer sparking to the plug.
It will either quit running although it should slow down a little bit and maybe run a little more roughly or it will completely die.

If it completely stops running then you know this is the only cylinder the engine is running on so the other one is not producing power.

If it does keep running you sufficiently canceled this cylinder out so then you go to the other cylinder and do the same thing to see what the results are.

If it's an ignition, valve, or other issue where one of your cylinders is not producing power, you will find it this way.

Then you can rule out your main problem being fuel so you don't have to worry about all the other stuff.
At least not for now because there's still the possibility that once you get both cylinders running properly that the carb might not be clean enough but that's tomorrow's problem.

Systematic and consistent troubleshooting of a known efficient approach is the best for these.

A good number of my customers started calling me the lawnmower whisperer about 11 years ago.

Once you get this down to a science, you can approach a lawn mower and diagnose with about 97% accuracy what the problem is in under 25 seconds.

I know some people don't get my rushing approach as they see it but I like to be efficient.
I don't really like to work and I do a lot of other things throughout my day of a personal nature.
So if I'm going to get anything done at all, or make any money, or get these mowers back to their customers, I have to be very efficient when I do work.

Surprisingly enough I must be doing a lot even though I'm a one-man show.
I must be doing comparable volume to other shops because I have the second highest number of reviews for a large 50 plus mile radius etc.
I've actually cut back a lot over the past few years but I still do between 400 and 500 a season which is only about 9 months.
My peak was 625 and I have no desire to do that again.

It's kind of a catch 22 for me because I'm an odd duck. I'd actually like to do less work but I do want more people to be able to keep their machines and not have to go buy these new crap ones.
I could just do half as many and double my prices and make the same amount of money and they'd still be lining up to get me to fix their stuff because I'd still be cheaper than all the other shops around but that's kind of a conflict of interest with me.
I refuse to raise my prices and be like those guys and be part of the problem.

It's funny, people have said for decades trying to tell me something like I don't know it or open my eyes telling me I won't always be able to do things or eventually I'll have to do this or that.
As I've gotten fairly older, I've come to realization that they are completely WRONG.
It seems from any logical assessment of the situation that I will be able to do things exactly my way and continue for the rest of my life or for as long as I still do them.
For years I knew there was a chance they may be right but now it looks like they were not.

This is quite comforting even though I know I'm leaving money on the table etc
But I don't really know what the point would be of making more. I just have to find somebody to spend it or something like that.
I'm extremely setting my ways and comfortable doing what I'm doing so I really don't want to add more things to my life or take up any expensive hobbies and I've already got most everything I really want so there's that.

I guess life is odd.