intro and a little help

[JohnH]

Hello everyone.  I am new to this forum, but I have been lurking for over a year now.  I just started riding last year and bought an 86 FJ as my first bike.  I love it.  I just finished a 250 mile ride yesterday.  The bike did a great job.    Unfortunately, when I went out to start the bike up this morning to go to a training session, the choke knob would not budge...thus I couldn't get the bike to start.  Did I mention that I am 250 miles from home and a new motorcyclist?  

If anyone can give me some advice on how to get the bike started so that I can get home this Friday, I would appreciate it. 

I knew enough not to kill the battery...yet.

[racerman_27410]

John,


remove the seat and the right hand side panel..... looking at the engine side of the carbs is where the choke cable attaches to the carbs... you should be able to push it in manually (or help it with the choke lever) to activate the choke.


Frank

[JohnH]

Frank,

Thanks for the quick response.  I will give that a try tonight.  I didn't have a chance to do anything this morning (except pull really hard) because I had to find a ride to the training site.

John

[andyb]

Also can lubricate it a touch.

Also could try starting fluid (ether).  You'd have to sit and keep bumping the throttle to keep it running until warm, and/or keep feeding it little shots of the fluid.

[Mark Olson]

Hello everyone.  I am new to this forum, but I have been lurking for over a year now.  I just started riding last year and bought an 86 FJ as my first bike.  I love it.  I just finished a 250 mile ride yesterday.  The bike did a great job.    Unfortunately, when I went out to start the bike up this morning to go to a training session, the choke knob would not budge...thus I couldn't get the bike to start.  Did I mention that I am 250 miles from home and a new motorcyclist?  

If anyone can give me some advice on how to get the bike started so that I can get home this Friday, I would appreciate it. 

I knew enough not to kill the battery...yet.

John H.

fist of all welcome out of the lurky place.

The choke cable likes to melt to the head of the fj if not secured to the frame away from the heat of the motor.
sometimes you can work it loose. If you just ran 250miles non stop I think you got it hot.
not a big deal as you can remove side cover and choke it with a pair of pliers to get ya going.
get a new cable when you get back to your place.

[JohnH]

Mark,

That sounds like what the problem is.  I thought that I saw a bit of smoke while stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, but I wasn't sure where it was coming from...it was insanely hot on the road yesterday.

Thanks for the tip,
John

[JohnH]

Hey guys,

Thanks a ton.  I was able to manually choke the bike and get her running. 

You saved me a lot of stress over the next few days. 

[racerman_27410]

good going brother.


Kookaloo!

Frank

[Mark Olson]

good to hear , keep on rolling.

[andyb]

Good stuff!

Of course to prevent that from happening again, you should really get in there and lightly lubricate all four of them.

And hell, wouldn't hurt to pull the carbs entirely and clean em a bit, eh?  You're already there...

Of course, that's the perfect time to install a jet kit.

Which would be wasted if you didn't have a good pipe on the bike.  And pods (which also are super easy to install while you're in there).

Of course with that much air in and out, seems horribly wasteful not to have a bigger area to burn them with.  Fortunately there's a 1314 kit in the sale section right now....

Of course then you'd want more traction, so you may as well do a 17" conversion to the rear.

Seems like things would be even better balanced if you did some front end work too, then it'd be better still!



Dude, stop while you're ahead!