carb icing
 

in the cold my xt600e gets very rough, stutters and sometimes stalls on runover and idle. there has been -15c windchill sometimes,could this be carb icing? what can i do about it, fuel additives?

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dave

I also had the same problem when it was really cold. It would take about 15mins to warm up and would keep stalling all the time. Never found solution but now am in Spain where its a cool 20°C so now worries :,) Would be good to know why though.

Finian

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i think my 3AJ might be having the same problem. it takes a while to warm up on cold mornings, and i have to keep the choke out at least some of the way for at least 5 - 10 minutes.

even so, sometimes my bike "coughs" or "sneezes" and makes a high pitched "eeee!" kind of noise - is this the kind of thing you are talking about?

would be good to know...

Hi

Sounds very familiar. My 3AJ had the same problems last winter. As far as I know carb icing only happens with temeratures just around zero. because of the airflow in the carb the pressure reduces and so does the temperature of the air. This causes the water in the air to freeze. When its colder there is no water in the air anymore.
When it is much below zero probably the engine doesn't warm up enough and you should keep running on the choke a little?
Another thing is that with snow and ice the roads are eh... don't know the english word for it, but the stuff they put on the road to prevent it from freezing. This contains mainly of salt. Water and salt is much more likely to cause short circuits in the electricity than water alone. So be sure to keep the ignition very well isolated.

Peter

it only happens when the weather is cold AND humid.its been -10c for a few days and the bike ran no trouble at all(XT600E has 3AJ engine) but today it was only 3-4degrees but damp, and its the worse its been for a while.

i got a tip to put in some silkolene fuel additive that will prevent this, will go and get some today and let you all know how i get on in the next couple of days.

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dave

i havent been able to find any fuel additive stuff yet,but it was bad again today, so i immediatly put a fivers worth of four star in(it needed filling up anyway)maybe this will help with the higher octane?
perhaps this is all to do with the monkey piss that the local supermarkets pass off as fuel?

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dave

well, its definately NOT carb icing. its doing it again worse and worse and its warm now.

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dave

no it wasnt carb icing, it was a connector gradually coming loose! and whats really annoying is klaus told me about it months ago! GRRRRRRR!!
it was the wire between the CDI and ignition switch. i checked the wire and switch and both were fine, but it was the connector on the end that was bad, the female had no grip on the spade in the CDI! vibration of the engine made it move around and made the engine stutter and cough. a squeeze with pliers to tighten it up again and the bike now runs better than it ever has, with no 3000RPM "burp".
so dont just check the wires, look at the connectors on the end, too!

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dave

I had carb-icing on my 600 Diversion a couple of years ago,very annoying to say the least.Ran my XT through the winter,and in the recent un-seasonal early-morning frosts and I`ve had no problems at all,takes a couple more minutes to warm up but that`s all.