Here is a post from the COG. If anyone here thinks they need to follow Callaghan's or Man of Blues advise beware! Just because they have a ton of postings does NOT make them qualified to promote owners going into their engines in order to check or adjust valves. I'm sure that this poor soul has regretted taking their advise. Spending the money to have it done at a dealership is foolish but less risky then doing it yourself. I have owned and worked on motorcycles for over 40 years and still say the best advise is "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Your bike to do what you want with it and good luck to all. BTW Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Hard Starting 2011
« on: December 06, 2012, 08:45:27 PM »
Quote
I have been having problems starting my 2011 C14. The trouble started about the time I changed the plugs and checked the valve clearances at 15K miles back in August. The valves checked out within tolerance so none of them were adjusted. In the summer it usually started on the second or third try after giving it a little bit of gas. Now that the temps are lower here in Iowa the problem has gotten much worse. In the past 2 weeks it has failed to start on two occasions. Both times I tried until the battery was dead. After charging the battery overnight each time it started the next morning on the fourth or fifth try. I am to the point now where I am afraid to stop anywhere for fear of it not starting back up. I thought the problem may have been the new plugs so I put the original plugs back in but that changed nothing. This past weekend I replaced all four stick coils hoping that may have been the problem but it is still the same. The problem is only with starting, the bike runs fine once it is started. Power and gas mileage are the same as before. I had the dealer look at it in October when I had the rear brake recall done but it started right up for them so they did not investigate any further. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I attached a sound clip from the morning of 12/5 in my garage at about 60 degrees. You can barely here the sputtering and back fire.
So this posting proves what? The owner likley did something wrong, but it sure wasn't adjusting the valves since he states he didn't adjust any.
Your answer sure appears to be "leave it all alone, it is all fine, until it isn't", which tells me you have a run it into the ground and dispose of it type of attitude.
That message is simply foolishness.
I do agree some people are far better off to leave their equipments maintenance and care to the professionals, but the equipment still requires maintenance. The C14 certainly isn't the easiest bike out there to adjust valves on, and there is more to doing maintenance than simply adjusting the valves too. So simply "checking" the valves is only scratching the surface.
But sticking to valve adjustment suggestions, since that is what this thread is about, those first few valve adjustments are by far the most critical, and they certainly are necessary.
I understand with so many spouting off how "they did not need any adjustment", "all were within spec" and other such rhetoric being rejurgitated all over forums around the world it is easy to get sucked into that mentality. "everything is fine, no need to do anything". The simply fact is everything is not fine and there is plenty of need to do these required maintenances. The fact that some say they have not done them and their bike "runs fine", well I have no doubt it runs, right until it will not, "runs fine" well that is arbitrary and subjective to ones opinion and experience.
If you bought brand new and the performance and smoothness degraded say 10% over 15,000 miles would you be so sensitive to pick up on this?
The simple answer is that 99.9% of riders are not, but probably 90+% sure can tell when they get it back, all properly adjusted and running smoothly again and that 10% "instant" improvement is enough to tell a substantial difference. Atleast that has been my experience with hundreds of valve adjustment/tune ups.
This comparison is direct and may be somewhat arbitrary in itself since everyone wears them out differently and uses them differently, but here goes anyways;
The difference is somewhat similar to as your tires wear, even though 4000 mile tires are not nearly as good as new (100 mile tires, fully scuffed) tires, most don't notice much lack of performance there, right up until they are near bald. Which is akin to when the valves are hung open. You then spoon on some new skins and walla, instantly better feeling and handling bike.
Anyways, read the service manual maintenance chart and use it as a guide, I will give you that some bikes simply require more while others require less based much on how and where the bike is ridden. The bike lollygagged around on the interstate at 4500 rpms for most of its life simply won't wear parts as fast as the bike that sees bursts to 10,000rpm+ and some far more spirited riding in the mountains or canyons
