06 Attak idle issues

[seabeeman]

My wife's stock 06 Attak has always had a bit of a low idle and would occasionally shut off at a stop. It would need a little blip of the throttle to get it to catch and off we'd go, occasionally needing to repeat this. Ran like a top otherwise.

I thought the idle stop was a little too far out on the throttle bodies and I adjust that up just a bit, and things seemed better. The problem is, now it seems to have a "2 stage" idle. Once everything settles in, all is well and stable. But when you blip the throttle, it will rev up and then down to a point that nearly engages the clutch, sit there for about 15-30 seconds, then finally settle into the lower idle.

As it sits right now, the idle is about 1100 and it's not smooth, obviously it needs to be up closer to spec at 1400-1500. If I change the throttle cable stop on the throttle bodies, both the normal idle and the "2nd stage" idle goes up, but it takes even longer to come back down, if at all, since the blades are stuck a bit open.

The black knurled air screw seems to have almost no effect on any of this, and I confirmed that the screw is actually moving, not just the black plastic spinning on the shaft. It is where it started, 5 1/4 turns out, which matches my 08 LTX GT exactly, and that thing is smooth as silk.

How do you properly set the idle on this sled and why is it doing that 2-step thing?

 

[74Nitro]

Start with synchronizing the throttle bodies. There are four screws located near each other gold in colour. That is where you do it. You will need the right tool for this also.
Surely someone here can post a picture, I don't have one right now.

 

[seabeeman]

I got everything back to were it was before I started fiddling with things: it comes down from throttle properly without hanging up on what I was calling the 2nd stage but the idle is too low, about 1100 RPMs.

The black idle air screw was causing my high idle issues, most likely because I was going in to far and the ECM was trying to compensate...right?

When I adjust the throttle stop screw between cylinders 2 and 3, it seems to cause far too large of a response. It's either where I have it now, idling about 1100 and loping a bit, or it shoots the idle up over 2000 RPM with barely touching it. Doesn't seem to be anything in the middle.

 

[74Nitro]

It can only be done with a synchronization vacuum tool, anything else is just guessing and messing it up.

 

[seabeeman]

Yeah, I'm not touching those without the proper tools. I used to ride Honda Valkyries and have synced the 6 carbs on those, even built my own tool. I'm sure it's similar to syncing the throttle bodies, even with fuel injection vs carb.

Do you think that out of sync throttle bodies would result in the throttle stop being overly sensitive and allow me to dial it in better?

I did notice that when covering the intakes one at a time with my hand, there was a very different response between the different cylinders. 2nd from the left (facing the sled) caused a major bog, whereas 1 and 3 did almost nothing when covering them, and 4 (far right facing sled) was in the middle of the response.

 

[74Nitro]

Yeah, I'm not touching those without the proper tools. I used to ride Honda Valkyries and have synced the 6 carbs on those, even built my own tool. I'm sure it's similar to syncing the throttle bodies, even with fuel injection vs carb.

Do you think that out of sync throttle bodies would result in the throttle stop being overly sensitive and allow me to dial it in better?

I did notice that when covering the intakes one at a time with my hand, there was a very different response between the different cylinders. 2nd from the left (facing the sled) caused a major bog, whereas 1 and 3 did almost nothing when covering them, and 4 (far right facing sled) was in the middle of the response.

Even on injected sleds its important to balance them.

 

[seabeeman]

I ordered a 4 gauge tool to see about getting these balanced and I'll report back.

 

[musselman]

Sounds like the valves are out of adjustment.

 

[seabeeman]

It's only 8000 miles, I thought valve adjustment was at 25000. Any harm in checking them?

 

[musselman]

It's only 8000 miles, I thought valve adjustment was at 25000. Any harm in checking them?

Mine were way out at 12,000 miles, others have been out much earlier as well

 

[CaptCaper]

with only 8k miles I would look at cleaning out the gas and putting fresh fuel in. the fuel today is horrible.

 

[seabeeman]

All my toys go to sleep for the off-season with a full tank of stabilized non-ethanol fuel, and this low idle has been going on for 2 years. I'll be through the storage gas this weekend and will have fresh fuel in it this weekend, and the vac gauges to sync the throttle bodies should be here this afternoon.

 

[Pete_man26]

If you have adjusted idle and fresh fuel, your next step could be sync issue but i would bet on valve adjustment.

 

[seabeeman]

Not being able to adjust the low, loping idle is the original issue. The air screw doesn't seem to do much and moving the throttle cable stop on between throttle bodies 2 and 3 results in erratic changes. By erratic, I mean that small adjustments have no result and then suddenly a huge jump that won't allow the RPM's to come down. Then when the RPM's are up, I start adjusting the throttle stop back out with no result, until it drops way down to the low idle. I make sure to blip the throttle and give it time to settle in between adjustments.

I'll start with syncing the throttle bodies...that certainly won't hurt anything. Then I suppose it's valves which, again, won't hurt.

 

[CaptCaper]

All my toys go to sleep for the off-season with a full tank of stabilized non-ethanol fuel, and this low idle has been going on for 2 years. I'll be through the storage gas this weekend and will have fresh fuel in it this weekend, and the vac gauges to sync the throttle bodies should be here this afternoon.

me too with the non ethonal and this year it gave me issues starting and holding an idle. Water in fuel? who knows. But a ride of 40 miles first one of the season and fresh fuel cured it.