Fix for that coldblooded Sherpa!!

[Camas]

If you have the same cold blooded Sherpa that I have you’ll want to read this.
I got a tip from our local Benson to contact DrJekle for the fix. I sent a message and got a response in just a couple days. The kit is $15. and it comes with instructions. Theinsturctions were surprisingly easy to follow but I’m going to include some pics of what I found.
This is the jets I got. A main jet 130 and a pilot jet 20. (one size bigger than what the factory installed) The old one’s were a 127.5 main jet and a 17.5 pilot jet. Shown…


First pull the side covers and tank. I found that since the Sherpa has no “off� position on the pet cock that you’ll need a short piece of the fuel line with a plug in it so fuel doesn’t spill out while the tank is unhooked.
Here’s the Mikuni carb on my ’00.

The Doctor says you can remove the airbox to make it easier to get the carb out but I didn’t go through that. Just some patience and some tea (hey, the instructions called for it. I assume you're supposed to drink it) you can get the carb out on the left side of the bike. You don’t need to disconnect the cables but a few of the overflow drain tubes make it easier to get out if they're disconnected. I found that taking the carb topside out first toward the left was easiest and the same for re-installation only in reverse.

Loosen the clamp to the airbox and the intake clamp that goes to the cylinder. Take the airbox side off first and tuck it out of the way. Then you can tilt/twist the carb carefully until it is free of the intake to the cylinder and then gently push it, topside first, out the left side of the bike. (left is as you’re sitting on the bike).

Once outside the frame of the bike, you’ll be tipping the carb upside down. TAKE NOTE that there is an overflow tube that will send all the fuel from the bowl out all over the place so be ready with a catch basin of your choosing!

Now that the carb is out you can see a plugged protrusion toward the cylinder side and center of the carb bottom. Like this…

You need to drill this cap-plug out the same as the method on the KLR650. I used a 7/64� drill bit and a sheet metal screw to screw into the hole I drilled and that gave me something to grab onto with pliers so I could get it out. Like this…

Mike recommends taking a “tea� break at this point. I had a smoke instead. Watch out for fuel though. Don’t burn your face off!
Once you have access to that screw you need to carefully turn it in (clockwise) until it gently seats and then back it out 2 3/4ths turns out (counter-clockwise).

Now you’ll be turning the carb upside down while you remove the bowl. There’s some stuff in there that can fall out so it’s recommended that you find a way to keep it in an upside-down position through this next process. I used some quick release clamps. So it couldn’t fall over to rightside-up while I needed my hands free.
Those carb bowl screws are really tight from the factory. If they’ve never been off before you’ll have to be really careful not to strip out the Phillips heads. A #2 phillips fits good. I found that they were too tight and had to use a small set of Vise-Grips to grab the head and break them loose so they could be unscrewed. Like this….

Once the bowl is off you’ll want a clean spot to set it down. The bowl on Forrest Pimp had just a touch of schmutz in the bottom so if your’s has that stuff, clean it out. I used a spray can of carb cleaner. No problem.
Now it’s time to replace the jets. The main jet is the larger brass screw right in the center. Carefully back that out an replace it with the one from the kit. Just toward the front (cylinder side) is the pilot jet down in that cylindrical hole just infront of the main jet toward the cylinder side.

DrJekle (Mike) warns  to watch out that you don’t create a burr when removing or replacing these two jets. DO NOT over tighten. Just snug them up. It’s really not hard to do. If you create a burr, you need to carefully remove any metal that could come loose and mess up the little parts in there.
Once you’ve replaced them both, put the bowl back on (make sure there’s no schmutz in there), snug up the bowl screws and re-install all the stuff.
The Doctor’s instructions said to pull the choke on 3/4ths of the way, cross your fingers and hit the “go� button. He was right! Even the cold engine fired right up and I was able to turn the choke off in less than a minute. No stumbling and fully ready to ride in less than a minute from cold. Ahhhhh. There is one more step….

Pat yourself on the back and do your best to wipe that silly grin off your face. I haven’t mastered the latter just yet but that’s OK.

[Benson]

Camas, I have done both of mine it is a great mod. The first bike I did with DrJekle's instructions.The 2nd bike I had with me at the TDA and DrJekle was there and I did it there with adult supervision ( DrJekle ) It was tons easier. One I had done it once before and 2 DrJ was there. I was under the misunderstanding that the carb had to come out. DrJ just rotates it in the air boots after they are loose and does everything from the right side that sure made life simpler. Also if your fuel would not shut off like my 2nd bike then there is a failure in the fuel petcock. As my first bike did not leak. My understanding is that in the PRI or RES it takes engine vacuum to allow the fuel to flow through. in the ON it is on. I have ordered and will pick up this week a new packing to see if that is what will fix this problem on mine. It is an aggrevation to have the tank off and fuel wanting to pour out. For any and all questions I defer to DrJekle as he is the man.

[Camas]

Now you've got me wondering if the petcock is indeed on the fritz I did find it odd that there was no way to totally turn off the fuel.
On a cruiser I used to have I was able to take apart the petcock and replace a little gasket that was causing a leak. Has anyone tried that on the Sherpa's???

[Mel Brooks]

First of all, EXCELLENT write up and photo's of the re-jet process Camas.  Where were you 3 weeks ago when I did this???   

The Doc's instructions are pretty good but that carb is in there in a tight place. I managed to git er dun and the bike runs totally different than before. It was a cold blooded BEAST, but now will fire with a little choke, and the choke can be pushed off in no time. Not at all like before. I think the pilot jet and the mixture adjustment contribute the most to this mod.

Again, a very nice how-to for folks getting ready to do this. And don't worry about sending DrJeckle yer 15 bucks, he's a good stand up guy. Offfered to send me the parts before I even got my check out to him.

Oh BTW, my petcock didn't leak under the "ON" position. From what I understand, it takes vacuum to move the fuel in the ON or RES position, but gravity feeds the carb in PRI. Correct me if I'm wrong, KLR heads.

[MxTrail]

Hi All,
Yes, in on (ON) postition the petcock should not pass gas (Har!). (edited2/14/07)

I just want to say that Dr. J. is a carb guru.  I seen him rejet so many carbs at TdA it was amazing.  He is so good he makes it look easy.  He know every trick for removing stuborn screws and working the carb while still on the bike.  One KLX rider developed a leaky carb during a ride, Dr. J not only fixed the leaky part but rejetted to give the KLX a lot of unexpected power.  Anyway, I can testify, you got carb problems, CALL THE DOCTOR!!!

Mx

[Benson]

Sporster Girl be right I tried using my memory That was a mistake. In the PRI position fuel will flow, all things being in working order it should only flow in the ON & RES with engine vacuum. I picked up my repair parts today maybe this weekend I'll have time to try a fix.

[Yellow Jacket]

The vacuum petcocks of SS's can be a royal pain!!! My '00 gave me fits and took several trys before I finally got it to shut off like it should. Fuel should not flow in either the on or reserve position unless the engine is running. Fuel does flow in the prime position reguardless of the engine. These petcocks seem to have a tendency to leak. When that happens the fuel well also leak past the float valve in the carb and eventually into the engine oil. If you ever seem to have too much oil in the sight glass that is what is happening, gas is getting into the oil, deluteing the oil, which is a VERY bad thing. Change the oil!!! I was operating under the mistaken belief that one could not buy parts for the petcock, you could only buy the whole thing, $75. I was determined to fix mine without spending that kind of money. Now I find you can get all the parts seperately. The leakage accures in one of 2 places. One is the rubber gasket right inside of the lever itself. You'll have to drain the tank, remove the 2 small phillips head screws and pull the lever straight out. The gasket is right there. If that is damaged at all, replace it. The other problem is a tiny "o" ring inside of the back side of the petcock. You will have to remove the tank, take out the 5 small phillips head screws. Very carefully remove the cover and the rubber diaphram behind it. On the inside of the diaphram you will see a very small "o" ring. Replace that. Then reassemble the whole thing. To make sure I had my leak fixed I pulled the fuel line off at the carb, taped a small bottle to the end of the hose and let it set over night. Hope this will be of some help to some of you. Just keep an eye on the oil level, if it keeps getting "overfilled" you have problems.

[Camas]

Worm, thanks for the lead. I kinda suspected what you described but had no idea it would over flow into the case.   

You wouldn't happen to have a lead or link to where to buy the seals/o-rings needed would you?

Pretty please...

Thanks again for jumping in here. 

[drjekle]

I guess my post didnt go thru,,,,,,,,lemme try again,,,,,,,,,

Anyhow,,,I am glad everybody likes the sherpa re-jet...It does change the attitude on the sherpa,,sometimes its not easy trying to convince sherpa owners to re-jet(eh-MX?,,,,hee-hee) I dont offer the jets to make a extra buck,,i like being able to help out the sherps and cure that slow-start prob it has.......bumping up the HP a little and cooling down the engine are perks i wasnt quite expecting when i did my re-jet 50 mile after i got my sherpa...........

I had even tried (a couple year back)to get with Dyno-Jet and get the re-jet put on thier books and in publics hands,but they wernt too excited to talk .. But even if they did, they prolly would be chargein $60-$70 for the same set-up,,,so i keep to myself on them........heck,,at the TDAII this year,,if i charged about what some of the MAJOR name brand jets kits run,,i bet i coulda made $500 in rejets..........Id just soon make them availible to other sherpa owners for what i have invested in them..(i make more friends that way,lol)and i never get tired of hearing how well they do,,and the fact that some people who have never opened a carb,went ahead and installed the jets on thier own,makes it all that much better.And i dont mind waiting for payment,,,if somebody is asking for jets for a 'sherpa',,i know they arent just blowing smoke.

I think last count was a lil over 120+ sets of jets i have sent out in the past few years,,,(sherpas only),,and i have yet to hear anybody say anything negative about them,,,,with the exception of 1-2 mpg loss...

I dont wanna take no credit for being a sherpa guru,,heck,,its all the sherpa owners who teach me,,lol,,i learned from you-all.

Anyhow,,,Excellent pictures you posted camas!,,,,,all this time ive been sending out jets,,not once have i really give it any thought to use pictures...I may have to utilize that idea,if you dont mind(and your pics too ,lol),,,,,,most times i do the re-jet from the right hand side,,but anybody can do it however they want,,left side right side,,dont really matter,,alot depends on how much of a pain the bowl screws are,,other than that, like benson mentioned,,a person can just rotate the carb to gain access..

On the Petcock situation,,,,,,,,,,,,,heres my 2 1/2 cents worth about the sherpa:

The ON & RES only flows fuel when the engine is running,,fuel should stop when the engine is off.

The PRI is free-flowing,,does not matter if the engine is running or not,it free-flows.

The only time you need PRI is when you have run completly out of fuel and need to re-fill the carb bowl,,,,,,OR,
If the bike has been sitting for a day or more it helps to put the petcock in the PRI position for about 20-30 seconds to top off(fill) the carb bowl for a easier start.......


I dont understand why kawa went to the vacumn petcock,,just when we all get used to the idea of shutting the petcock off they go and install somethin like that,,,last i heard it was made for the forgetfull who didnt shut thier fuel off..............

Strange thing is,,my 2005 kawa ATV Bayou 250(4wheeler) has the old-style petcock,,,ON/OFF/RES,,,,,,,i dont mind havein it,,in fact i like the idea of closeing off the fuel when parked......If i ever start haveing any probs with my sherpa petcock i will convert it to the old-style petcock like my atv has,,id even bet that my atv's petcock would fit the sherpa tank(possibly).

A couple of reasons i would wanna do away with the vacumn type petcock::

#1 When fuel wont shut off in the ON or RES when bike is not running.
#2When the fuel does not flow when bike is running due to bad diaphram in petcock(vacumn operated)
#3 A bad diaphram in the petcock can cause a vacumn leak and make the engine run poorly,,,cause a lean condition & overheat the motor.

Sometimes there is a complaint about a sherpa not running too good,,one day its fine the next day all of a sudden, its crappy,,,,,often overlooked is the VACUMN at the petcock,,,,,if the petcock has a bad diaphram,,it will suck air,,it may still operate the petcock,,but even more the bad diaphram creates the fuel/air ratio to be lean,,,and have a hard time trying to idle or run at slow speeds.....
One way to check is to remove the vacumn hose from the petcock,,then plug the vacumn hose to the cylinder head,,,,,and put the petcock in PRI(prime) and ride it,,if it runs better,,,the diaphram in the petcock is bad.....sometimes this diaphram can be mistaken for a gasket or called a gasket.

That pretty well covers the other half of the petcocks troubles,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the 1st half is what Liquid Worm mentioned,,,,,,the LEAKY petcock, ,,he has that all narrowed down in his post...

Well,,,i appreciate being able to help,,,,,,,looks like i talked a lil too long again,lol

>>>>>drjekle

[Camas]

Doc, I freely give you permission to use any of the pics from this post. Take 'em, edit 'em, whatever you want to do with them is fine. It's all to help out other owners and I'm good with that.

I'd be interested if you find out that the old style petcock works on the Sherpa and what the part number is for the replacement. That way I'd go to the ON/OFF/RES version too.

You didn't mention if you'd ever had a petcock apart to repair/replace seals/gaskets/diaphram. Let us know cause I'd rather just fix what's there since I'm a miser.

Thanks for your wisdom

[Yellow Jacket]

 drjekle, if you find a manual petcock that will work, let us know. I wanted to do that with mine but lacked the resources to find one. The SS petcock is held in place by two bolts, not threaded in, so you would have to find one with the same bolt spacing and size. I'm sure there is something out there that will work, just have to find it. My SS is the second bike I've owned that would flood the crankcase with gas, both had vacuum petcocks.

[Benson]

How does the fuel that passes through a leaky fuel petcock not flow out the carb drain tube and find its way into the crankcase?

[Camas]

Inquiring minds....

[MxTrail]

I had a log splitter with a briggs engine that would do that. If I didn't remember to drain the fuel, it had no petcock, I would try to use it a couple of months later and the gas would be gone and the engine was hard to turn over, because the oil was full of gas.  I got rid of the POS.  My gues is the needle valve leaks.  Why the overflow don't work is a mystery.

Mx

[drjekle]

Hi Benson,,,,It would take a while for the fuel to get in the crankcase from a leaking petcock,,,an thats only if the (float)needle-seat is not shutting the fuel off in the float,,or the float is not properly adjusted to shut off the (float)needle-seat....far as the drain tube on the bottom of the bowl,thats just to drain any fuel for storage or water accumilation,,,,people often overlook this drain,,,its a good idea to crack it open once a month in warm weather to drain out any dirt and water................the petcock on the sherpa can be fixed with just changeing all the guts out,,i dont know offhand what all it needs yet,,,i would have to look at kawasaki.com's parts site and see and get back at ya.....,,,,,,,,,,,If n when it warms up enough around here(its 8*),,ill see if my atv Bayou petcock will fit in place of the sherpa's,,,,,,,,,on the older KL250,s (before there was a sherpa)i beleive they were useing the old-style ON/OFF/RES petcocks....i know there is something out there that will interchange ,,just gota narrow it down,,,alot less troubles with the old-style petcocks...........ill get back with ya all on it soon.
>>>>>drjekle

[drjekle]

Did a lil online checking,,,,,,,i dont believe my atv petcock will interchange with the sherpas,,,,,,but looks like according to the parts diagrams in kawasaki.com,,the 2002(possibly other years too)KLR 250 has the old-style petcock,,and the Sherpa & KLR250 both share the same petcock-to-tank gasket(ob-long o-ring),,that tells me they are the same mounts on the petcocks......guess we will have to take it from there,,,next time anybody has petcock probs,,try the (2002)KLR250 petcock in the sherpa,,i am 99.9% sure it will fit,,and besides,,there aint much to the klr250 petcock, only 1 packing gasket that would ever need serviceing.

>>>>>drjekle

[Benson]

Thanks for the info Dr J. I like the idea of a simpler fuel petcock.
Homey I also had a briggs engine that would drain the fuel tank through the carb and the crankcase would be full of gas. The configuration on it was such that it had nowhere to go but gravity feed on through the carb into crankcase. The fuel has a lot of backing up to do on the Sherpa to get into the engine. I ain't saying it can't happen but if it does it looks like a catastrophy waiting to happen.

[Camas]

Doc, you could easily find yourself in the roll of the next "The Doctor". The Patman has held the candle for many cycles but I think your Sherpa and carb experiments and experience have bumped you up a notch.

We're gonna get Forrest Pimp out this weekend for an actual "how it performs" test. My gal pulls no punches and she's excited about getting to ride her scoot. More to come...

[Yellow Jacket]

Just found this on Ebay, wonder it it will work on a SS?  Sure looks right.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PW80-TT125-TT250-TW200-XT200-XT250-XT350-new-old-stock_W0QQitemZ120087933988QQihZ002QQcategoryZ35233QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Benson]

Dr do you know the length for the on and reserve intake tubes for the Sherpa petcock?

[drjekle]

(benson)Nope ,,dont know about the length on the intake tubes,,,im sure a person could mod them on whatever old-style petcock they use,,,if it even needed it...

(L-Worm) hard to say on that ebay yama P-cock,,,,a person would need to run the numbers for the gasket(o-ring) that mates the P-cock to the tank and see if its the same as the sherpas.....
BUT!! We do have a guinea pig here if we can coax him to conduct an experiment with interchangeing the sherpa petcock with an old-style petcock,,,,,,,,,,i did some more part # checking,,,,,and as i mentioned before a KLR250 has the same tank to petcock gasket(o-ring) as the sherpas,,,,,,,and better yet a 1991 KLR250 falls in that catagory,,,part#92055-1112
is the same gasket used to mate up the petcock to tank on both sherpa and KLR250......All we need to verify this is talk MXTrail(homey) into swappin his around,,,,,,,,,,lol,,he has both sherpa and KLR250,,,,,,,,,,,besides MX,,dont you need to clean all the sand out of your tanks ???(haw)

Anyhow,,if anybody wants to try swapping petcocks,,id say go with a KLR250 and try,,i wouldnt invest much $$ into it unless we are sure it fits though..........what-da-ya-say MX? Interested? or maybe in the near future?


(Camas),,,,,yes,dont let her hold anything back,,i wanna know how the sherpa does,,,be sure and bring us some pics if you can..............hope you are haveing better ridein weather,,,we woke up this mornin with 4-5 inches of snow,,never even knowed it was coming.....
Im positive yer gal will be smileing!.

Thanks everybody,
>>>>>drjekle

[Yellow Jacket]

 drjekle, I just looked at my xt350 petcock and as close as I can measure the bolt centers are the same. So, that means that an xt225, xt350 petcock might work, both are manual. No need to worry about the height of the tubes as all that does is determine the amount of fuel in reserve. When you go on reserve, start thinking gas station. 

[Yellow Jacket]

[

How does the fuel that passes through a leaky fuel petcock not flow out the carb drain tube and find its way into the crankcase?

I have spent a fair amount of time pondering this and what I believe takes place may be the result of capillary action. Some of you scientific minds out there tell me if that is the proper term. Anyway, if you drop a towel on the edge of a bathtub with the end in the water, the towel will stay wet well above the level of the water. That's capillary action. Gasoline seems to do that as well, especially in small holes like idle fuel discharge holes. I think that fuel gets past the leaking petcock, then past the float valve and floods the carb. This is a very slow process, maybe no more than a teaspoon a day. Some of the gas goes out the overflow and evaporates as it drips out of the drain line that should be on the bottom of the float bowl. But, some of the fuel also runs out the idle discharge holes and maybe even the main fuel discharge, the needle jet. Once fuel collects in the bottom of the carb throttle bore it has a downhill path to the intake valves which WILL NOT stop fuel from leaking past them, into the cylinder, past the rings and into the oil. What do you guys think, is that possable?

[drjekle]

L-Worm,,,,,,ill keep that in mind on the XT's petcocks,,,,,there is lots of simalarities between the XT350 and XT225,,,,,,,and also,,,not many know,,the kawa sherpa was designed & built with the yama XT225 in mind,,kawa copied alot from the XT225 and applied it to the sherpa and tweaked it here and there......Id almost bet too that XTpetcock would fit.

On your latest post,,all i can say is -BINGO!,,,,,,you hit it on the head,,,,,capillary action,,,i guess that what they call it,,,i couldnt have put it into better words without writeing 5 pages on it myself..(eye'm knot gud et splainin stuvf),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,If you wanna see some good reading on a Sherpa VS XT225 comparison,,its 3 pages from a australian magazine. I have them listed in my supersherpa groups files,,,and the file is called 'Sherpa vs. XT225 comparison' it can be found here,,,

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/1999-2003_SUPERSHERPA/files/Sherpa%20vs.%20XT225%20comparison/


its possible anybody who wants to read it may need to join our sherpa yahoo group in able to view it......its free,,i am the owner/moderator there myself,,and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Anyhow,,i dint mean to get sidetracked or look to promote anything,,if i coulda found the info on the web again ,i woulda posted it,,but i guess its no longer availble,,and i have the only copies there is of the sherpa vs XT225 on our sherpa site now.


What year is your XT Liquid Worm??,,i think i had access somewheres to a yama site with part numbers for all makes/models,,,,,,,maybe i can confirm the P-Cock's gasket between the XT & sherpa.

>>>>>drjekle
 

[Camas]

 
I wanna know more....