Yamaha TRX850 Enthusiasts Forum

Coming out of Jake's starting difficulties, which I thought may have been the battery, I now have a similar problem but it has developed into running on one cylinder. It keeps oiling the left plug. I thought it may be the emulsion tube problem that's been beaten to death on here. I've searched it and read through some of the posts but would like some comments plese!!
As I say, difficult to start, so I put the battery on the charger, took out and cleaned the left plug which has oiled up before. Then it started ok, but eventually (without even leaving the house) started running on just the right cylinder, lack of power, smokey exhaust, wont idle.

Could this happen with the worn emulsion tubes everyone talks about? Or something more serious? I'm going out now to check the left plug again. I might take the carbs off to look at the emulsion tubes, when they are ovalled is it visually obvious??

Or any other suggestion?

trix wrote:Coming out of Jake's starting difficulties, which I thought may have been the battery, I now have a similar problem but it has developed into running on one cylinder. It keeps oiling the left plug. I thought it may be the emulsion tube problem that's been beaten to death on here. I've searched it and read through some of the posts but would like some comments plese!!
As I say, difficult to start, so I put the battery on the charger, took out and cleaned the left plug which has oiled up before. Then it started ok, but eventually (without even leaving the house) started running on just the right cylinder, lack of power, smokey exhaust, wont idle.

Could this happen with the worn emulsion tubes everyone talks about? Or something more serious? I'm going out now to check the left plug again. I might take the carbs off to look at the emulsion tubes, when they are ovalled is it visually obvious??

Or any other suggestion?

What´s the smoke like?? Water oil or gasoline? White black or blue?

trix wrote:Could this happen with the worn emulsion tubes everyone talks about? Or something more serious? I'm going out now to check the left plug again. I might take the carbs off to look at the emulsion tubes, when they are ovalled is it visually obvious??

Could very well be emulsion tubes. It is quite obvious when they're ovalled...cos the holes ain't round no more.

Ignition coil, happened to me, and worse thing was, it was coming and going. Swap coils beteen right and left (or just the cables) and see if the problem occurs on the RH cylinder afterwards

G'day Trix, check that the choke is operating properly on both carbs.It may be staying on partially on the left carb, or even both.Maybe you have got a dud plug.Change them both and see if anything changes.

i had this problem exactly as you described it - and i charged the battery - then replaced it , changed everything

think it was the emulsion tubes or a bad tank of gas

i would recommend ditching your fuel and trying that next

Thanks for all your suggestins so far guys. After I made the initial post I cleaned the left plug and started her up again. This time it was the right cylinder down, spluttering and misfiring and so on. Took the right plug out, cleaned it and replaced it, started up again and still running crap.
I've gone ahead and taken the carbs off, which is enough for this evening. There didn't seem to be any probs taking them off, i.e. no obviously cracked or leaky fuel, drain or vacuum hoses. Now that I have them off I'll have a look at the jets tomorrow hopefully.

To answer some of your questions; the exhaust was white smoke, but I dont think its water leaking in, smelled petrolly(?).
I dont think its an ignition problem, its getting sparks. In my experience, if your getting sparks, the ignition system is fine (i.e. there's no half way house; it works or it doesn't!!).
By the way, I have almost 25,000 miles on her (40,000 kms). I put over half those miles on myself in the last 3 years. Haven't had any problems before except a spark plug boot that needed replaced when the inside of it corroded to pieces and it fell apart.

Thanks for the help/advice, I'll bear it all in mind. will keep u posted.

have the clearances been checked? could be the inlets have closed up.

Based on my experience of the ovalised tube hell, it's going to happen to both cylinders or neither.

youngy wrote:have the clearances been checked? could be the inlets have closed up.

+ 1 here... your symptoms read exactly like a TRX with no valve clearance in the inlets.
DFH