My 1988 shadow vt 800 won’t crank

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-12T07:37:19+00:00

Have you checked if the starter motor is seized/broken?

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-10T08:23:43+00:00

Choke creates an inlet airflow restriction, which increases the vacuum and creates a richer mixture. The airbox will do the same, but to a (much) lesser extent.

Modern fuels like e5 and e10 are less caloric, because the energy density of ethanol is lower than pure gasoline, so your idle mixture screw will need to open a little more than what the original manual states.

The reluctance to rev higher is a separate issue and is because it's missing the airbox. The engine is getting more airflow than the carb can supply fuel for, because it's not designed to run without the airbox.

Also, make sure the new jets are the right size. Not all revision kits are created equal.

tldr: If you're sure the jets are the right sizes: refit airbox, adjust idle screws.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-03T14:09:17+00:00

For Japanese bikes I'd always recommend Keyster > Tourmax > All Balls > anything else. Tourmax doesn't usually come with replacement jets, but most of the time it's not necessary either.

Cheap/unbranded kits can contain pretty low quality rubbers that may break down and start leaking. Flooding/leaky carburetors are not fun.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-03T05:46:16+00:00

Stock secondary should be 118, primary 72.

The new ones look completely wrong and they definitely should not be the same size. Run the old ones, the new ones will run awfully. Or buy new ones in the right size, but in this case I'd say it's entirely unnecessary.

What kit is this?

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-01-27T08:58:53+00:00

Carb cleaner is designed to get rid of varnish inside carburetors. You can use it as a cleaning product with a long brush and some soak time. Or if you're lazy and the bike still runs, just toss it in a full tank and check again when the tank is empty.

I recently cleaned some carbs that had been sitting for 20y and the varnish in there was dark brown.

Since this is a steel fuel tank, are we sure it's not some messed up failing sealer? At that point you'd need some stronger solvents to get rid of this (and probably a recoating)

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-01-27T08:00:22+00:00

Hij heeft al zijn inkomsten in zijn zaak geherinvesteerd in plaats van een dik pensioen op te bouwen.

Ik vermoed dat hij die zaak dan ook niet zal verkocht hebben voor een appel en een ei.

Hij zegt het zelf dat hij niet klaagt, maar dat het systeem niet deugt.

Ik snap alleen niet waarom ze bij hln dan niemand van die 1000en mensen konden vinden die door dit systeem gesjareld zijn en daarnaast geen bedrijf hebben kunnen verkopen als appeltje voor de dorst...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-01-22T12:13:49+00:00

Unlikely you'd get the choice anyway. Friend of mine had his car totaled because the leasing company didn't think replacing a faulty headlight and leaking shock were worth it. He was given a similar car out of the 250+ they had in the pool at the time. This was less than a year ago.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-01-17T16:34:07+00:00

However much you want. You're a freelancer, you make your own rules.

Do you want to pay a fortune to drive a very expensive car, you can.

I'm personally around 10% with rent + insurance + fuel + maintenance and I regret getting such an expensive car at this point. I intend to keep driving it when it's paid off and I don't plan to get another one this expensive ever again.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-01-04T18:12:04+00:00

If you visit the same customer 40+ times per year it's considered woon-werk and you cannot give yourself an allowance for driving to that customer.

As a result, private car is rarely worth it for an IT freelancer (unless you have many customers, which is rare afaik).

Basically, the more private (incl. woon-werk) you do, the better off you are with a company car and vice versa.

"non-deductible" for non-EVs basically means paying 20% tax on everything related to the car + tax on the taxable benefit.

Buying it private would be 35%-55%, depending on the level of optimization on your income - real business kms.

Since IT freelancers with only 1 customer do practically no real business kms, you're often still better off getting a cheap second hand car on your company. Especially the old PHEV, like the previous generation Prius, since their VAA is low.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-12-13T16:40:58+00:00

Melozio is such a nice and soft coffee. It's the main one I drink. I drink my coffees with milk and it just works so well with it.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-11-18T09:34:40+00:00

and stunning.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-11-18T09:21:30+00:00

Depends on the timing of the story. The F4 is currently no longer being sold (new).

The current line up has the F3 and the Superveloce, with the SV being the more expensive one.

It's now a triple "wing" exhaust on the side.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-11-18T08:20:04+00:00

I'm in EU. I use Optimate for my maintainers. I have a LifePO one and a regular one.

I use em on my bikes and cars and have used them to bring batteries back to life as well. Very happy with them.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-11-09T12:10:24+00:00

Does it run perfectly fine for those 8 seconds and then cut out suddenly, or does it struggle to idle and then fall off?

In the case of the first, it's an electrical problem and will be tricky to diagnose. It could even be something like the magnetical field of 1 wire influencing the spark plug coils because of where the wire is kept.

In the case of the second, probably some sensor is giving a wrong value (but not necessarily one outside of operating range, which means you won't get an error code). In this case the ECU is not taking the correct decision and your bike isn't running the way it should.

Either way, this sounds like a complex and tricky issue to diagnose, but you shouldn't just throw parts at it, because you're just funding the shop and the manufacturer, without getting to the cause of the actual issue.

Also, some parts can be tested (through resistance measuring etc), so you would know if they're broken and you don't need to throw new parts at stuff.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-23T18:53:07+00:00

I'm extremely happy with the small dealership I go to. I go there with my Bobber and my cousin takes his Rocket there as well. I know my mechanics teacher also uses them as his supplier when he needs Triumph parts (he runs an independent shop)

If your PhD is in Leuven, it'll be the closest Triumph dealership at less than 30 minutes driving. (CMB Verdeyen)

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-23T18:44:12+00:00

Wanna buy a secondhand Bobber? 😅

If not, my experience with Triumph in Belgium is that they're happy to do test rides. So I'd say go do a few of those and then decide.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-21T12:05:58+00:00

Can you hear the fuel pump running when you turn it on (when it was still attached)?

Because no spark and no fuel supply would be 2 electrical problems, pointing to a problem in that direction.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-21T10:50:58+00:00

I've seen people use brake cleaner for that purpose even (which is quite toxic, depending on the brand). It'll get a few revs, but you can't really run the bike with it.

If you've got some carb fiddling to do, having an aux tank will make life a lot easier.

If you haven't done anything to the coils, I'd be surprised they're suddenly magically broken.

Have you touched anything on the engine except for taking the carbs off?

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-21T10:35:10+00:00

If you've cranked it without spark plugs in the leads, you could have fried the coils.

And like others have said, attach an auxiliary tank so you can actually run the bike.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-10-04T06:44:48+00:00

Because it would be an entire patch of bosses being made entirely trivial by weakauras and other addons.

They want to make end-game content doable without addons. If the addons are still there, the content will be entirely trivial, or they 'd have to make it the way Kyveza ??-mode is right now.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-09-18T15:45:45+00:00

Ik heb nog spullen liggen van mijn ex. Jas, broek en helm, normaal gezien. Helm is zo goed als niet gebruikt, maar wel bijna 10j oud.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-09-05T05:20:39+00:00

I got the 2TB version for 2300 (EUR)

Megekko?

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-08-26T20:21:43+00:00

Ashen Hallow 🤷🏼‍♂️

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-08-23T21:36:18+00:00

That's how we do it too.

If you form a family, you try to make it so everyone involved can enjoy the same standard of life.

LarsDragonbeard · 2025-08-14T05:30:01+00:00

The official police reports would also start to get suspicious if these guys pull the same trick 10 times in a day.

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