How to fix stuck throttle shaft

[RUGBYPROP]

sleeper_dave u ROck finally fixed my ski from a one page post,,this post is awsome, u should rite books. thanks, if your Ever in daytona, ill buy the beer!! SEE YA>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[dre0256]

Ok I got my sticky problem all solve and while I was at it I did the "GPR\XLT Carb Upgrade\ Accelerator pump removal" I just got back from trying it out and wow its sweet. I gained 3 more MPH. I ran half a tank through the ski and not a single sticking problem. Thanks alot for all the great info. Keep it up guys. Again thanks Dave & Ocean side Bill.

[ALN]

Hi Bill,
Thanks to you and everyone for all of the effort and great information.
1999 XL1200Ltd. Owned since new. Less than 120 hours. Carb rebuild less than 1 year ago. Runs perfectly. Throttles stuck last time out to the lake. Machine purchased and ridden until last 5 yrs. in FL then to moved to AZ. From hot to hotter. Never had a problem. New throttle cable. Linkages fine. Removed carbs, linkages, butterflies and shafts. Upper shaft bores in carb have black plastic (Delrin?) bushings and shaft rides on bore in aluminum carb body. Lower shaft bore has brass bushing and black plastic bushing as well as carb body bore. Have reamed all six bores out extensively with 320-400 grit on drill bit. Sanded and polished shafts removing all wear marks. Checked for round/straight on surface plate. All OK. Shafts move MUCH more freely and smoothly. However when testing with heat gun can still get shafts to bind. It seems as though I am applying enough heat that the plastic bushings are almost melting or beginning to flow. If this is the case it does not seem that there is any amount of plastic stock removal that will prevent the binding. If I remove much more material with the current method I will be removing too much metal from the shaft bores. Am I using too much heat from the heat gun? It does not seem to be much hotter than the engine compartment can get while running normally on a 115 degree AZ summer day. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[OsideBill]

The shft is not centered to the butterfly, tap on either end of the shaft to get it to move and see if it free's up any.

[silvercrxsir]

I just encounterer this prob last weekend after the ski was warm and made and tracked down a source of the problem.make sure you aren't overtightening the long bolts that hold the carb assembly to the engine.once I started to break the bolts loose to pull my carbs i noticed the throttle snapped shut and worked perfectly.apparently when the bolts are too tight when everything warms up and starts expanding it forces the carbs to expand in a way that causes them to bind

[OsideBill]

There is a torque spec on the bolts

[silvercrxsir]

Ya i almost always torque everything down as specified in the manual but that day when I had the carbs off my torque wrench was at work,but you know as well as I do that 95% of the people wrench everything down too tight and call it good,heck most people don't even own a good quality torque wrench

[OsideBill]

The funny thing about torque is most people think it is how tight you have to make it, they always tend to give it a little extra thinking it is better. when in reality it is generaly a maximum rating, so you dont strip stuff out.

The problem with these intakes, is the soft aluminum reed cover plate under it. They tend to bend and warp, I have had issues with these in the past. The other problem I have seen time and again when people send their carbs to me with linkage sticking issues is the shaft has been hit on one end or the other and is not centered to the butterfly. this causes it to rub the throat of the carb and when things heat up a bit they stick. a slight tap woth a brass hammer to center the shaft and they are off and running.

[silvercrxsir]

You can't have a cheap torque wrench either,I have a digital snap-on I use for work so it mainly stays there,and I needed one on a weekend and decided to cheap out and buy one from harbor freight(big mistake)even though I tried it out on a few other things first and felt confident it would work I ended up stripping a headbolt due to it being a piece of crap

[OsideBill]

Torque wrenches should be calibrated every so often, I have mine done through work every year. I do love my Digital Snap-on torque wrench, I have a small 1/4 drive Snap-on click type as well. it comes in real handy on these skis, especially around the carbs and reed plate.

[woeppelm]

Any chance someone could post some reference photos?

[Zulu989]

I did this and it works great. I also added a return spring. Just a light one and it works like a dream. There is a screw that comes with the carb kit that actually fits. Too bad only one comes but at least it’s a start. I used a hair dryer and tested before hand and it bound up right away. The pto carb was the worst. In my opinion it was very easy to do. I rode the ski for 2 hrs and no sticking and I stuck a camera in the carbs to confirm the screws were still in tack afterwards.