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Fire!!

B

BundyBear

Joined Apr 2003
1K Posts | 3+
Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Was using the 'berg to muster cattle yesterday. I belted the bike into a cow that was being a particular pain in the butt by turning & going us. The cow fell one way, the bike & I fell the other on the RHS. We picked ourselves up & the bike started OK. About a minute later at close to idle it backfired & caught fire! After frantic pushing to get it away from the long, dry grass & then desperately trying to work up a pee to put it out (you ever tried to do that under stress???) luckily the fire went out on its own. We eventually worked out the backfire had blown the carby off the manifold. Put it back on & it went like a clock the rest of the day.

Is that normal behavior for a 'berg? Have any of these machines ever been lost to fire because of this? My bike has puffed smoke from under the seat after stalling once before, but popping the carby off was a first.
 
from what i have heard it's not that uncommon for large 4stokes to pop the carby off like you said i know alot of guys who race enduro actually lock wire there carbs to the head so it cant pop off hope this answers your question

cheers doug
 
Hi,

nice story. :twisted:
I heard a long time ago about some popping issues.
10 years ago KTM had some probs with that. At the old 600 LC4.
I think you have to tune your carb a bit. Could be that you haven´t got
an optimum jetting. And maybe the engine takes some "wrong air".
Any tears in your manifold?
How old is your bike?

best regards

hribman
 
It's a little known fact that Joel Smets used to drink prodigious amounts of water prior to a long day of cow tipping, just for such reasons... :lol: :lol: :lol:


~ Ken
 
At the time I think the bike, me and the cow were taking wrong air! :D

You could be right about the jetting. It tends to pop & fart just as you ease the throttle off the idle stop.
 
All thumpers have the potential for a backfire and fire through the carb.
Most likely to happen if your jetting is too lean.
The japs put a metal screen in between the carb and the air filter to stop the flames. In fact, my DRZ had two, one before and one after the carb. I cut them out, they really upset air flow.
 
Hi!

How old is your Berg? And how old are the rockerarmrollers? Correct valve-adjustment?

In my case, replacing rockerarm roller and rockerarmshaft
reduced off-popping drastically. I have practically no problems anymore.
Just a little backfiring, no carburetor-popping anymore.

Greetings!
 
The popping off idle is usually not that bad & the bike was even OK (but not as good as an ag-bike) for mustering where it is at a crawl most of the time. I went to 13/52 gearing which helps a lot. It was probably getting close to boiling when it popped the carb off.

It is a '98 model but I don't think it has done many hours & it does not look like they have been hard, certainly not since I've had it anyway. I can only assume rockers are original, have not had the lid off. Valve clearances are OK & haven't needed changing when I have checked them.
 
Performance oriented four-cycle engines utilizing an ignition system which fires every 360 degrees (SEM) are prone to intake popping as a result of combustion taking place during overlap.

Long cam duration, ******** timing, lean mixtures and prolonged low rpm operation aggravate the situation.

Dale
 
KTM Fire

I was involved with an Early 600 that caught fire during a race. The Carb had come off once and died. I put the carb back on and continued on. During a rocky downhill about 5 miles further the bike died again. Well, thinking that it just died I popped the clutch. That's when the fun began. Flames were seen coming out behind both my legs. I layed the bike over and took like 10 giant steps down the hill. There was very little I could do. No real dirt to pitch. If you've ever ridden Virginia City grand prix you'll know what I mean. So, we let her burn. I ended up sending a letter to KTM since my local shop somewhat agreed that it was wrong to have a carb and boot that didn't have a "rib" to help lock the carb on. The boot and carb were smooth. The only way to hold it on was to do like was mentioned here. Wire the carb to the motor somehow. Anyways, KTM set me up with a demo 94 620 at half price. So, it all worked out. I'm glad you were able to put the fire out. You would be amazed at what flames can do to metal. My forks had split between the triple clams (long ways). And, I could compress the rear shock spring and it would stay. There was nothing left.. Too bad cause the bike was a good fit for me.
I have pictures of the remains somewhere..
 
I have also had that same problem a few times. After kicking it over a few times, it started to run very low, but then backfired and blew the carb off. It didnt hurt anything or cause any problems, just put it back on, and went on my way! :)
 

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