Vibration from engine

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WhiteDog
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Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 4:00 pm

Vibration from engine

Post by WhiteDog »

My '96 R1100RT vibrates bunches at low speeds. Once I get to cruising speed (65-70 mph) there is little if any vibration. At idle, there is considerable vibration. Is this just the nature of the R1100 engine or could I possibly be looking at some major repairs? Just got this baby about a month ago and wanted to get accustomed to controlling it before asking these questions.
1996 R1100RT Sierra Red
1995 K75 ABS Red
2014 CB1100 Std Black
2008 Gold Wing Black
Reside in NC
smutny
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Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:25 pm

Re: Vibration from engine

Post by smutny »

Low RPM vibration and surging are common. Cruising the forums you'll find tips to minimize it, but it's a fact of life with the one spark plug per cylinder R1100's.
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2000 R1100R
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CycleRob
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Re: Vibration from engine

Post by CycleRob »

WhiteDog,
Vibration at an idle, considering the 20 winters your bike has lived through means there is a good chance of partially clogged fuel injectors and/or an errant TB synch. I believe the 850 and 1100 OilHeads have a simpler, different throttle cabling system where one cable goes between the 2 ThrottleBodies (TB) and the 2nd one goes from 1 TB to the twistgrip. The inter TB cable must be set first, so when the throttle cable lifts the base TB, it precisely lifts the other one at the exact same instant, so they tactilely/visually feel/appear to be on the same shaft. It seemed to me, because of its' sensitivity to cable sheath wear and challenge in geting the adjustment perfect that BMW greatly improved it with the extra cable and throttle box mechanism on the R1150 series engines.
If you are doing your own wrenching on your bike, the best and most inexpensive TB synch method is to use a differential water manometer. The wide tubing spacing on your water stick makes it very inaccurate. Using gear oil also makes it way too slow to respond to changing adjustments. Here is a space efficient minimalist layout utilizing hardware store tubing and scrap parts with descriptive text in the pics:

Image Image Image Image

EDIT: For 2 pic additions, text enhancement and change to a faster, better photo Provider

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Last edited by CycleRob on Mon Jul 29, 2019 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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WhiteDog
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Re: Vibration from engine

Post by WhiteDog »

Would the checking for clogged fuel injectors be a function of the 48K service performed recently? Will Seafoam do any good to clean up the injectors? BTW, I recently found a couple gas stations who sell 93 octane 100% gas, so I have filled up twice already. Should have the old ethanol gas out by next fill up. The PO did not use 100% gas but he did say he used premium gas.
1996 R1100RT Sierra Red
1995 K75 ABS Red
2014 CB1100 Std Black
2008 Gold Wing Black
Reside in NC
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