I took the Speedster out for a quick shake out ride along the coast tonight. When I pulled out from the beach and accelerated on to the Coast Hwy heading north, my engine spun to 6000+RPM. Is there a physical stop on these tachs (early 2000 VS Speedster)? And this 2276 spins_up_really_reallly quick given the web 86b 105 LSA cam and light weight flywheel.
When I engaged the clutch to shift from 1st gear to 2nd, the revs did not quickly drop, rather the engine revs quickly climbed to redline. I immediately thought, stuck throttle and so I quickly turned off the car and coasted to a stop on the side of the road (I had replaced the throttle cable a few months ago) and the pedal didn't look or feel stuck as I was able to pull up on the pedal using my hand. But I thought perhaps maybe I unstuck it but I didn't know for sure given It happened all too quick. So I started the car and immediately, the revs climbed to 6000K - the needle was pegged. I quickly turned off the car.
I opened the rear hood and immediately noticed that the throttle control arms on both Webers (44 IDF) were not not even close to resting where they should be at idle. I thought what could possibly prevent the throttle valves from closing all the way when the accelerator cable was at full slack at hex bar throttle arm lever. Internal issue? External issue?
As I inspected further, I noticed that there was a rod about the size of a 4" nail wedged in between the left carb rear throttle control arm and carburetor body. The rod was wedged in a position such that the throttle valves were kept open!
I reached into the area between the left carburetor and firewall and pulled out the rod. It did not come out easily.
I've heard of things getting caught inside the engine fan, but never heard of a hood pin jaming a carburetor full-open on this forum.
So for those who have this type of rear hood pin, take a look and make sure it's not long enough to wedge between the carburetor body and throttle control arm on the back of the left carburetor.
The previous engine was a stock 1600 that could not even come close to generetatimg enough force (WHEEL HOP) to shake the rear lid pin up and over a few hoses and onto a clear path to jamming the throttle control arm.
I'm going to shorten the chain to prevent this from happening again. And I will lay off the spirited acceleration until my rear suspension gets dialed in.
