2001 Honda Shadow Sabre VT1100C2

I have the following problems and could use some advice. I have the Clymers and YouTube and little cash. So I do all my own wrenching on all my vehicles and am almost always successful on fixing problems the right way, the first time. I drive my bike year round. Only thing that stops me is thick ice or snow.

I've had ongoing issues for the past 7 months. It started with my stator dying back in July 2019. Full speed on the highway to dead in moments. Not fun. Did proper voltage tests and discovered it was the stator and rectifier was good. When installing the new stator, I put it in backwards because the diagram had the image flipped. The first stator shredded quickly so I took it out, carefully cleaned every tiny shard of metal / plastic and installed a brand new one properly. I used a brand new gasket during reinstall and replaced all the bolts that didn't look new. I also replaced the battery since it was showing signs of age.

I took the carb out to clean it. Bike has like 50k on it so figured it was time for a good cleaning since I had her partially taken apart. Replaced all the jets and o-rings but not the valves or floats - those were looking very good. I built a manometer and sync'd the carbs and set the jets to 2 1/2 turns per spec.

Since doing this work, I've had continuous issues.

1. She's lean - like really lean. I've tried adjusting the jets and fuel mix valve with no luck.
   1. She'll backfire if I set her too lean so I have to keep her running a little higher rpm than sounds right.
   2. I'm overly annoyed with this
2. When I try to full roll the throttle, she hesitates. It's embarrassing as I often ride with a group and often find myself far behind. I used to be able to keep up with no problem.
3. Can't seem to top 80 mph. I know she can go faster, she's taken me over 100 easy before the stator died.
4. She has a very slow oil leak. Like after a week there's two Tablespoons of oil expelled. Not really worried about this as I'm very good at checking the oil often and top off when needed.

I tried working on the throttle. Sprayed dry graphite lube down the line and tweaked the cable settings but it made things worse. She hesitates for much longer now. I'm thinking of just replacing the cable for the throttle since it's a cheap fix and probably necessary at this point.

I created a vapor lock when I put the tank back on and my next ride after the rebuild was a nightmare. I tried driving her 10 miles, 5 miles each way. I made it there and 3 miles back toward home before I was pulled over with a totally dead bike.

She didn't want to get up to speed. Long hesitation and sputtering (I attribute this to the vapor lock that I hadn't discovered yet). But I got there with a little sweet talking and was able to go the speed limit.

Then I had lunch with some friends and tried to ride home. The oil light briefly came on after I'd turned her on. Not talking about the flash of the oil light during start up, this was a second time. She sounded fine though (still lean as usual) and I started to drive the 5 miles back home. She immediately wanted to go only 8 miles per hour with throttle on full turn (again, I blame the undiscovered vapor lock). But my battery also died during the ride. I took her home, found and fixed the vapor lock issue, did an oil change with new filter, and charged the brand new 6 month old battery on my trickle charger. Got her started and she sounded great until about I had restarted it about 5 times. Now there's a new noise.

There is a brand new clanking noise coming from my lower right side of the engine. Sounds like a loose bolt in a tin can. I can't find a video online with the same noise. Could it be my cams need tightening? Is my engine about to fail from a broken piece? Where do I start to look to figure this out.

Any help appreciated

 

welcome to the forum. I am not a motorcycle mech, i just ride them. just wondering, when you took the carbs off, and fuel lines, when putting them back on, would it be possible for any of the fuel lines to have created o-ring cuts. ( when putting a rubber hose on a metal tube, some rubber is scrapped off the inside and creates o-rings that do a semi clog the fuel line,) can be checked by taking off the fuel line and do a vsirul, also check the inlet of the carb for rubber from the fuel line if any. also check to see if your have good fuel pressure.