Part 1.5 TE300i

Before I report the latest on the 2021 TE300i I want to share another Doug story.

If you remember I said I might want to install an adjustable idle screw while CA was and still is burning. I ordered the idle screw and spring part watched the videos and took to heart the instructions that said do not strip the head of the very small torx tip screw. After removing the throttle body and carefully heating up the area to loosen up the red loctite up until I could see the loctite bubbling around the screw and trying as gently as I’m capable of with no success in removing or even getting it to budge despite repeated re heat attempts, I finally succeeded in, that’s right stripping out the head, the area is too small to work in. Next step, try to easy-out it that didn’t work either. I finally ended up with a small drill hole that went through the end of the loctited screw. Fortunately I hadn’t really damaged the end of the screw that keeps the idle where it originally was so I still had the option of putting it back on.

The next day I met a friend of mine at his shop and we spent three hours trying to get that screw out, we event tried to take the butter fly valve out so we could remove the plastic piece off where the throttle cable connect so we could create room to work. Had it almost apart but couldn’t get one of the butter fly valve screws out.

With my tail between my legs I came back home had lunch and spent another three hours coming up with the one of finest of examples of a Rube Goldberg, Okie fix there is. I fashioned a tapered pin that slides down and through the drilled out center of the screw. The pin can’t fall out because it’s tapered plus the installed angle won’t allow it to. Next I threaded the hole in the throttle body where the idle screw and spring would normally drop through and double nutted the bolt. Dropped the pin in through the drilled out center of the screw, screwed in the bolt put it all back together, started the bike adjusted the idle then locked it in place. I’d say the tapered pin has only about an eighth of an inch protruding through the end of the screw.

My perfectionist friend cringes at the thought of my bush fix and I do as well. It’s not the bit least ideal to take a brand new bike and do that to it, wait until I sell it and have to explain that to a prospective buyer. Hopefully by that time I will have many, many uneventful hours on it.

Doug 21J