Just Bought a VN1600

[nsmedic]

Hi Guys

Last month I bought my first Kawi, a 2006 nomad 1600. She had 38k (kilometers) on it and two previous owners. I have a feeling the last owner kept up on oil changes but not much else so I have been trying to get some little maintenance items out of the way and dealing with some new issues as they arise. I absolutely love how the bike drives and the only issue I noticed right off the bad was it usually took two tries to start when cold and it idled rough, had to have the idle knob turned nearly all the way up to smooth idle.

First thing I did was drop some new spark plugs in it, just to say that it was done. After having it for a month and putting about 4k I did a oil and filter change as well as changing the final drive oil. I was amazed at the improvement in performance, I didn't know new final drive oil could make such a difference.

Now a few days later the bike has started backfiring on deceleration. Sounds like a friggin shotgun blast going off. My first fear was that I had a exhaust leak. I had to drop the left can to get the drain bolt for the final drive out. (should probably mention I have a set of v+h baggers) and I read many posts on this forum about frequent failures of v+h pipes in the first bend under the heat shield. I did the smoke test and couldn't find anything unusual.

So this morning I pulled the plugs and found that both plugs in the rear cylinder were fouled. Front cylinder were fine. Replaced all four plugs with new ones, dumped a can of seafoam in the tank also cleaned out the throttle body. It was looking pretty narly in there.

The results...starts and idles much much better...took it out for a good test ride. backfiring has improved but not gone away. Previously it was backfiring loud when decelerating in any gear. Now it is only backfiring occasionaly, not nearly as loud and only seems to be when decelerating in third gear. Again a big improvement in performance, may be due to the seafoam cleaning some junk out. I plan on getting a good long ride in tomorrow and should see if it continues to improve.
Only other thing I can thing of to do is pull the pipes and visually inspect for a leak but ill give it a couple rides and see where im at.

Anyone else have any ideas for fixing this backfiring or general maintenance I might have missed?

This forum has been a wealth of knowledge for a first time kawi owner
Thanks