Hi all,
Please bear with me, as I'm new to riding/maintaining dirt bikes, but I am soaking up all the knowledge I can.
I live in northern NY. Weather has been great for riding: 60-80 degrees, although 90-100% humidity lately. I'm at ~300-600 ft elevation.
I have a 2017 CRF2017R that has never started easily. It has always taken around 1/8 to 1/4 throttle to start with several kicks (cold) with the choke pulled out (closed? sorry if that's the opposite. I get confused. it is pulled out, though). On occasion when I get it started, I push the choke back in before taking off and it dies. If I start again 1 or 2 times it seems to work itself out. Starting hot has never been a problem. The rest of the power band (?) has had smooth acceleration with no issues. So after lots of research I decided to go from a stock 38 pilot jet to 42. Maybe I should have gotten a 40 but I mistakenly thought my current jet was a 40 already.
Well I successfully (with the help of a mechanic friend) removed my carb, gave it a thorough cleaning, and replaced the 38 jet with the 42. It still starts very hard, but now if I get it started, it will sputter and die if it sits at idle.If I give it throttle, it will die also. After some time trying with choke off and on and lots of kicks, it will eventually stay on. It also seems to stay on in less time in this idle/dying stage on a 75 degree day with 90% humidity as opposed to a drier 65 degree day.
Am I correct in interpreting that I may have gone from a too lean condition to a too rich condition? If this is the case, does that mean I should now mess with the amount of idle and/or the fuel screw? I assume the main and leak jets are fine and should remain as they are since my only issues are upon startup/idling. Please correct me if that's all very very wrong (or a little wrong!).
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!