Oil cable questions.....

Super Sled

Super Sled

TY Off Trail Expert
Joined
Dec 5, 2008
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Location
Duluth, MN
How do I adjust the oil cable on my Viper? Then what do I measure (from where to where....) to correctly measure the amount of "free play"??????????

I've heard free play generally should be what's .625" to .700" in U.S., or 19mm or so metric.......

Correct?

Thx,

Mike
 
if it's the same as srx you pull the upper half of the cable (above the adjuster) out of the adjuster it sits in, pullit tight and measure the gap between the sheath and the adjuster, hope this helps, hard to put into words, i recall a while back someone had put up a diagram that showed it good, maybe a search will find it
 
Thanks a TON Staggs!!!!!

I also got to some more reading...... Some recommend to leave the oil cable at say .75" spread between cable ends.........

.... Others say move it so the gap for the Viper oil cable is .625 or so (more rich)........

Mine was over an inch apart........ ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!


Man, am I ever lucky my machine didn't burn down or something. It must have been really, really lean. I asked some of my more mechanically inclined friends about this, and all I got was "man, she smokes plenty......"

Well, let me tell you, do not ever just listen to friends that try to gauge how rich your machine runs by using the "visible smoke test".........

Luckily I thought about this issue and asked. Thanks again Stagg. I moved the cable to about .6" or .7" for the gap distance now. Whew!

Regards,

Mike
 
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I am of the opinion that too much is made of this oil setting and that lowering this gap beyond a point is not always a good thing. (just one man's opinion)

This adjustment only affects the throttle position at which the oil ratio ramps up. It does not make it any leaner at the higher throttle positions unless it is adjusted ridiculously loose. One reason for increasing the oil path as the throttle opens up is simply to combat the fact that oil does not flow the same as gasoline. As the speed of the flow increases, the mixture would go leaner on it's own if the size remained constant. The other obvious reason is that engine needs more lubrication to offset the increasing stress.

Remember that the richer you make the oil, the leaner you make the fuel mixture. Also the more oil in the mixture, the slower it will go through the fuel circuits in the carb. What seems like a good idea and protection against lean conditions, may actually be the opposite. Granted this only affects the mid range if the cable is tightened to the point that the ramp occurs before the engine really needs it.

There have been some very good write-ups on this over the years. I like the way Olav Aaen put it years ago, and I think he repeated it somewhere recently. If I had a memory, I would quote it and post where it last was printed. It may come to me, and if so I will update the post.
 
Ding said:
I am of the opinion that too much is made of this oil setting and that lowering this gap beyond a point is not always a good thing. (just one man's opinion)

This adjustment only affects the throttle position at which the oil ratio ramps up. It does not make it any leaner at the higher throttle positions unless it is adjusted ridiculously loose. One reason for increasing the oil path as the throttle opens up is simply to combat the fact that oil does not flow the same as gasoline. As the speed of the flow increases, the mixture would go leaner on it's own if the size remained constant. The other obvious reason is that engine needs more lubrication to offset the increasing stress.

Remember that the richer you make the oil, the leaner you make the fuel mixture. Also the more oil in the mixture, the slower it will go through the fuel circuits in the carb. What seems like a good idea and protection against lean conditions, may actually be the opposite. Granted this only affects the mid range if the cable is tightened to the point that the ramp occurs before the engine really needs it.

There have been some very good write-ups on this over the years. I like the way Olav Aaen put it years ago, and I think he repeated it somewhere recently. If I had a memory, I would quote it and post where it last was printed. It may come to me, and if so I will update the post.
Click to expand...


I hear ya Ding and thx a lot for the reply.....

The reason this was nagging me was that my sled was using a ridiculously low amount of Amsoil compared to the miles I was logging/tanks of fuel going through last year.

I tightened the cable form over an inch of visible cable (the gap), so .6 or .7 inches now -- maybe a half of an inch. That is pretty drastic I guess.....

I'm not good with metric, so what would you suggest (inches please!)??? Maybe .7 or .8 inches of gap?

Thanks Ding and also, we want to see the Viper XTX pics!


Mike
 
.6 inch is 15.24mm, and .7 inch is 17.78mm. Multiply by 25.4 (mm per inch)

I feel that .7 inch is plenty rich on the oil. I like at least 20mm on a Viper.

Over an inch (25.4+ mm) is a bit late in the throttle to ramp up the oil IMO.
 
Thanks so much, Ding.......


I altered the gap to 20 mm exactly. Much better now than what I had last winter!
 
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