Well, plans didn't work out exactly as I had hoped. I did get the 'Cat all fixed up and went for a SHORT ride today up at my elk camp area. I say "short", as I had a Yamaha YZ250, a rider with me, and two dogs as tag-a-longs that also ended up riding on the 'Cat a few different times when they couldn't keep up, or were too tired from running so far. Now, for those who like riding double-try it next time with a german shepard and a black lab as extra companions! Makes it a little more "cramped" to say the least. Anyway, with that in mind, we only covered about 27 miles total. We varied in altitude from a low point of about 2600', up to the highest point at around 6000', ranging in speeds from under 10mph on gravel roads while waiting for the dogs, to 30mph carrying extra rider and two dogs as passengers. Riding solo I rode a few miles in some pretty nasty technical stuff in four low, just crawling around up and over logs, stumps, boulders, etc. Towards the end of the day we found some good little mud pits to play in, some of which were about rack deep-just over the headlights in some extra thick chocolate milkshake type mud-not really watery, but not real sticky either-just good mud with enough consistency to require a more aggressive attack pattern-would get you good and stuck if you weren't careful.

Now, while messing with the jet, I removed the stock 150 main, replaced it with a 140. I cleaned the carb out entirely, removed all black sludge material (some minor stuff along the walls and in the deep crevases of the inner carb) before putting it back together. I removed all slack out of the throttle cable, so that now when you touch the throttle, she moves. Just enough that you can freely turn the handlebars in either direction and the idle remains the same, yet very close to it wanting to increase-pretty tight I should say, which feels much better now than it used too. I also drained the rear differential, replaced it with some valvoline durablend 80w90 semi-synthetic gear oil. Did a complete oil and filter change with quaker state 4x4 semi-synthetic blend 10w40 oil -yet still using stock AC filter. Replaced stock air filter with brand new stock air filter (the same blue foam, only brand new- to make sure I had good air flow, no restrictions). Removed drain plug for muffler, removed all accessible build-up, then blew out the rest at high rpm for various intervals till no more dust was present. I then went into the tranny, removed the outter shield, then the entire side casing, and sprayed it liberally with the Gunk Engine bright -super foamy type, that Minehunter mentioned in a few posts back. This stuff works great for really cleaning everything out of the housing. Had all kinds of black fouling running out, removed all dirt and dust debris from other mud, water and belt dust, basically cleaned the entire thing very well. Once clean and dry, everything was re-assembled, she was fired up and put on the trailer.

Once up in the mountains at elevation, I put in a new NGK CR8E plug, then drove around a little to warm it up good. Once this was done, I opened her up full throttle, ran it uphill for several hundred yards, hit the kill switch with full throttle still applied, then coasted to a stop. The plug seemed to be a little on the lean side, though I'm no expert. One of my buddies thought it looked OK, I think maybe I should move up one size to the 142. Will check plug tomorrow, do another test next time I'm out, then decide if I'll keep the 140, or go up to the 142. There is no needle adjustment on this particular carb, so the only way to adjust is with the jet.

As for my impressions during the ride, the very first thing I noticed was how incredibly smooth she felt while running. Everywhere across the entire rpm range-from stop to full on run, crawling up hills, down in the deep mud-everywhere, it was incredibly smooth. The second thing I noticed, that was also mentioned by both my buddies was how quiet it seemed to be running. Not only did the engine seem to be much quieter than normal, the exhaust was not as loud as normal, and the tranny was not whinning like it normally does, nor were the diff's. The whole machine seemed incredibly quiet-not only to my own ears, but my two buddies both mentioned it on a couple different occassions, and both have ridden with me before, several times-both have driven both my 'Cats and know exactly what they sound like. I was impressed not only with how quiet I thought it was, but also very impressed that they both mentioned it as well. She also felt a little "peppier", more responsive to the throttle. I also noticed that after running full throttle, then letting off immediately, there was never any popping, or backfiring at all-occassionally this would occur every so often before.

All in all, it definately feels like a totally different machine-more smooth, quiet and responsive-fun to ride, especially through the mud, the crud and the 4 wheel low range low end grunt get up and follow them elk trails type riding that I enjoy so much. While the differences cannot be contributed to "one" specfic thing in general, I beleive the combination of everything done is what produced this new "after" effect. Regrettably, I cannot give you a good estimate of a new fuel mileage-as I just could not cover enough ground in today's outting. In the 27 miles I did go, the guage dropped a hair more than 1/4 of a tank. This is significantly higher than normal, as I'd usually get around 30-35 miles before the guage read empty, then proceed on for another 20 miles or so after reading "empty" for a total of around 55 miles before switching to reserve. At 27 miles and the guage a hair over 1/4 gone, that is a lot better, but how much I can't say.

I won't have another opportunity to ride for at least two more weeks, so I won't have any updated, more detailed mileage reports till then. The reason for this posting was that I promised I'd try to get some type of post as to the performance of the jet swap to let a few guys know if I noticed any improvement. Again, yes I did, but how much I honestly can't say just yet, with only 27 miles. So, for those who were interrested, I hope this will suffice for now, till I can get out and really put some miles on the 'Cat. -Next time we'll leave the dogs at home! I would also like to do one more test on the plug to determine just how it seems to be running. I think the 140 will be fine, but want to make damn sure before I go burning up a piston or something. If it seems a little lean next time out, I'll switch it out to a 142 and stick with that.

Anyway, if you have questions or comments as to what or how I did some of the things, give me a hollar, I'd be glad to try and explain it. Best of luck, and happy trails- and, if you've read this far, Thanks for listening!

Mike