I put this page together in the hope that it would be useful not only to owners of TT600's but to owners of other types of fuel injected bikes (and also those of you with fuel injected triples as well). Hopefully these pages prove to help a few people out with synching their throttle bodies on their own. It really isn't the black magic voodoo people make it out to be! That said, you break your bike, don't blame me. As you will see I broke my bike while doing this job (an error of stupidity) and I don't blame anyone but me, but that doesn't mean YOU can blame me ;) Also, if you do happen to own a TT600, please read through the manual pages you can find here You can click on any of the thumbnails to view a larger sized image. If you have any comments, please visit my home page to email me. A big HUGE thanks goes out to my lovely assistant for putting up with my cursing and still managing to take some great pictures!
I have had a few questions from people about this service. Here's the questions: 1) Did the idle speed change after the service? 2) Did you get a MIL or Check Engine light during the service? The answers: After synch, the idle did change slightly, but since this service was performed in an attempt to nail down the idle problems I was having, I expected it. Before service, I had an uneven/lopy idle, and idle was highish (1500, ecu target of 1380). After the service idle smoothed out (idle stepper not compensating so much) and dropped down to around 1100 RPM (lowish) when warm, but stable. I did reset the closed throttle position since in the manual it says to do so after synch or valve adjustment. Also, I tweaked idle fuel trim (CO) up a few notches to kill the idle problems i was having coming to a stop (idle would drop really low, then slowly return to stable idle, alternating fast, then slow, fast, slow, until it seemed to find the right idle air level). I can now say my TT600 runs as intended, which makes me a very happy camper! The MIL light did come on during the synch, but I just cleared the codes using TuneBoy. Or, alternatively you can just wait the three full heat cycles, and 40 some odd heat cycles till the ECU clears them all together.
Let's start with the tools you will need to do the job. The only special tool you will need is a carbtune which you can order online here. I ordered mine on 7/15/2004, and it was at my door on 7/21 (Pretty amazing considering it was delivered all the way from England!) The other tools are all things you should have in your toolbox. There are a few things in this picture you may or not need, they are needle nose pliers, and a new fuel fitting, and whether or not you will need those is strictly determined by how careful you are. (I wasn't careful enough!) The complete list of tools in the picture is: 1) Carbtune 2) Allen Wrench (sized for the fairings on your bike) 3) 8 mm Wrench (or appropriate size for removing your gas tank bolts) 4) Phillips Head Screw Driver 5) Flat Head Screw Driver 6) Needle Nose Pliers 7) Fuel Fitting
The first step in this process is to remove your fairings and seat so you can access the bolts that hold the gas tank in place.
You probably need to remove both sides of the fairing, but I suppose if you are really dextrous you could do with just the left side removed, but prefering not to be a contortionist, I removed both sides.
In order to remove the gastank you will need to remove these two bolts at the back of the tank and....
this bolt at the front of the tank.
Just a little tip for TT600 owners, you can see here on these back two bolts of the gas tank a little rubber shim I put in there to make the gas tank a little more secure. You can see the shim where my finger is pointing.
Once you have removed the bolts holding the gas tank on, the next step is to disconnect the fuel connectors. You can see them up through the frame in this picture.
The trick is to reach up inside around the frame and disconnect the fuel lines from the fuel tank. Luckily (I say this with some great irony) Triumph used quick connects here, so all you have to do is to press the release button (on the peice of the connector on the fuel tank) and pull the fuel connector STRAIGHT out while pressing this button. If you do this right, you should only lose a few drops of fuel in the process.
Once the fuel lines are disconnected (and if you did this right, fuel isn't pouring out of a broken connector ;) you can pull them out around the frame to get them out of the way.
The next step is to remove the airbox, and to do this we need to rotate the gas tank out of the way. You can see the fuel pump power connector is still attached to the fuel pump. Something I DIDN'T do but would be a good idea would be to get something cloth to wrap around the tank while you have it moved so it doesn't get damaged, so be forwarned!
If you are careful, you can rotate the gas tank around and not break this power connector. To be safe, try to hold this connector as you rotate the tank around. In this picture, you can also see the crankcase breather filter I have attached. Another good idea for TT600 owners.
Here you can see the airbox...
And the fuel tank + fuel connectors on the bottom of the tank.
In order to remove the airbox, you are going to have to remove all of the hoses and connections. First you will need to remove the idle air control valve/stepper motor hose, then the air sensor wiring harness connector. Use a flat head scredriver to remove the wire lock on the connector. If you have been smart, you don't need to remove the crankcase breather hose or your california evap canister piping because you will have already removed them, plugged the holes and fitted a crankcase breather filter, right? The last thing you will need to remove from the airbox is the connector to the fuel pressure regulator. If you are like me and the rubber strap holding your airbox to the throttle bodies has long since snapped, you can just pop your airbox off, and 'voila'.
Now we're getting somewhere, we can see the throttle bodies themselves.
Where I am pointing here is the adjustment screws for the throttle bodies. When we get this puppy running with the carbtune connected, this is where you will make your adjustments.
In this picture, I am pointing at the point where the IACV hoses attach to the throttle body. This is where the IACV, via the stepper motor, allows air in to control idling. At idle speeds, appartently the amount of air required is quite touchy, since without this bugger plugged in, its damn impossible to get the bike started. You'll see why this is important later :)
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" For the next few steps, I will put a caution of "DON'T DO THIS YET!" I found out after I had done these steps that I would have to "undo" them, then "redo" them to get the bike started. These pics are here for illustration. Here I am removing the IACV hose from the throttle body.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" Here I am removing the IACV hose from cyclender 4. This one is really tough to get at with my big fat ham fists so this pic is to illustrate how to get in there and pop off this IACV connector if you've got big hands.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" Another angle of removing the IACV hose from cyclender 4. It really is a two handed procedure.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" Since the TT600 has a rubber boot that the IACV hoses attach to, none of the adaptors that come with the carbtune by default are perfect for the job right out of the box, but if you remove the O-rings from the 6mm adapters, you can stuff thes into the IACV hose mounts and make a good seal.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" In this picture, I am fitting the carbtune hoses to the IACV hose mounts.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" If you view the large version of this picture, you can see better how the carbtune hoses will connect to the throttle bodies.
"DON'T DO THIS YET!!!" Here's the carbtune fully connected.
OK, so now is the moment of truth (in my delusionary mind), its time to hook the fuel connectors back up, but OOPS! I broke one. These next few pics fall under "DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" but are include here for informational sake for other TT600 owners.
"DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" In this picture I am trying to stem the stream of fuel from the broken connector!
"DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" Since I am at least half way smart, I was lucky enough to have replacement fuel connectors on hand since there were so many complaints of broken fuel fittings in the triumph community. These fittings are actually made by Ferracci the Ducati performance company, but since they are signficantly cheaper than the Triumph parts and identical as far as I could tell, it was worth picking up a few. Lucky I had, otherwise the day would have ended here.
"DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" Didn't have a fancy crimp clamp so just used a cheap hose clamp.
"DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" Fitting the hose clamp to the fuel line.
"DON'T DO THIS AT ALL!!!" This pic is blurry, but what I wanted to show was that the hose clamp's screw part is on the bottom of the fuel fitting.
OK, now imagine I hadn't just broke a fuel connector, and here we are as if I had just hooked the fuel lines up without a hitch. Just an idea of how you can balance your tank backwards while doing this. No need to get extended fuel lines or go to any of the lengths some would recommend. Remember to attach the fuel lines to the correct fittings. The fuel line that comes from the left side of the fuel rail attaches to the red connector (fuel feed), and the fuel line that comes from the right side of the fuel rail attaches to the while connector (fuel return).
You can use the front tank mounting point to hook it on to the rear subframe, or at least balance it pretty well.
Here's the front view showing you how with the tank balanced like this, you can still access the throttle body adjustment screws.
In this picture you can see the fuel fittings under the tank and how it balances a little better.
In this picture, you can see the chips I put in my tank during the chaos of replacing the fuel connector. This is why I recommend putting a soft cloth around the tank while you are doing this work.
SO, with the gas tank fitted backwards, fuel lines connected, airbox off, carbtune connected, I was ready to ROLL! Or so I thought. In the shop manual its really sketchy about the "order of operations" around hooking up the Triump recommended "waste of loot" digital guage. Specicifically all it says is to hook up the guage, and start the bike, and you may need to give it a little throttle because IACV is disconnected. OK, so this makes sense, but after many many tries, afraid of killing my battery, I came to the conclusion that my meat fists can't finesse the air like a fully functional IACV. I decided to try to disconnect the carbtune, reconnected IACV tubes to the throttle bodies, let the IACV stepper motor work its magic to get the bike to idle, and THEN disconnect the IACV tubes one at a time and connect them to the carbtune. This turned out to be the magic formula, and this is why I listed all the above steps as "DON'T DO THIS YET"
As you disconnect the IACV hoses from the throttle bodies (after you have the bike running of course), the idle will change pretty eraticly. In this picture you can see I am shimming the throttle control on the side of the throttle bodies. You can adust this shim as you remove IACV hoses to keep the motor running at an even idle at around 1100 RPM.
Now you can do all of the "DON'T DO THIS YET" steps to connect the carbtune to the throttle bodies, and if they are out of sync, the carbtune will look something like this
Like on many fuel injected bikes, cylender one is a reference cylender, and as such is not adjustable. We begin adjusting at cylender 2, like shown in this picture. Adjust in small amounts and watch what happens on the carbtune carefully. With each small change the idle of the bike will change, so don't make too drastic adjustments or the bike will stall. Make gradual adjustments with a careful eye on the carbtune, and cyclender 2 will be in sync with cylender one in no time.
Repeat for cylender 3. Notice how the adjustments to one cylender can affect the readings of the others. Go back and ajust the other if need be.
Adjust cylender 4 and you are done. If things went properly, all four cylenders on the carbtune should be reading almost exactly level, and your bikes motor should be loving you!
Here's a shot of my lovely assistant holding the carbtune with the throttle bodies fully in sync. In all with all of my problems and mishaps, this whole procedure from start to finish took about 2 hours. In fact, making this web page has taken me longer than actually doing the full throttle body sync!