I Thought I Knew Her Better Than This, But Maybe Not......

[syscrusher]

Today I got as far as Ashland on the way to Lincoln and it just wouldn't keep running at any level of speed. After riding in the shoulder slowly or slower than traffic anyway I found a flip-flop and turned back but it died without momentum. I stopped and fiddled with the fuel tap and restarted it and it went like a champ all the way back to the Big O (home). It's acted up like that once before, same sort of behavior, same lack of reason or why it stopped acting crazy. It's a 93 so the TCI should be alright? I just don't know. I was going to try traveling on it but not until I understand some things.

 

 

How does the TCI act when it's going bad (usually)? It acted fuel-starved or like it wasn't sparking, maybe a little more like it wasn't sparking my guess. It could be riden with momentum but couldn't idle when stopped. I may have left the choke on slightly both times this has happened but deactivating the choke should have changed things, right? Interesting that both of these times I was in a hurry to get to an event that I had already bought a ticket for.

In a couple of years of owning it come August, it's only done this twice now. I did consider that the computer got a reset when it was restarted. Do these beasts lose their minds every now and then?

 

I'm not leaving town with it again until I convince myself that I've done something to fix it.

[Flyinfool]

I know it is more known a a 2nd gen thing, but could the vent line to the gas tank be plugged or partially plugged? Once it stopped the pressure was equalized and it ran good again. Having the choke on would mean that it was pulling fuel faster than normal so a restricted vent would be more likely to show up.

[Droneh8tr]

My first thought was the same thing as Flyinfool.. I blew backward against the vent line to insure air would get into my tank and then blew the other way to insure the check valve was working..

Please let us know if you figure this out.

[BlueSky]

Clogged fuel screen in the tank?

[mralex714]

Today I got as far as Ashland on the way to Lincoln and it just wouldn't keep running at any level of speed. After riding in the shoulder slowly or slower than traffic anyway I found a flip-flop and turned back but it died without momentum. I stopped and fiddled with the fuel tap and restarted it and it went like a champ all the way back to the Big O (home). It's acted up like that once before, same sort of behavior, same lack of reason or why it stopped acting crazy. It's a 93 so the TCI should be alright? I just don't know. I was going to try traveling on it but not until I understand some things.

 

 

How does the TCI act when it's going bad (usually)? It acted fuel-starved or like it wasn't sparking, maybe a little more like it wasn't sparking my guess. It could be riden with momentum but couldn't idle when stopped. I may have left the choke on slightly both times this has happened but deactivating the choke should have changed things, right? Interesting that both of these times I was in a hurry to get to an event that I had already bought a ticket for.

In a couple of years of owning it come August, it's only done this twice now. I did consider that the computer got a reset when it was restarted. Do these beasts lose their minds every now and then?

 

I'm not leaving town with it again until I convince myself that I've done something to fix it.

 

I chased this same problem for a year and it turned out that the run stop switch wasn't making good contact and needed cleaning.

[cowpuc]

I really really do like intermmitent problems... Key switch had me going once on this same line and so did a main fuse line that had worked loose.. ANother time a bad set of contacts in a fuel pump first started out this way.. Gotta say though, Fools first response was also the first thing that popped into my mine too..

Stinking gremlins...

Best of luck figuring er out Sys!!

[syscrusher]

Aw, you're all going to laugh at me. MiCarl and then the FlyinFool helped me sort it out. In my defense my gas gauge had always worked pretty well. The carb bowls had fuel, although I probably should have let enough fuel run out of them to be sure they were full. Have you guessed it yet? I ran it out of gas and I was too bone headed to realize it. Too stupid to look past a gauge that was lying to me. When it seemed to respond to momentum on the road it was really responding to fuel sloshing around and getting some into the carbs. The markings on my fuel tap are mostly unreadable but when I had good luck getting home after turning around on the highway it was exactly because I had put it in RESERVE. When I brought five gallons of fuel it drank all of it. I guess I need to try to run the level down a little and then take a look at the fuel float under the seat.

 

One thing that I learned is that if the fuel pump sounds like it's running too fast or if it always runs when the key is turned on it probably isn't pumping gas.

Also my tool kit didn't have a socket extension in it before now.

[videoarizona]

Leave it in reserve and count your miles using the counter.

 

No laughing...I've done this too!

david

[BlueSky]

Running out of gas is about as embarrassing as dropping the bike in a parking lot. I've never done either! By the way, I have some prime development property on the tip of FL. Never mind those gators.

[syscrusher]

I got the float freed up at least tonight. I don't know if it's a mystery or not but I found that it measures about 350 ohms at the lowest to around 1 ohm with a full tank.