BigLenny Posted July 15, 2015 Share #1 Posted July 15, 2015 Earlier today I bought a cooling vest at Cycle Gear with the idea that it might help me handle the 100+ temps on the way to and from the International. Got home from work and it was 99 degrees outside. Convinced Teresa to go with me for a ride so I could test the vest, and grab a bite. Started the bike and let it warm up. put our riding gear on and hit the road. The bike ran as good as it always does as we were driving through our neighborhood heading out. Got out to the main hwy, turned her right and took off going through the gears. The bike suddenly started spitting and sputtering and not wanting to run. I finally pulled the clutch in and she died. I coasted to a Sonic parking lot and there we sat. She would crank but not fire. Finally after cranking her for 5 minutes or so she slowly started to fire and run. I decided to go right back to the house and yank the seat off and check the battery posts and connections. She ran fine on the way back to the house. Everything looked fine and snug, but I still took the cables loose and cleaned them and the posts. Put our gear back on hit the start button and she fired right up and ran great for the next hour and a half to and from dinner. Puzzling to me. It acted like a fuel issue. It cranked strong but wouldn't start. One note: when I was cranking it at the Sonic, it smelled like it was flooded, and the smell was like tired gas smell. I wonder if a patch of bad gas went through carbs and shut it down. I'm wanting to ride her to the international, but I ain't wanting to hafta work on her on the side of the road in blazing heat. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoneman1981 Posted July 15, 2015 Share #2 Posted July 15, 2015 Replacing the fuel filter as a preventive measure might be a good idea. Keep is posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowpuc Posted July 15, 2015 Share #3 Posted July 15, 2015 Possible that your tank is not venting well, building pressure and flooding carbs - high temps can add to this if its your problem. Any chance you have ever noticed pressure in your tank when you open the cap? Another thing is a sticking float valve can cause issues like you describe, ever notice any fuel from over flows? Also, how many miles on the plugs, how does it start when its cold - do you have to choke it or does it start with no choke at first start up when sitting all night? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigLenny Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share #4 Posted July 15, 2015 Possible that your tank is not venting well, building pressure and flooding carbs - high temps can add to this if its your problem. Any chance you have ever noticed pressure in your tank when you open the cap? Another thing is a sticking float valve can cause issues like you describe, ever notice any fuel from over flows? Also, how many miles on the plugs, how does it start when its cold - do you have to choke it or does it start with no choke at first start up when sitting all night? Hi Puc, Never have noticed pressure in my tank when I open cap. Never noticed any fuel from overflow valves. The plugs have 6000 miles on them. When it's cold I have to choke it, but it fires right up and runs fine at a brisk idle until i push the choke in. Or, let me say this; I don't know how it starts with no choke on, because I always turn the choke on before I start it when its been sitting for overnight or a number of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djh3 Posted July 15, 2015 Share #5 Posted July 15, 2015 Sounds fuel related. My fuel pump started to die and usually was when I had to switch from main to reserve. But if it didnt catch it would do a very simular action to what you discribed. Almost like pump had to cool off a bit then was fine. Sometimes I almost thought it was vapor lock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigLenny Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share #6 Posted July 15, 2015 Something that crossed my mind tonight as I was rethinking this issue. When I start my bike and we're getting our gear on. Most of the time, I'll have the choke still on whenever we leave the house and are riding through our subdivision heading out to the main street. By the time we get to the entrance/exit of our subdivision I usually reach down and push the choke in/off. This afternoon though, I for some reason pulled out onto the main street with the choke still on and was going to push it off after I got up to speed. I wonder if my problem was, the choke was on, and I started throttling up getting out on the main street, and both of those combined flooded too much gas in the carbs? Hmmm. I'm gonna hafta stop that stupid bad habit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djh3 Posted July 15, 2015 Share #7 Posted July 15, 2015 Something that crossed my mind tonight as I was rethinking this issue. When I start my bike and we're getting our gear on. Most of the time, I'll have the choke still on whenever we leave the house and are riding through our subdivision heading out to the main street. By the time we get to the entrance/exit of our subdivision I usually reach down and push the choke in/off. This afternoon though, I for some reason pulled out onto the main street with the choke still on and was going to push it off after I got up to speed. I wonder if my problem was, the choke was on, and I started throttling up getting out on the main street, and both of those combined flooded too much gas in the carbs? Hmmm. I'm gonna hafta stop that stupid bad habit. Yea maybe if you left the choke on as you tried to throttle up it was to loaded up. I dunno usually mine will cough and accel bad but it will clear and go. It s the lower rpm that suffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowpuc Posted July 15, 2015 Share #8 Posted July 15, 2015 Also, most of the smaller plugs (which includes our "D" = 10mm plugs) dont seem to take to kindly to being over choked - its blackens em and that is never a good thing.. Maybe pull even one plug and just get a peek at its color.. If its blackened - swap out the plugs and choke sparingly.. Hope what you are describing turns out to be the issue Len!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videoarizona Posted July 15, 2015 Share #9 Posted July 15, 2015 I always start with choke, then after a few minutes...off comes the choke..let her idle for a minute or so...then off I go. Habit from the car days with choke I guess.... Never had any problems...in cold weather or hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saddlebum Posted July 15, 2015 Share #10 Posted July 15, 2015 (edited) Choke(or stuck open enrichment valve) could do it. I remember years back when manual chokes on cars were common, we had a lady customer bring us her car for a running issue. It would always run good cold but sputter when it got hot. We could never figure it out until one day my boss suggested she leave the car with us and so I was elected to go home with her and return with the car. As she gets in the car she pulls out the choke and hangs her purse on it. I asked her if she did that all the time. Turns out she did. I left it at that until the car started to sputter and as she said there you see what it does I took her purse off the choke pushed it in and the car to her total amazement ran like a dream - go figure Edited July 16, 2015 by saddlebum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoneman1981 Posted July 15, 2015 Share #11 Posted July 15, 2015 I always choke my bike ringer it started. I too leave the bike on high idle while I put on my riding gear. I push the choke off and ride away. On a couple of occasions I have left the choke on for a short distance. I usually notice it at my first stop sign when it is still idling fast. Never had it stall because of my mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great White Posted July 15, 2015 Share #12 Posted July 15, 2015 (edited) Seeing how these bikes have an "enricher" vice a traditional "choke", I think Puc may be on the right track with carbon fouled plugs. you can get a decent idea of how your bike is running by looking at the exhaust openings in the mufflers. If it's predominantly "fluffy" black in the main opening, you're probably running rich and plugs bear the brunt of that. If you're not running rich and the exhaust is still fluffy black,you're probably spending a lot of time warming up on choke and not much time ridding at decent road speeds. A lot of "around town" bikes show this. My my bike usually doesn't need choke to start and will "idle up" on its own as it warms. But that also indicates to me it's running a bit rich. Since The bike is ruining pretty good "as is" I'm waiting for winter to do a proper tear down and see how it behaves next spring before getting in to messing with jets and bleeds. For now, I usually start the bike, let it idle while I pull on my gear and ride away gently. By the end of my street (about a km) it 's usually just fine to idle at a stable 1 grand. Properly jetted and regularly run (ie: 10-20 odd minutes at highway speeds) bikes should have a slight brown tinge on the muffler openings if you're running right. Edited July 15, 2015 by Great White Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billmac Posted July 15, 2015 Share #13 Posted July 15, 2015 I only use the choke when it's cold but try starting before pulling on the choke, idles slowly then by the time I'm ready it's running fine. If I smell gas when I go out to start it I open the gas cap for a moment then go through the process. I also don't hit the start button until the pump stops loading up. should not say this but I never have trouble starting the bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drews Posted July 15, 2015 Share #14 Posted July 15, 2015 (edited) Fuel pump check the points buy new pump on ebay $22.99 Edited July 15, 2015 by Drews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drews Posted July 15, 2015 Share #15 Posted July 15, 2015 OR ON THE ROAD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vzuden Posted July 15, 2015 Share #16 Posted July 15, 2015 Sounds like fuel pump is dying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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