Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech I have a sick Triumph

OR DO I ??????

Let me fill you in. Went on a 450 mile round trip ride yesterday. All interstate riding. Left my house and rode for about 110 miles. Crusing around 70, 80 and a little more at time. After around 110 miles my main tank ran dry so i switched over to reserve and then came of I-24 at the next exit and filled up at a BP Garage. Pulled back onto the interstate and excelarated back up to 70, after a few miles the bike started to slow down again as if she was running out of gas. Wasnt sure what was going on. I switched the fuel tape from main the res a few times to see if that would help, even undone the gas cap just in case there was some kind of vacume lock. No deal nothing changed and for the next 15 miles all i could pull in top with the throttle fully open was 65mph. If i dropped down to 4th i could pull 75. All the time the bike trying to pull but always feeling like it was starved of fuel. Then just like that, it cleared up and i had full power again. Carried on to where i was going and hung out for most of the day. Left early evening for the 220 mile ride home. As expected shortly after leaving the main tank ran out again and i switched over to res and came off at the next exit and filled up. Left the garage and got back on the interstate and same again. No power. Half thottle would be all there was. Wind it up to full throttle and nothing. But this time it didnt clear up. From 40 miles North off Nashville all the way to Chattanooga, some 160 miles, all i could get was 65 in top. I rode the full distance in 4th with a top speed of around 75, and all the time the bike felt like it was running out of gas. Bloody annoying, trying to get past the trucks was a real challenge when they're moving at 70, i was really struggling to get past them and often would pull out only to have to drop back in behind them again, and if any of you are familier with Monteagle Mountain, getting up and over that was downright scary with all the 18 wheelers around me. Coming through Chattanooga and with out any warning, full throttle returned. Rode the remaining 40 miles like nothing had been wrong.

So, what do you think. Did i get some bad fuel, TWICE, that mamaged to block a jet, or is this somethink more sinester.

My feeling is that you had some water in the tank from
condensation, bad fuel, or both. The water is heavier
than gas and sits in the bottom of the tank. Running
down to reserve twice got you down into the water.

It sounds like you ran the water through it, but I'd
at least drain the tank, and float bowls, and fill it
with fresh gas. You could also pull the petcock and
check the little filter in the tee between the carbs.

Good luck and ride on,
Uncle Charlie

PS - Running some Seafoam or other through couldn't hurt.

Do you still have the hidden filter? Mine would top out at about 80 mph max, replacing the filter with an in-line one fixed it.

Sounds very familiar. Mine is in the shop now. They have not figured it out yet.

My first question is how often do you go on reserve with your bike?

You may have accumulated non fuel contaminants there and introduced them to both the "hidden" filter and the float bowls. Drain the whole system and look at the results, clean the hidden filter if you're not going to replace it, then refill with fresh fuel and when you're ready to go for a longish ride give it a double dose of Seafoam.

BTW, I just did the same trip last week and sat on top of Monteagle on the way west while a Dollar General trailer burned merrily and then sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way back uphill east as TDOT had decided to let the fire burn itself out. I was unhappy that my slower than parade speed abilities didn't hold up during the 45 minute creep, I did a lot of paddling. That downhill run toward Chattanooga sure is a great descent, though, as is the run up the Nickajack pass.

mine ran much like that when mice filled the air filter with dog food......

I hope it wasn't running on one cylinder while this was happening.
If it was, your Ignitor will soon be toast.

Good point, Brian.

Mark, during the time of this decrease in power, did it seem to be running on one cylinder only? Brian could be onto something here. But hopefully this problem was fuel related, as a few of the other guys here have suggested. A lot less expensive proposition, to be sure.

(...or it could just be that you've found out that one shouldn't put British Petroleum products in a british motorcycle!...it could be some sort of a "heritage overload" problem...maybe you should only buy CHEVRON gasoline from now on instead, dude!)

In addition to what was mentioned above, some dirt in the carb bowl could cause this. If the dirt gets in the jets you will starve for fuel, then it works loose and you are good and repeat, same with some dirt blocking the petcock. Less likely to be the hidden filter since once that gets blocked it will tend to stay that way.

+1 to what the dog wrote. Myself? I had a tiny itty bitty piece of paper towel sucked up on the right carb's main jet that would not let me rev above 4000 rpms. I don't use lint devices anymore in that area...

Pulling the choke out when your sickle stumbles will help tell you if the issue is lectric or fuel.

Drain your carb bowls then remove the bowls and using a mirror look at the jets. Drop the jets too if you want. From what you describe though, it seems the culprit is on the main jet circuit. These are the tools needed to drop the bowls and jets.

Thanks for all the responses. I think it is unlikely that it was only running on one cylinder because when i was winding on the throttle she would run as smooth as always until a certain rev range and then she would begin to get the fuel starvation feeling. If i kept it at low revs she would run as smooth as normal.

As to flushing out the float bowls. How involved is this. My mechanical knowledge is resonable, but my ability is very low. On a scale of 1 to 10, one being a mechanical dufus. I am 0.005.

Draining the bowls. Get a piece of clear tubing. Place one side on the carb bowl nipple and the other end in clean jar. Then turn the screw to drain the bowl. Repeat for the other bowl. Make sure your petcock is off.

Well that looks easy enough. Thank you.

If you de get some dirt out of the bowl on either or both carbs I would advise removing the bowls for a good cleaning. You should also clean the hidden filter and would be best to clean the petcock too but that could be troublesome if you had a leak after. So if your ability is limited I would clean the bowls and hidden filter (if dirt is present) and run it to see what happens. Good way to determine if dirt is present is to use a coffee filter. Place the coffee filter (paper type) over the coffe can or what ever you are catching the gas in and drain the bowls into the filter dirt will be very easy to see on the white filter.

I know there will probably be a wisea$$ answer to this, but where is the hidden filter hidden?

Look in the tech vault under Intakes/carbs

This happened to me. I tried all the usual tricks to no avail. I suspected fuel starvation but it turned out to be just the opposite. I turned the petcock to off, disconnected the fuel line from the carbs and set the fuel line in an empty coffee can. One hour later the coffee can was full of fuel. The petcocks on our motorcycles are cheap. The on/off/reserve ball inside the petcock is plastic. Everytime I was turning the petcock on and off a groove was forming on the ball which allowed more and more fuel to pass by un-metered. I replaced it with a Pingle.
If your carb purge doesn't work try my idea. BTW...the dealer will never find what I found. Good luck.

No those tools are used to drop the bowls and jets with the carbs in place.

Learnication time, it's learnication time.

Courtesy of Dinqua.

No they are not necessary. All you need is a tool to remove the bowls weather that be an allen or phillips, a small and short screwdriver if you want to change the pilot and a wrench to hold the jet holder from turning and a screwdriver to turn the main.I throw an old towel on top of the engine to catch any spilled gas or parts.