Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Help! Speedmaster won't run!

Last Friday night, my bike quit on me on the way to a friend's house. I got it restarted and all seemed ok. Then on the way home, I rounded a corner and rolled the throttle on. The engine couldn't rev at all. A few seconds later it quit. Getting it to restart was a bear. Saturday night, I rode it around the neighborhood, and it quit yet again. It also exhibited the same lack of power. On Sunday I couldn't start it for the longest time, then it finally ran at 1000 RPM with the choke all the way out. I eventually got it to idle decently.

I really don't know what it could be. I know it's not the vent hose. Could the reed valve in the AI system be blown? Could a carb problem have manifested itself so suddenly? The left pipe is bluing in the joint where the heat shield meets the manifold cap. The right heat shield has a slight yellow tinge to it. I pulled the plugs, and the look OK. They can be view online if anyone wants to see.

Please help me. I'm in the Army, and getting this thing to a dealer is gonna be a bear, and I sure don't have money to have it fixed.

With what little info is available, just some stabs here...
it's either gas or spark... and if it runs, I'd say it's getting gas, not spark. A cheap check is loosening the gas cap just to see if anything changes. I know, it's not the vent hose, but you never can tell. Check the fuel from the petcock to the carb, again cheap checks. If there's one handy, grab a crewchief who rides and ask him, for a beer of course, to take a look, crewchiefs will do anything for beer.

Good luck and keep us posted

By the way, I used to live in Alexandria. Off Taney Ave, which meets Van Dorn near Holmes Run.

Check Coils, I promise you it is the coil or coils. I had the same problem. Triumph Dealer fixed it with no problem. Coil was under warranty on my 02 BONV. AMER.

How can you tell if it's the coil?

If you could get it to run with the choke all the way out, it sounds like a fuel starvation problem. For whatever reason the fuel is not flowing through the carb jets. I'd start there, verify fuel flow at the time of the stall.

The stalling always seemed to happen as I rolled off the throttle to come to a stop. The first time it stalled, I was headed for a stopplight. I hadn't noticed any problems with the power or running until I rolled off the throttle and the rpm went to idle and kept going right down to zero.

Does that sound like a coil problem? It didn't to me. Maybe fuel. I can't really tell. How can I check short of taking the carbs off? As far as getting it to run with choke...it idled at 1000 RPM with the choke out...like it was having no effect. It also ran like it was hitting rich on one cylinder and not firing on the other few about 20 seconds.

The last time I took my America out for a ride this year, it hardly ran...found the air filter was 2/3 full of dog food...guess my local field mice were about to move in...

"By the way, I used to live in..." yes, that's not too far from home. I pass it everyday on the HOV going to/from work (DC). As for the coils... if the coils are breaking down, it been my experience that they'll fail when warm-hot. But, again, it sounds like a gas problem to me. If the plugs don't show fouling, that's generally a good indicator that the spark side is working (not definitive, but a darn good indicator... plugs can tell you a lot). Check fuel flow, pull the line off the carb and drop it in a bucket, turn on the tap and watch. If it goes, then check for the little secondary filter in the t-between the pipes. Unless there's a big red arrow pointing at sparks, I'd exhaust all the gas potentials before ripping electrics out (but then, I never was good at avionics, you know how crew chiefs are).
Yes, I crewed Slicks for many years, life Quad-A member, my SPH4 is hanging up at home. You still AV8-ing?

Oh yeah...I'm rocking out FT Rucker right now. All day in the Huey sims for instruments. Sweeeet.

Oh, I checked the air filter. It's fine. Where are the fuel filters on this thing? And how do I tell if they're clogged? Just take them off and check? (jj, I need and Airframe Fuel Filter Light to go off!)

If you're driving a Huey sim you can't be the world's unluckiest man... you can crash and start all over... and a Huey sim at that... in your sleep!
Follow the fuel line from the petcock until it taps into a crossfeed (like a flow divider). There is a small fuel inlet strainer that could easily be clogged, if you can find it, toss it. Check the vent line (I know, it's OK), but follow it down to where it runs between the carbs. Somewhere along the line you'll find a rollover vent valve. Looks like a black fuel filter, but it's a 1-way vent valve... toss it, but replace it with something straight to connect the 2 pieces of vent line... anything tube-like will do, you just want the entire length of line so that it continues to vent under the bike. Check all the rubber around the carbs for cracks and tears, and make sure all the holes are capped (guess this shoulda been done first). The next will be to pull the carb bowls and check the jets for clogging. This would be a good time to replace the 8 bowl screws with something a little more torque friendly (hex-head screws). If all else fails and it's under warranty, get it to the shop... if it's not, call Beasly's Kawasaki in Ozark and see if they'll work on it. Most shops will work on anything, especially if it's not warranty.
Or hey, get it to the autocraft shop this weekend (long weekend). They have all the tools you need to take the whole thing down to the frame (not that you would), and should be able to check the coils at that point.
Anyway, good luck
jj

Thanks jj. I will probably check it tonight and tomorrow, and if I can't figure it out, I'll take it to Triumph in Tallahassee.

Started it up again. I got a few nasty backfires out of it, but a real inability and hesitance to rev at all. I am guessing it's a fuel thing. Idled at 1200 normal, about 2000 on full choke.

You know, that's almost sounding like water in the gas. btw, an easy way to check your fuel flow into the carbs (and check for water in the bowls) is to open the bowl drain screws (one at a time and is item # 16 in the pic below. Put a little cup under the carb to catch the fuel. This is a fast way to eliminate the tank and lines to the carbs and may or may not show you water.

Definitely check the stuff jj mentioned.

Just a thought, have you done anything to the bike lately? New parts, adjustments, washing, riding in the rain, anything?

Nah, she's 100% stock. She started acting up on a normal night, after I had ridden for about an hour. I doubt it's water in the gas, since I can get it to rev past the problem with wide-open throttle. I just stutters on its way there. Plus I'm near the end of the tank, and we know that water sinks in the fuel, so it would have manifested itself much sooner.

I now officially hate this bike. 830 miles and I can't ride it.

Tom,
Check the little filter mentioned above and also triple check for ALL vacuum plugs. If you have a minute crack in one of the plugs (I did and it drove me nuts finding the trouble) it will do similar to your problem. Loss of vacuum causes variations or immediete loss of power.
Not the unluckiest man on earth, close maybe, but you'll get it then move on and forget all about it.

Took her to Florida Motorsports in Tallahassee today. Of course, being the unluckiest man alive, I left the key at home. However, they're keeping it all week and they said they'll figure it out and fix it, and unless it's truly impossible, they'll find a way to claim it under the warranty.

Nice folks there. Highly recommended.

Tom, any word? There was another post about a similar prob that turned out to be the coils. Man, I'd feel awfully bad about leading you astray if that's it!

Tom, any word?

Oh, hey guys. The dealer ran some carb cleaner through it, changed the plugs, and retuned the carbs (said it was running very very lean). Got her back last week, and put 100 miles and Brent's AI removal plugs on her. She runs like a freight train. So good to have her back.

Man that is SO good to hear. So basically the bike wasn't tuned right from set-up, which gummed up your carbs after 800 or so miles. What a great fix and a great catch. A little carb cleaner, re-tune, and plugs and your in business. Like someone else said in this forum, so many times it's most simple problem that eludes us. Glad your running again, how 'bout sending some of that luck down my way!

Yesterday, the bike quit again. I was riding out past Cairns Army Airfield, enjoying the sight of all the choppers returning home for the evening. Suddenly, the bike started getting choppy and had no power. I eased in the clutch, and sure within a few seconds, the RPM hit zero. I finally got her restarted, and the engine was barely hanging on, and finally died again. It took all I had not to throw the bike in the ditch.

Then I switched it to reserve, and sheepishly headed back toward the gas station. Sometimes, it's the simple things.

Hey, glad it's working out for you. And with newer bikes having a vacuum always-on tap, the Triumph petcock is a bit of a throwback. Most of us have (whether we admit it or not), at one time or another, been taken back by the nefarious, wierd, 'feels like an out-of-gas' thing, and taken a couple of seconds to realize "oh crap, turn the gas on!", or gone thru the same thought process after a hundred plus miles and then realize, "oh crap, out of gas! Reserve!" But those thoughts come a bit slower when you've had a problem bike, and it wasn't the gas tap. The simple problems still shake us up and we hold our breath after turning the gas tap on or to reserve, because we know what it's like for it not to be the simple things.
Did the shop tell you what the problem was?

You need to have the coils checked for firing. See if you can find someone that has the equipment to check the coils an if not take it to a triumph dealer as the coils may be covered under warranty. Although my bike was over two years old Triumph still covered the coil under warranty. There have been problems on the web with this same problem an they found it to be coils not firing properly.

I promise you it will be a coil or coils. I had all the same problems and I checked everything everybody has told you to check from bad gas, bad plugs,pinched vacumn line, etc. you name it we checked it but it was a bad coil. Like I said even though my bike is over two years old Triumph still covered it under warranty. Get this !!! If I had waited two more days it would not have been covered under warranty. I never did understand why it was covered but I was glad that it was an that saved me $120.00
I hope you get her fixed !!!!
Wish I could come to Daytona this year but had a massive heart attack this past november so better hand around myrtle beach because we have bike week may 13 - May 22.Over 300,000-350,000 expected again this year. Hope to see another new BA did not see a one last year. There were some old one's around but not the 02's or newer. I sure hope they come out with a 1200 an keep the same look!!!!
The Rocket III still looks like a "Crotch Rocket" to me.

Hey, mine finally died for good on Sunday. Took it out Sunday morning to run it and it died after about two minutes. Has not restarted since. Bringing it back in tomorrow. And I couldn't be happier!!! Sounds wierd but I've gone from the elusive intermittant problem to a a definite one. So there is now no question about what the bike is doing. I actually feel glad for the service guys at my dealer too because whenever they had it, it ran. I'd get it back and it wouldn't. Now I hope we can finally isolate the problem and get it fixed!!!!

Wow! Heres hopeing you get it straightened out for good this time.

Some folks need to read a little more closely. She runs fine now. I had just run out of gas this last time.

Ouch, Tom. I was refering to TBANGA and his problem. I'm very glad you just ran out of gas!

Hey Tom,

I think you have to change your sig line! If it were true, the last time when you twisted the pitcock to reserve, it should have broken in the off position!!!

Leonard, I wasn't referring to you! Some people were going on and on that it must be the coils (in reference to my post about running out of gas). Yeah, TBANGA, I hope you get it figured out soon.

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