Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Motor stuttering problem

Help, not real sure whats up. Cruising down the road and the engine will stutter, kind of stall and then come back around. Will do fine once at a steady speed most often. Seems to be at lower rpms. Seems as though I remember something about a filter in between the carbs that is not often known about. Before I tear them apart I am open for suggestions. Plugs look good, it's ridden or at least started 1 or 2 times a week.Thanks

Moe has a pic of the fuel filter in his gallery.



There's also a filter in the petcock.

Rusty,
I have had the same problem. Member garyjames e-mailed me specific instructions on how to fix it. I'm sure he would do the same for you. I haven't been able to check mine yet but he said it made is bike get up and go after he cleaned it with carburator cleaner. He had some pics also. I like what he did about it. He installed a see-through filter on the left side of his bike I believe. The t-filter has got to be the stupidest idea for placement of a fuel filter I have ever heard of. But a friend of mine said Harleys have t-filters also. But at least with a V-twin it might be easier to access. Hope you get yours cleaned, and the bike running good.

-PES

I knew it was there some where! Thanks for the tips, I will install a see thru filter as well. Hope that cures it. Will check the petcock filter while I'm at it. Funny, my local dealership had no clue the filter was even there. Thought I remembered reading about it here. Thanks again.

Thanks again to member garyjames as he was the one that clued us all in to this. All I did was post a photo of it from a different perspective. Mine too was dirty. I have left it in place after having cleaned it.

Have you drained your carb bowls? Do so and observe the particulate matter (if any) in the drained fuel. To get to that t-filter ask a female (little, thin fingers) to reach it for you as the little bugger is at the back side of the carbs and midway down. The throttle linkage is tedious enough, I don't know if my short and stout fingers could even reach the t-filter location. I pulled the carbs for other reasons and thus had access to it. I would say that you could remove the rear airbox screws on the back side of the fender and slid the airbox back, leaving the carbs on their manifold rubbers. This might give you room to access the t-filter.

When all is said and done, you might need to clean your carbs. Particulate matter can readily block one or both of your idle circuits.

Happy Sunday,
moe

Hey Moe, My gratitude goes to Gary James as well. I sent him an e-mail asking about his fuel filter mod. Pulled my bike apart and found nothing to bad in either fuel filter. Went ahead and cleaned the carbs,and of course by the time I got it back together it was raining so no test ride today. Anxious to see if anything has improved. Thanks again all .

Rusty, how's the bike running now? If it wasn't the filters a guy told me at a shop that you can actually use gas with a too high Octane number. Our manual recommends 89 Octane and I have used 91 and 93 in the past. I wonder if it really makes a difference. Did it take you long to take the t-filter out? I am going to try it today. Hope your bike is back to normal.

-PES

PES,wasn't difficult at all as long as you follow Dinqua's advice and slide the air box back. I left the throttle linkage hooked up and pulle dthe carbs out the left side. Had plenty of room to work.Had it apart, cleaned and back together in a couple of hours including beer breaks. My filters did'nt look bad but cleaned them anyway. I then as recommended by our friends on this site replaced the vac caps on the carbs as well as the spark plugs. It's now running great! I believe it was the vac caps $3.00 as the plugs looked good. But figured $5.00 for plugs what's the harm.Hope this helps.Thanks to all!!