Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods rev limiter shutdown

I hijacked this from the rat site. It seems some of us, myself included are having a problem with the rev limiter shuting down the engine in 3rd or 4th gear when it nears the rev limit. Not the usuall break up but completely shuting off for a second or two. Most of the time you have to get completely off the throttle for it to come back to life. Jojje the man from sweden says this is a problem particular to ba's and speedmaster's and not a problem on the 360 degree bonnie. He says it has to do with the ignition system and doesn't know how to cure this problem. Anyone else having this occur.

Yes, I have had the same problem with my bike since it was new and it disturbs me immensely. Every time I give it a bit of a flooging I have to watch the tach like a hawk or the dam thing will shut right down when it hits the rev limiter. It seems like things are okay if you come up to the limit gradually, but if the engine hits the limiter hard it stalls out completley. When this happens I pull in the clutch and back right out of the throttle because I have had it back fire quite violently if I let it coast until the engine fires. This problem really hampers my showing off capabilites, the Thunder pipes just get into a nice roar, the K&N's are sounding great, and I have to shift early so as not to run up against the limiter and stall the bike, making me look stupid in front of my loyal onlookers. If you figure this mess out please post your findings.

Yes indeed, since day 1.
I hate hitting the rev limiter as it takes a couple seconds for the engine to come back to life. I can see how that would get frustrating if you were out on a track going round and round in the dirt and losing valuable time everytime it cuts off.
Not just me then eeh?
I just shift a pubimeter before the rev limiter kicks in, you can feel it if you're in Zen with your ride.

I ran a standard bonnie up to the limmiter a bunch at the demo rides last year, didn't shut it down, it just kinda sputtered and I wondered why the guys on the sprints and speed tripples were running away from me.

Y'know, I've kicked around the idea of rigging up some kind of shift light, like what my car's VDO tach used to have. If you could set the thing to light right at about 7900, you'd be golden, but normally, the screaming tone of the engine let's me know when to shift

Mine is an '04, and I haven't had this problem - I hit the limiter all the time too.

What years is this happening on?

Yes, this is a problem on BA's and SM's. But it normally don't happen if the limiter is stock. I have found the limit to be 8100rpm, if I set it higher than that it will stall even before it hits the limiter. I'm not sure why it happens but it is not a problem on the 360 deg engine, they can be reved to at least 10,800
BTW, this happens on engines fitted with other carbs and K&N's too so it's not a fuel problem.
/J

Quote:
Here was jojje's take on this.

Pat, Im older now, so sometimes my zen, zags when it should zig.

The wisdom of Jojje (sigh) I wish that man was on this forum more often!! He seems like he really knows alot about the ignition....