Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Mrs. Robinson... the saga continues

OK, I installed the new plugs this morning. While riding in to work, she just dies again. I was able to get onto a median. No instant restart. Messed around a little bit and she started. Since I was more than half way to work I continued onward. She died again. I had to pull over to the side of a four lane road. Again, no instant restart. After I got it started I noticed this happened after I cycled the key off and on. I decided to continue to my place of employment hoping she might die again so that I could just cycle the key and see if this triggered the restart. Of course Mrs. Robinson was uncooperative and didn't die the rest of the way in. She did however backfire a few more times after a brief stall. This has really got me scratching my knoggin. Could it be be the ignition module? When she runs, she seems to be running smoothly even when idling. I am getting some small backfiring when I decel. I am not to worried about this as I figure on tweaking and balancing the carbs when I get this problem figured out. My settings are similar to what they were when she was running fine last summer. I have the Epco's with the screws out 3 turns. I can't remember the jetting but I did put in the ones recommended by someone on this board last year when I did that. Unfortunately I can't search the old board to see what I had done. Any ideas?

Fuses with bad connectivity in the terminals maybe?? I had a problem like that, but not when the bike was actually running, so that might not be all your probs. But it sounds like something to do with the ignition / electrical side of the house

That sounds a lot like a heat related failure in the ignition module OR a loose connection to/from same.

Before you go replacing that however, try a squirt of WD40 (a big full blast) into and around your kill switch. Mine has gone wonky in the past due to water getting in.

Have you established for sure that this is an ignition problem? You can do this quick and easy with a cheap neon timing light from the bargain table at the local autoparts store. Just mount it someplace where you can watch it safely, hook it up and go for a ride. If it stops flashing when the bike craps out, you know to dig into the ignition. If it still flashes, look for a fuel problem. This is beginning to sound like the 'secret' fuel filter in the T fitting at the carburettor end of the fuel line might be partly blocked.

Oh boy, a secret filter?? Where again, in the fitting itself??

Yup, a wee round screen in the fitting. The fact that they get clogged once in a while proves that they are needed.
It's not terribly easy to get to and a real buggar to prove that it's causing your problem except by eliminating all other causes. Because there is gas in the hose, the bowls will fill up while you are digging out the driver to remove the drain screw to see if the bowls are empty, making this a lot harder to figure out than a clogged petcock strainer.

Devious little b@$t@rds!! I've not seen mention of that in the Owner's manual, this is the first I've heard of it!

is this it?

i found in gary james' gallery.

cat

That be the one!

I checked that small little filter. It looked clean but I cleaned it anyhow. I also drained the bowls with the fuel turned off to see that they held equivalent levels. They did. Then I turned the fuel on with the drains open to see that I was getting flow. I am. I repeated draining of the bowls to see if I would get the same level as the first time. I did. After I cleaned my plugs off (replaced with new now)the bike began running better. Road it for two days only beginning to get a backfire on the second day. On the third day in the morning it died while travelling at a constant 45mph. No immediate restart. Died again, no immediate restart. Started suspecting ignition and realized after both those hard restarts I had cycled the key off and on. On the way home it died again. I shifted to neutral and then cycled the key. Immediate restart. I am going to look at all my electrical connections in the ignition system when I get home tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Air,
My bike ('02 BA) is acting much the same way and I too am baffled. It has run flawlessly for over 7k miles and now 3 weeks before a planned 2 week tour of the west coast she starts acting up -uuuurrrrrrgh!

My bike starts fine runs okay for a few minutes then begins to miss. A few minutes later it looses power and stalls or wants to stall. I don't beleive mine is fuel related as it seems to run better with the throttle wacked open and at higher revs. I would think if it were a fuel problem it would get worse. I thought I might have screwed something up when I installed the tach a few weeks back so I removed it but that didn't change anything plus it ran for a few hundred miles with the tach with no problem.

I'm starting to think it must be a coil or some other electrical gremmlin. If you figure it out please let me know.

Thanks,

Keith

Jazz,

Didn't get time to lok at it tonight. Once I figure it out I will let you know. If you gain any insights, please share. Good luck. Hope you get yours going before your trip.

That's the wee buggar! You may notice in the photo that he pretty much removed the whole bike from the carburettors to get at it.

Finally! She's running right. I bought an electrical contact cleaner/degreaser and some dielectric grease. Disconnected all of the connectors, cleaned them and put the dielectric on them including the plug wires and coils. Took her out and put about 100 miles on her. No backfiring, no stall no nothing but a big smile on my face. It's gonna' be nice just being able to get on her and ride and only work on her when I feel like it. Thanks for all the help, advice and patience. Ya Hoo!!!!

Can't trust them darned 'trons eh?? After my fuse box was acting up, I took advice from this forum and cleaned and greased the fuses and terminals, and no problems since.