Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech More stalling problems -- help!

On my three of last four rides from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and back I experienced the same stalling issues as those previously posted on this forum. The bike sputtered out as though it was out of gas or in vapor lock. The first time it happened was in the rain. Repeatedly removed the gas cap to vent, nursed the bike home. I could not tell if the vent hose was pinched but ultimately I trimmed it as recommended on other threads, and on my last round trip, dry cool weather, no problems. Until last night. First, after 105 miles at 70-75 mph on last trip I refueled and it took only 1.3 gals. Great, but strange. After 50 hot humid miles on the turnpike the sputtering began. And thus was my strange discovery: bike ran fine on reserve tank for most of the 60 remaining miles of trip -- how I got 60+ miles on reserve I don't know -- but every time I switched back to the main tank the bike stalled. Any idea what is going on here? And what is going on with the long distance coverage of the reserve tank? Finally, why would my gas tank not be taking a normal fill after 105 miles at speed (usually 2.2 gals)? Sorry for the long post. I take my screen name seriously.

Scott
'07 America

James,
Sounds like you need to remove and clean the tank petcock.
It has a built in filter/screen that is probably blocked by paint flakes from the filler neck.
If your tank has lots of gas in it, remove tank and stand it up on it's nose. Carefully brace it so it doesn't fall over and remove the petcock. 2 screws if it is the original one. You will see the dirt/blockage when you remove the valve.
Oops forgot.....if bike is still under warranty take it back to the dealer. Instead of being blocked, you may have a defective petcock.

Tony, thanks. As a last resort, I'm calling the dealer as soon as it opens.

Fully agree with Tony.

The petcock probably pulls fuel from two ports/locations. The main feed/port is probably plugged with debris that could block fuel delivery at times (hence the lean condition). The reserve isn't affected yet. Note, (not sure if you know this but...) if you leave your bike on reserve from when you fill up, it will run for the whole tank...200 miles or so. That's why you were able to run on reserve for so long.

Pull the petcock and clean it, or get your dealer to pull it. Tony mentioned potential paint flaking off in the tank. If this is happening now, get the tank repaired/replaced by the dealer.

Tony, Gregger, I have the gas tank off attempting this myself. where is the petcock filter?

I took of the tank, took apart the petcock, cleaned it, cleaned the filters, which weren't clogged. put it all back together, got a half mile down the road and it stalled again. its going to the shop. thanks for your advice nonetheless.

Well, here was my day: could not get the bike to the dealer so we got hold of friend of wife who has Yamahas and Hondas but has never seen anything like the America. Still, we ham-and-egged through another teardown, recleaned the petcock filters, bled bowls to make sure they were getting gas, changed the spark plugs - AIs gotta go. Emptied the tank and put 3.8 gals new gas in. Made sure vent hose was clear, trimmed properly and not pinched. I had also overfilled oil, so I drained some of that. Adjusted idle again -- I gotta get a tach. It sounds like I'm idling a little high but it feels right. It started, rolled, 30 miles with no burps. Hope it all pays off with smooth Cleveland-Pittsburgh ride tomorrow.

By the way, this was my first attempt at working on the bike. All of the work I did was done with the help of the folks on this forum, and I thank all posters for their advice and wisdom. Saved me a helluva lot of grief.