I took the new bike out yesterday for a decent ride, the 45 min ride turned into a 2 hour crap fest. Im under the assumption it might be the spark plugs as it seems similar as to what happened on my other 3ln, but less severe (ie one plug wasnt eaten and two covered in black.) Bike ran fine, i missed my gear lever a lil bit and it skipped into neutral and revved like a bastard, there was no backfiring, but the bike took on a new engine note (really low sound) and seemed to struggle to pull my weight. Down hill was fine, gravity and all, took a while on straights, and about 10KM/h on hilly sections. Im guessing I probably rooted a few spark plugs, and i thought to make sure on here it isnt anything else.
So, it was seemingly running fine, then you missed a gear hit a false neutral, RPMs went high, bike became loud with low power? I have no clue, but spark plugs might be suspect, but I don't see a reason why. I mean the situation you describe has happened to all of us at one point and I have never fouled spark plugs by doing that ....
Well it isnt the plugs. About every 10 mins the bike will just lose acceleration and steadily just die. I'd stop and it would start up again after a few mins. After the second stop i got really pissed off with the bike and started removing everything i thought that could be inhibiting power, fuel pump, and the fuel filter. Power was still inhibited. On the third stop i moved the tank over and pulled the air filter off and opened the throttle (with bike off) and slid the slides in the carbi open. White smoke came out and i started swearing vehemently. Im going to take my carbies off the old fizzer, give them a good clean out and see if that will remedy the problem. Would I have to rebalance the replacements or do you guys think its something else? EDIT: i forgot to mention i turned the bike on with the airfilter off and put my hand over each carb, theres vacuum, but there seems to be spitting fuel out.
Sounds like the cap vent is plugged. As the fuel level drops, a vacuum builds up that prevents the outflow of fuel. Sit there pouting for a few minutes, and the air slowly seeps into the tank, and the bike starts up again. Next time this happens, pop the filler cap off, and listen for a 'whoosh' of air. Yeah, vapourised fuel, or steam / exhaust - it's all good. Yup - gotta love pressure pulses.
Thanks Dontz, best bet is to find the cap vent and unplug it?? It would explain the weird wind noises from the tank every now and again..
Ok you seem to be right lol. I gave the fuel cap and its innards a quick clean and put it back together, clearly not enough. This morning i rode it out and started to stall, i thought what the hell and tried to open the tank with my keys whilst riding (5am, love quiet roads), turns out, unlike my other fizzer, this ignition barrel dont like keys taken out whilst moving and i stalled. Started her back up and went to work. After work i made sure i had the spare key in the tank incase it started to stall, sure enough it started to stall, i popped the tank open and she kicked back to life, but upon closing it it started to die, so i opened it again and it sped up again. Im betting the vent (looks like a figure of 8 with orange plunger thingies?) is not up to par anymore? Ive got it all soaking in fuel as i type this, along with the fuel filters considering they were covered in dirt and paint and the fuel tank itself now drying out after being flooded numerous times.
Fuel tank vent cannot break or go bad .... you just need to make sure it's not clogged, the tank needs to have an access to air. If your tank internal filters were clogged that would be equally bad as it restricts flow. Might be OK for idling, but once the demand goes up, it struggles.
Snowfox, We have had members with similar issues where the bike would die after a while and they had a blockages in the fuel hoses where the rubber had perished. Symptoms were the similar as yours. Hopefully it is just the fuel cap in your case.
Yup it was the Fuel Vent. I replaced the lines when i picked up the bike from the seller straight away, i just didnt check the internal filters. Thanks again guys.
