now what?

[Guest]

Bike has been running great lately. Stopped today to fill it up, and took off-for about 100 yards. Couldn't keep it running, but it will start and run fine on choke. New coils and ignition, carbs were done a few months ago.

[Agemax]

Bike has been running great lately. Stopped today to fill it up, and took off-for about 100 yards. Couldn't keep it running, but it will start and run fine on choke. New coils and ignition, carbs were done a few months ago.

sounds to me like you put the wrong fuel in, not diesel i hope!

[crapwacker]

sounds to me like you put the wrong fuel in, not diesel i hope!

No, 93 octane, as always. But diesel would be sort of funny! At least it would be a good reason for a sudden problem. now it's sitting in a parking lot till either later tonight or tomorrow, as I was on my way to work

[Agemax]

sounds a bit wierd that is was running great then 100 yards after you filled it up it packs up. how low was the fuel before you topped it up? maybe some crap from the bottom of the tank has blocked a fuel filter?

[crapwacker]

Half tank. I was thinking filter as well. While it was running, I was able to open it up to like 5-6 grand, but couldn't get it to pull draging the clutch. And it runs on choke, and can stay at 4 grand. I run a high flow inline filter, haven't gotten around to putting a petcock on it yet. It's setup like a pingle.

[Nessism]

First of all you are using the wrong gas, although that’s not the problem. It’s always best to use the lowest grade of gas that does not cause detonation/knocking. Regarding this problem, not sure but it sounds like the carbs may have sucked up some junk in the tank. Is the tank rust free? You might want to drain a few of the carbs into a clean container and see if there is rust sediment. Those “high flow” fuel filters don’t filter for crap so if there is junk in the tank, some of it will get though to the carbs.

[crapwacker]

First of all you are using the wrong gas, although that’s not the problem. It’s always best to use the lowest grade of gas that does not cause detonation/knocking. Regarding this problem, not sure but it sounds like the carbs may have sucked up some junk in the tank. Is the tank rust free? You might want to drain a few of the carbs into a clean container and see if there is rust sediment. Those “high flow” fuel filters don’t filter for crap so if there is junk in the tank, some of it will get though to the carbs.

Lowest octane? Why is that? The tank is clean and rust free, so that's what made me wonder what I could have sucked up. And if there is crud in the carbs, will the require the full treatment, or will removing them and hitting them with compressed air do the trick?

[BassCliff]

Hi,

High octane is for high compression engines. It burns a little slower to prevent pinging and knocking. In our low compression engines, we want the fuel to burn as quickly as possible to get better efficiency.

As for whether a full carb cleaning is needed, you won't know until you get in there and see where they're plugged up. But check the simple stuff first, kinked fuel hose, air intake leaks, etc.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[crapwacker]

Hi,

High octane is for high compression engines. It burns a little slower to prevent pinging and knocking. In our low compression engines, we want the fuel to burn as quickly as possible to get better efficiency.

As for whether a full carb cleaning is needed, you won't know until you get in there and see where they're plugged up. But check the simple stuff first, kinked fuel hose, air intake leaks, etc.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

I did not know that. I run high-test in my Focus, and have always gotten better mileage, but it is fuel injected.

[tejasmud]

Bad gas maybe.

Could drain the float bowls and capture the fuel into a clear bottle to see what it looks like.

100 yards sounds like the gas in the carbs got you to that point until the "new" gas made it into the carbs.

[crapwacker]

Bad gas maybe.

Could drain the float bowls and capture the fuel into a clear bottle to see what it looks like.

100 yards sounds like the gas in the carbs got you to that point until the "new" gas made it into the carbs.

That sounds about right. It was a BP, not some hole-in-the-wall so you wouldn't think so. But it did look all swirlly, like a Scotch and water, when I looked in the tank after I stopped

[TheCafeKid]

Depending on where you go and how fast they go thru gas, its entirely possible youve picked up water in the tank. Leaving it half empty after running it hard on a hot day, and then allowing it to cool outside will also cause condensation in the tank, which can do the same. 93 is wayyyyy to much octane for that old thing. High octane is for high compression, which you dont have. It wont burn completely, leaving deposits. Also, with high octane being more expensive, its highly likely they dont go thru as much 93 so it may have sat for a while, allowing the larger chance of it picking up water. Its also rained REALLY REALLY hard around here the last couple of days, dunno if it has up there or not, but when that happens i generally watch where i get my gas. If their filling pots are down hill or sunken, and they dont take care of their stuff, the seals on those after a hard rain will allow water in the storage tanks.... Just stuff to watch out for..

[crapwacker]

So dump the tank and try a fresh one first?

[crapwacker]

Got it going

Drained the tank into a 5 gallon bucket that I brought with me from work. Went to walmart and got a gas can and then put some seafoam in the tank. Had to choke it and work the throttle and clutch quite a bit to get it moving, and kept the revs high to make sure it wouldn't stall, but shut the throttle lots of times, at least I was on the open road. By the time I got back to town (30 miles), it could run without choke. Runs fine. I'm going to make sure to stop by that BP and give them the what-for!