Backfiring, stalling, and throatier than usual | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Backfiring, stalling, and throatier than usual

And the saga continues. I took her back to burly cycle as it really only started acting up after valve clearance. They did a full inspection of the bike... Valves are in spec, the timing is ok, and they couldn't figure out why it was running poorly. 2 techs took it out for 20 minutes each and said it was all smiles and it runs fantastic. Weird because it was back firing and mis firing on the ride there and stalled when I arrived.
They didn't charge me for the service as nothing needed to be replaced.
They said if anything it's power commander related. Pcv fried, tune is off (tune hasn't changed so that shouldn't be the issue) etc.
Kinda strange......
I'll see how it rides when I pick it up Wednesday evening.
 
Brian P said:
The existence of a power commander is new information. Disconnect it, take it completely out of the picture, then get back to us.
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I thought I mentioned that it had a power commander and a proper tune in my origional post... Oopsie. It was running fine with the tune up until the valve clearance (6000+km).
I'll know Wednesday night tho if it still is acting up or not tho.... Strange how when u bring vehicles to the mechanic they seem to run fine ?
 
Like Brian said. Disconnect the power commander from the factory harness completely and run it on the factory tune.
 
Well guys I think I am getting closer and closer. Think I have narrowed it down to an intermittent electrical issue. Burlington Cycle had my bike for 4 hours and re checked the valves, timing, vacuum lines and a bunch of other stuff. They were nice enough not to charge me for the service. Also, 2 of their techs took the bike out for 20 minutes each and i not experience one single hick up.
It seems to happen once I am riding on somewhat bump roads. Was on the QEW last night for 20 minutes and it ran beautiful....once I got off on Lakeshore and was hitting bumps and avoiding pot holes it started acting up again. It was idling like garbage, the FI and oil light blinked 3-4 times, then went away, and it was idling perfectly fine again. Stupid thing about my bike is that you can't just pull FI codes...it needs to be blinking and then you hold the "mode" button for 2 seconds and the code pops up. There is no way of retracting previous FI codes. Out of the half hour I was riding last night, it ran like crap for about 2 minutes or so.
NOW! Look at the attached images. There are 2 bolts under my gas tank that keep that entire compartment (battery, wires, relay, ecu, etc etc) solid. The left bolt is missing. I can put my hand underneath it and it reaalllyyy wiggles a solid 2cm up and then 2cm back down. I can see how that entire compartment would be bouncing around when I am riding on a somewhat bumpy road. This may be shorting something out after it bounces a couple times therefore leading to an intermittent short.
Checked my negative ground from battery to under tank...A OK, both are solid. I am going to check the 10A IG fuse and 15A ECU fuse to see if they are loose/blown. May as well check the 30A main fuse under the gas tank also.
Now, if the fuses are loose/burnt, that would explain why I am getting intermittent electrical issues right?. Would a short somewhere in the electrical harness cause a fuse to blow? I think it would....
After seeing this issue, and the symptoms my bike is having I am getting closer and closer before I rip all the fairings off and look at all connections. .
What do you guys think? PITA I tell ya...but I think I'm getting closer.
Has anyone had a battery die and you are just running on the stator power? You know how poorly the bike performs when that happens? That's exactly how the bike runs when this issue is happening.
 

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I doubt your missing bolt is the cause of your troubles.

Have you disconnected the PC yet?
 
caboose56 said:
I doubt your missing bolt is the cause of your troubles.

Have you disconnected the PC yet?
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Yep same issue. If you look close enough to the piece near my battery and top of fuse box. It is scuffed up from hitting the white plastic under my seat from what I assume is from bouncing around.
 
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Is the side stand wiggling enough to activate the !@#$ safety switch?
 
Trials said:
Is the side stand wiggling enough to activate the !@#$ safety switch?
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I looked at it last night but realized I had it in neutral and not 1st gear running on the rear stand. I will take a look at that this evening. Wouldn't the side stand cause the bike to just shut off though? And it if in neutral at a stop it would be idling fine because it only effects the bike while riding?
 
I'm just trying to think of things that have the ability to interfere with it firing very briefly, such as safety cutout switches or weak relays, can even be vibration induced.

Plug caps and leads all good?
 
Trials said:
I'm just trying to think of things that have the ability to interfere with it firing very briefly, such as safety cutout switches or weak relays, can even be vibration induced.

Plug caps and leads all good?
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The spark plugs were jdut replaced and they were all looking a bit rich. Plug caps (ignition coil?) seemed to be fine as all plugs were same. Not if one of the spark plugs was super toast and the rest were ok I'd be testing it. Or should I test them anyways? Don't have the tools to do it and I heard u should test them warm
 
When was your fuel filter last replaced?

They ask about compression test results a lot, might want to do one or have you

They describe coils as stick coil and I take that to mean 1 inline coil per cylinder like a car, pretty sure they can break down from excess heat.
Did you check the plug gap, also pretty sure you can slightly retard or advance the ignition timing if the gap is wrong.
 
That's a pretty nice bike, do you have a spare oxygen sensor to test with?

I wonder if anybody ever reads that part right before the Forward on "Emission Control Information" and "Tampering with noise control system prohibited" lol
 
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Good service manual, you should memorize it :geek:
 
Trials said:
When was your fuel filter last replaced?

They ask about compression test results a lot, might want to do one or have you

They describe coils as stick coil and I take that to mean 1 inline coil per cylinder like a car, pretty sure they can break down from excess heat.
Did you check the plug gap, also pretty sure you can slightly retard or advance the ignition timing if the gap is wrong.
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Trials said:
That's a pretty nice bike, do you have a spare oxygen sensor to test with?

I wonder if anybody ever reads that part right before the Forward on "Emission Control Information" and "Tampering with noise control system prohibited" lol
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Thanks, I love the bike and take really good care of it... Follow the maintenance schedule always. When I changed the spark plugs we didn't bother testing the ignition coil because all plugs looked the same. If one was alot worse than others I'd be concerned and test. I don't have the tools for it, nor really know how so I can always ask my mechanic Steve to check em (when they are hot, not cold).
I don't have an O2 sensor on my bike, the only ones for my year that have o2 sensors are one that were in the UK and Australia (Id need to double check that tho). I haven't done a compression test, just the valves and throttle synch. And yes there is 1 coil per cylinder rather than a whole pack for all 4.
Juet freakin weird how it comes and goes. Last night 30 minutes of riding and maybe 2 of those 30 minutes it ran like **** and then ran good again.
 
arogal said:
Juet freakin weird how it comes and goes. Last night 30 minutes of riding and maybe 2 of those 30 minutes it ran like **** and then ran good again.
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To me it still sounds fuel related by that, I have the utmost confidence you will figure it out soon or it will get worse :|
 
Trials said:
To me it still sounds fuel related by that, I have the utmost confidence you will figure it out soon or it will get worse :|
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Ya at this point I'm ready to bring it to Steve at SJ Powersports and say have the bike as long as you want until the issue is fixed. Did sidestand switch test yesterday in 1st gear. Wiggled it around, and put it down a tad and it wasn't affecting anything. Wiggled a ton of wires when it was running in 1st on the stand also, and nothing seemed to be doing anything. Now....if this issue was consistent and was ALWAYS happening rather than being intermittent, it would be a lot easier to chase down. Only if I had time to pull off that darn FI light that blinked a couple times I would have an idea where to look. Some days its worse than others. Tuesday it happened after 6km of riding, FI light blinked, then disappeared and she wasn running fine again. While Wednesday evening I rode 50km and it only acted up in the final 2km (no FI light) and came back to its normal state.
FLSTC said:
Replace the missing bolt, preventing the electronics from bouncing around ?
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I am going to order the bolt, take gas tank off and replace. For now I have taken a shop towel and wrapped it in electrical tape. I stuffed the towel in the gap between the battery and where the seat screws in (you can see in previous image) and made it long enough so it's covering the positive lead of battery. There is absolutely no wiggle anymore...this is temporary, but will stop that compartment to shaking around.
Also, I checked the ECU fuse and IG fuse. Bother are A-OK. Next step is to check the main fuse under the gas tank as I'll be in there putting the new bolt in.
 
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