I took a ride from Phoenix to Los Angeles this weekend and I came across a rather disturbing fuel delivery issue while on my way. Most of the trip would be on I-10 cruising around 80-90 indicated. I had planned to refuel in Blythe, California (about 140 miles from home) and again in Cabazon, California (about 140 miles again). About 8 miles outside of Quartzite I felt the bike start to surge on me. I had the petcock set to ON at the time and rolled it to RES but when I rolled back on the throttle the revs continued to sink.
I immediately thought that the petcock was faulty and that this was going to be a terribly awkward phone call. Not to mention that I was stuck in the middle of the desert. So I pull the clutch in, still rolling at about 60 MPH and the bike dies. I coasted to the edge of the highway, shut down and opened the gas cap. Still plenty of fuel in there and so now I am sure that the petcock was bad.
Some Questions:
1) The fuel gauge on my Bandit has 5 bars, is the reserve included on the gauge or would that kick in once the I run out of bars?
At the time it started to die I had two solid bars remaining and to my thinking more than enough to make it to Blythe about 30 miles up the road. Well, being sure that the petcock was bad I started switching it between the three options and trying to start the bike. I was desperate at this point and after a few attempts the bike sprang back to life. I had the full range of power and head in to Quartzite, petcock set to PRI (this might be bad, but it started this way and I wasn't willing to get stuck again - in the middle of the desert with as it was becoming dark).
Throughout the trip I would get anywhere between 60-100 miles and the bike would gently start to die on me. Pulling the clutch in would kill it, but some times releasing the clutch would effectively pop start it and I could continue on. Most of the time I would have to pull over and wait. I was sure it wasn't the petcock now, this was too random.
On the way home, which I was somewhat dreading I was stopping every 60 miles to refuel. It seemed as long as I had between 3 and 5 fuel bars remaining that the surging and dieing would not happen (except for one time just outside San Bernadino it started to die at 60 miles in to the tank). I could not get it to consistently repeat the issue, so every 60 miles... I stopped for fuel. The worse kind of riding is being on a machine you are not sure will make it to the next gas station and thinking any slight change in velocity that "oh God, it's about to die." It was a long trip. Once the bike was refueled it ran just as expected. Full access to the power band, no hesitation, no surging, and no dieing. It may be useful to mention that I ran Seafoam through the bike on the previous tank because, well... because I had a bit of the bottle left over and I was in the garage.
Does anyone have any idea what the issue may be here? I bought this bike used and it has 25k on the clock. About 1500 miles ago the carbs where cleaned and resynced (before I bought it) and the petcock was replaced (I need to dig up the invoice, but it was mentioned at sale). The am pretty sure that this is a fuel starvation issue. The surging, dieing are all indicative of lack of fuel and the behavior is strikingly similar to be running the gas out of my little Honda Shadow.
At 16k miles the original owner had it rebuilt to address the oil consumption which is common with Bandits made in 01. I had the oil changed 250 miles before the trip and the gentleman who did the service said that it did not seem to be low. The bike does tend to run rich which is very disappointing considering the carbs had been cleaned and synced when I purchased the bike.
Where would you suggest I start? I suppose, if the tank has to come off we might be able to address the rich nature as well but I am not very comfortable with carb work at the moment. When the Shadow began to run rich I simply adjusted the mixture screw and frequently checked the plugs for color. The Shadow has been running well since then and I was hoping that adjusting the Bandit may be just as easy.
On my return trip I think I averaged around 40 MPG, I was expecting around 45 but that may be a bit presumptuous. Any thoughts?
Topic: [01 B12] Intermittent fuel delivery problem. (Read 3523 times)