| Author | Message | ||
     Hunter1175 |
I tried searching other posts for an answer with no luck, so here goes... The other night I went for a ride, on the way out the bike started a sort of coughing, or sputtering as I gave it gas. I stopped and filled the tank as it was low, but further down the road it continued, the only other way I can describe it is it felt like when I rolled on the gas it would cut out or chug and then get a boost and go. On the straight it seemed ok so I continued on. I stopped for a red light and at green went to go and the bike died. After dieing it tried to do the self test and prime the fuel pump like I had shut the key off and back on, when I tried to start back up it died before fully fireing up. I pulled off the road and turned the key off. When I turned the key back on the N light and oil light came on but no gauge lights or engine light and the fuel pump did not prime. I tapped on the side of tank and was able to get the engine light to come on a couple of times but it would die before fully fireing up again. And then finally I could not even get it to do that. Got the bike home and did some research on here and in shop manual. 1. all fuses look good. 2. bypassed ignition switch no help 3. checked ignition and starter relays 4. no loose wires that I can find 5. kickstand switch already bypassed the only other thing I can think is there might be a problem with the fuel pump but I am unsure it would cause the dash problems...any thoughts? | ||
| Billetmetallic |
i have a carb model, but something similar happened to mine, it ended up being the smaller wire coming off of the starter (i assume it is an ignition wire, but I never double checked the wiring diagram), the eyering connector seperated from the wire, i found it with dumb luck, while replacing the starter and ignition relays i droped one of the mounting screws in the general area of the starter and after about five min. of looking for the screw i noticed the free hanging wire | ||
| Numb_nutz |
Sounds like you have possibly a bad ground. Also my 99 S3 was doing something similar to yours and it ended up being just the battery. I though i was running out of gas so stopped and filled up. Seemed ok till i go up to speed then started cutting out. The other thing weird was my speedometer was also going crazy. | ||
| Kyrocket |
Start with the least expensive and most likely candidates first. Like NN said, test the battery. Last time it happened to me it was a fairly new battery and I just knew it wasn't that 'cause it was "new". And even though a ground wire/cable is tight doesn't mean there's not corrosion underneath, a socket and wire brush will knock it out in five minutes. Keep us updated on what you find. | ||
| 5liter |
Fuel pressure regulator? | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
Mine missed and sputtered similar to your problem, and some times when trying to start the cullenoid would just constantly tap, but the starter was never turning over. I also had a variety of strange activity from the instruments and idiot lights. Turned out to be a bad battery connection. In short, the advice already given is good. Start simple and cheap instead of just throwing parts and money at the problem. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Sounds electrical to me too. Check for bad ground wires. Check for chafed wires above the engine. Remember that the engine rocks back and forth so long as it's running. Look for problems that might have been caused by that. I would suggest popping off the tank and having a look under there. There might be wire fatigue in the steering neck area too. | ||
| Billetmetallic |
and on the battery note, advice that was given to me when mine was freakin out was that the battery ground wire could be loose on either end. Someone else said that the post on the battery could have become disconnected internally, appearing to be fine but no bueno on the inside, take it in to any HD/Buell dealer (among other places) they will check it for free. Took mine in and found out that my battery is 8 years old and still checked out fine, actually still using it to this very day, that blew me away! | ||
| Stoked |
Man, this could of been me writing this story. Mine ended with me pushing the bike home the last mile and passing out in the driveway afterwards. Ended up being cracked post on battery and one of those black fuses at the bottom of the box was bad. I assume it blew from the surges of juice. Would intermitently allow either lights or just N to come on. I started jiggling the likely culprits like the cables to battery and noticed right at the positive terminal when I jiggled real good lights would come one. When I'd get it good enough to not only allow lights to come on but then allow fuel pump, soon as I hit the starter it would spark right there where it was cracked. If you have those black fuses be sure to use your ohmeter to check continuity across them. Not sure of anothrer way to know they are blown. | ||
| Hunter1175 |
Are you talking about the black fuse looking things below the Starter and Ignition Relay? | ||
| Stoked |
Yep, mine has two I believe. One was bad. I put one of the 20 amp fuses in there and that's when it would bump the starter again. I'm not even sure what amp those are. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
The fuse box gets corroded too. I had to take each of my fuses out, clean the contacts, apply WD40 and reassemble on more than one occasion. Mine didn't crap out while riding though. I did have a battery crap out on the road once. Died so fast like someone flipped a switch. It put out 12V with no load but as soon as the headlight came on, DEAD. Tried jumping it from a car battery yet? | ||
| Bad_karma |
Black fuses? Do you mean Diodes? Replacing with a fuse is probably not a good thing to do since they (diodes)prevent current flow in one direction only where as a fuse doesn't care about direction. Joe | ||
| Brokeneck |
I had exactly the same symptoms on my FI S3 -- turned out to be battery post -- (Message edited by brokeneck on November 19, 2008) | ||
| Stoked |
"Black fuses? Do you mean Diodes? " Nope, it's either next to or right below my two diodes. Two black fuses. They don't have amperage markings but are shaped just like the other fuses but a little longer. And you can't see in them. I'm not sure if that's factory or if the PO used em. But one of them was either corroded to bad or blown inside cause it had no continuity across it. But, my original point was my battery ended up haveing a cracked post. So it would intermitenlty cut out while riding before it finally died. I think the surges of power are what killed that one fuse. The batt I had was some generic batter with these week raised posts. I went ahead and took out a second mortage to get the Harley battery. The posts on it look much more durable. | ||
| Hunter1175 |
Well I have had the battery tested, checked/cleaned the negative on both ends and even pulled the tank off to see if I could find any frayed wires under there...with no luck. The fuse box also appears to be in good condition. | ||
| Oldog |
Hunter check the connectors and wiring behind the fly screen too. I agree with Nate its electrical most likely. check key switch temp ( back side @ wires ) | ||
| Billetmetallic |
the smaller of the two wires going to the starter? | ||
| Hunter1175 |
Does anyone know the order of tests when the key is turned on? It seems like I should be able to limit the problem to something that occurs normally when key is turned on but prior to ignition. | ||
| Preybird1 |
Hell id even check the tps out, Mine would start and run but any throttle at all and it sputter like crazy. I did tps reset and the afv, Since then no problems. This may help or not but it will tell us some codes if there are any present. Bust out the ecm spy and pick your buells brain!! | ||
| Hunter1175 |
TPS? AFV? please forgive my ignorance... | ||
| Preybird1 |
You need a factory manual, Its your bikes bible. Sorry throttle position sensor,air fuel value. Do you have access to an ecm spy cable?? I would go through the the wires again just to be sure!! You need the ecm cable. If its in the fuel injection or ecm it should throw a code in the ecm memory. This may not be the problem, But for me it has always helped me out,I went as far as disconnecting all connectors on my main wiring harness, As well as taking apart all the little separate wires that ground all over the bike the eyelet ones cleaning them all with a wire brush and re-installing everything. I then connected my ecm cable to the bike with the ecm spy program and reset the tps,afv, And ran the full diagnostic. Erased all the trouble codes and checked for current codes. Id say go ask jos51700 he can help just be ready with some testing input for him. Edit: I almost forgot have you checked the codes using the engine light method turn keys to on eng switch to run get the fuel pump light on and just wait is there any light flashing just after the first light goes off, wait.... anything? Or go to knowledge vault search for the data port jumper thread, Sorry i dont have my manual with me i cant remember what the 2 pins are that you jump to force the light on dash to blink in sequence to communicate a code reference number (Message edited by preybird1 on December 01, 2008) | ||
| Oldog |
Hunter IIRC, the Fuel pump is turned on for 4 seconds to pressureize the rail, the ET light is lit, thats about it. the ddfi system is rather rudimentry the fuel filter could be plugged. You have a manual (from above) do you have access to a computer and ecm spy / cable. If not see the manual about using the self test and read back features of the ECM If you have ECM spy the ecm outputs can be checked to the injectors and coils. the inputs can be checked from tps, bas, iat, cht, cp, o2 ( throttle position, bank angle, intake air temp, cylinder head temp, cam position and exhaust o2. ) timing ok coils and wires ok, injectors and pressure ok sensors ok wiring ok compression ok should run. keep us posted I think that Nate is likely right, sorta sounds electrical, if the fuel deilivery is good After a re read the wiring to the punp may be iffy look at that again, 2 are the pump 2 are the low fuel light sender. (Message edited by oldog on December 02, 2008) | ||
| Hunter1175 |
Yes, I do have a manual butI do not have the spy cable. I have already tried the engine light trouble codes, but the engine light does not come on with the pins jumped either, so can't get codes from there. I will look into the rest and keep posting. | ||
| Oldog |
no codes, thump tank and it helps a little. Fuel pressure test? | ||
| Oldog |
Hunter I have re read the thread I will drag out the book and look through the electrical section this evening. | ||
| Buellisticx1 |
I had a similar issue not long ago and turned out be a bad Ignition Switch I suspect the ignition switch, they fail and can do exactly that symptom. It could be a wire break AFTER the switch or even a fuse or relay in the fuse block. But reach behind the switch and wiggle the wires and see if that has any effect. The wires as they go into the switch often come out. I remember that when checked the Ignition switch one of the wires came off in my hand with just a slight tug. This may not be your problem but its an idea.... | ||
| Hunter1175 |
Well I finally found the culprit. There is a ground screw right in front and below where the gas tank attatches to the frame. The screw has two wires attached and one if them had broken loose but stayed in place so it was hard to see that it was broken. Fixed the problem and she fired right up! Woohoo back in the saddle. Thanks for all the help guys. It would have cost an arm and a leg to have a shop find it I am sure! | ||
| Preybird1 |
Thats good to hear another one riding! | ||
| Jstfrfun |
Darned ground wires! |
