A new sporty issue....

[jloomis19]

Well, yesterday, was out riding all day long without any issue, then had to switch over to the reserve, and right as I was pulling into the gas station to fill up....not even 10 miles into the reserve, it started to sputter at me, I thought it might just be a bit lower on the reserve than I thought. Didnt think too much into it. But even after filling up and turning the fuel back to the "ON" position, it seemed like it started idling a lot lower than normal. Sounded like it went from the regular idle(assuming it was around 800 rpm) down all the way to what seems like maybe 3-400 rpm. And when I am coasting on deceleration I hear a lot of popping coming from the pipes. In the 3 years the pipes have been on the bike, Ive never had that. When lightly twisting the throtle, it seems like it wants to miss a little bit, but at full throtle and cruising speeds, runs completely normal. Any ideas?

 

[glider]

Possibly some debris or water in the carb. Use the drain screw in the bowl to drain it out a bit and do it a few times. Look between the cylinders from the opposite side of the carb.

 

[jloomis19]

Am I able to get to the drain screw without taking the carb off? I am pretty dumb when it comes to anything carb'd, lol.

p.s. saw u posted this on the other post, I edited that original one and just made a whole new thread for this one since it was a completely different issue. hopefully that wasnt a problem.

 

[glider]

With a long thin screwdriver you can reach between the cylinders to drain the carb. It doesn't have to come out, only loosened up a few turns.

I thought I was going crazy when I sent the post and your question was gone in the other post.

 

[jloomis19]

ok, ill give it a shot in the morning and see if it clears it up....just to add to it, i did change the plugs to new h-d plugs, pre gapped, and i rechecked the gap before installing. yeah, my bad on that glider, ur not going crazy, lol....didnt think it was posted long enough for anyone to notice...but u sir, are on the ball!! lol

Forgot to add...I did ride the bike home obviously from filling it up....drove about 50 miles to get it home....hopefully that wasnt a bad idea.

 

[fin_676]

A couple of things come to mind on the problem here when as you have used reserve you may have pulled some dirt from the bottom of the tank into the carb draining the float bowl may help
the other thing that comes to mind is that after going on to reserve going 10 miles may have been the reserve used up and you just made it to the gas station and filled with bad gas in which case you need to drain the tank and fill with known good gas

Brian

 

[glider]

Keep in mind here that when switching to reserve on the petcock, you are now drawing fuel and what ever is in the tank from the bottom of the tank, not an inch or so up like when in the run position so you may have pulled debris or water into the tank. It's advisable every few years to remove and clean/flush the tank to eliminate problems.

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Bad gas sputtering your carbureted ride is a "common" occurence if you don't run in reserve mode or gas up at unknown or unfrequented gas stations. Your 2006 uses the "better" fuel tank material introduced in 2005 model year (so HD advertised anyway)...but do drain and check that fuel filter, lines and carb float bowl, amazing how fine rust and debris can clog up the works...

 

[jloomis19]

i tried draining the carb, still have not yet drained the tank, but it ran great for a while after draining the carb like glider said to do....but i noticed that if it is just me on the bike, it runs as good as ever, but when adding on my fiance, it runs bad like previously said....my step dad mentioned from when i popped off the vaccum tube from the original issue i had in a previous thread, that when it popped like it did, could have sent any dirt right into the carb b/c at that point it was like "sucking" for gas is how he put it....im getting to the point of just draining the fuel tank tho, and filling with speedway or sunoco fuel or something better. use the possible bad gas for the lawn mower, lol.

 

[09RG/92spster]

Here are a couple of things that you may want to check. They have caused similar problems on my 92 sportster. Check the intake, may be leaking. Check the tank vent lines. Check the rubber tube on the back of the petcock. Also one time I had a problem with gas leaking out of the bowl vent, took off drain screw,drained bolw and put back on, no help, so I took the bowl off and cleaned some crud out and run fine after that. Be careful not to disturb the float.
Russell