84 1100 with possible possession problem

[bigbore2]

84 1100- Unipods[ which by the way let a lot of sand thru them], Yosh 4/1 header. Carbs cleaned and rebuilt and synched 3 years ago. over 11,000 mi - 17,600 km since then.

Recently I have been having a pilot jet/RPM range problem.  Stumbles, pops and hesitates on take off. Has not ever died, but this makes this bike dangerous in town.  I take off 2000 RPM and higher now to compensate.  Hey, look at the rookie.
 
After retuning it and getting it to a point where I needed to do a test ride, I went into the house and got my gear, came out and bike would not even start.  Not a pop or anything.
Bike was running pretty good less than 5 min before that.  Carbs were not fully hot but it ran fine before.

I guess I have an electrical problem also??

[Pat Conlon]

Check your vacuum petcock for proper functioning. Search "suck test".
Carb rebuild/ cleaning intervals is not relevant if you stored your bike with E10 fuel in the carbs.

You know you have a carb/fuel problem so get that sorted first, before worrying about electrical.

[racerrad8]

84 1100- Unipods[ which by the way let a lot of sand thru them], Yosh 4/1 header. Carbs cleaned and rebuilt and synched 3 years ago. over 11,000 mi - 17,600 km since then.

Recently I have been having a pilot jet/RPM range problem.  Stumbles, pops and hesitates on take off. Has not ever died, but this makes this bike dangerous in town.  I take off 2000 RPM and higher now to compensate.  Hey, look at the rookie.
 
After retuning it and getting it to a point where I needed to do a test ride, I went into the house and got my gear, came out and bike would not even start.  Not a pop or anything.
Bike was running pretty good less than 5 min before that.  Carbs were not fully hot but it ran fine before.

I guess I have an electrical problem also??

BB2, per your email you sent to me you are getting sand in the carb bowls. As I also advised in the answer to your email, the air filter has no correlation to the sand you have found in the carbs bowls

If you have sand in the fuel bowls, then it can only get there via two ways.
   #1) The screen on the petcock has worn out, been damaged or is missing which allows the debris from the tank to get to the carb bowls.
   #2) The carb bowl vents are the two white tees between 1/2 & 3/4 carb bodies. There is supposed to be a rubber hose installed to make sure they vent all the way down behind the engine. If the tees are damaged, the hoses are missing or cut off short you can get debris into the bowls.

I would say based on debris you found in the bowls, some if not all of the pilot jets are plugged or restricted.

Keep us posted on what you find on the sand that got into your bowls and I would start at the petcock.

When you say it would not start, does that mean nor crank or it cranks and will not fire?

Randy - RPM

[bigbore2]

Pat- petcock I changed over to a Pingle with main/reserve 2 years ago.
Bike has been in continuous use for over 3 years so no storage concerns. Tank cleaned 3 years.


Randy-Bikes turns over fine, just wont fire. Carb bowl vents lines intact.  I have installed an inline gas filter, 60 micron, and its been on for at least 2 years. Screen looks clean.
I noticed a little sand when I drained the carbs before jet changes the first 2 times, after that gas was clean. But now I remember, when I started on this tuning, one of the pods had fallen off. Dont know how long it had been like that. A couple months or so tops.

Filterskins makes a filter skin for pods.   Let me know if you can get 2 for my pods.

[Pat Conlon]

Ok, gotcha...Check to see if you have spark.
No spark, check your side stand switch. Unplug the connector and jump the male plug prongs with 2 female spade connectors and a short piece of wire. The side stand switch circuit needs to be in the closed position for the engine to run.
Check and clean the contacts in your run/stop switch. This circuit must also be closed to power the ignition box.
Check the continuity and do a ohm check of the key ignition switch leads.

[ribbert]

One step back before chasing all the other possibilities, has it got enough fuel in the tank?

Noel