Took the wife down to a shopping centre 35 miles from home most motorway miles.

Anyway the last mile was stop start traffic at almost walking pace, sat behind cars and the bike died whilst idling twice. It started again fine but should I be worried or would this be considered normal?

 

Could be something simple, such as dirt or a little water in the carb. I suggest you clean the float chamber. If you do find anything then work back to the tank and consider draining and cleaning it. Does your bike have a vacuum fuel tap? They can be troublesome when they get old. A blocked tank breather can create a partial vacuum in the tank. A loose electrical connection in the ignition circuit is another possibility.

 

Carb is brand new not sure if water may have gotten into after I washed it two days ago?

Are you saying that it shouldn't cut out at all?

Yeah do have vacuum fuel tap bike ran perfect and started easy after it died. Could it have just gotten too hot in traffic?

After all my issues I instantly get so paranoid.

1st time I went accelerate and had a little pop and it died. Second time and third actually was about 5 mins after 1st time and the idle just slowed down and stopped.

The fuel is low lights not on yet bit it's close not sure if this would add to any hot issue?

 

What is your idle speed? It should be idling at 1000 RPM when warmed up. Could have been too rich at idle for that temp or the mixture otherwise off. Or accelerator pump too much or not enough.

 

Once set up correctly your bike shouldn't cut out in any circumstances IMHO. If your carb is so new it may need some fine tuning - it is most unlikely the jetting and adjustments will be perfect out of the box. I would fill the tank and remove that nagging doubt!

If your bike gets too hot in traffic you will be in no doubt! It will be unbearably hot to sit on top of, smell bl++dy hot and run erratically before it cuts out. Been there. If yours simply cut out as you describe it isn't getting too hot.

 

Hi buddy, Harley's are still new to me so I have no ideas if idle speed was right or not since no tach lol.

Just had new Milkuni hsr42 installed so again I'm hoping it's setup properly. Apparently my bike has to run rich because of the modifications.

Maybe I should use the idle adjusting screw to speed it up slightly??

 

Agreed !!!

heat can and will make the carb run richer ...what everyone is saying here ...is that your idle setting and slow jet may be a tad to rich ...what is happening is that the hotter the engine gets (like setting in traffic) the intake manifold is now super heating the incoming air (thinning it out )which in turns will make the mixer too rich...which will cause the engine to stubble and die...(which is a over rich condition when jetting any carburetor...

either jet it for that very high temperature ...or avoid sitting in traffic ...it's and air cooled bike ...must have air moving over it !!!
just saying !!!
this is not the bikes fault ...it's yours ...you have done all this (high performance) work to it and now want to sit in traffic with a air cooled high compression motor ...really !!!???

 

Ok thanks for the help guys there was no bad running or spluttering. I guess I'll have to talk to my Indy seen as he was the one to install and setup carb?


Other option is to get a dyno run???

P.s I didn't want to sit in traffic lol. Just the lanes were too tight to filter through

 

Well the ride home was fine, didn't sit in traffic as such but junctions, traffic lights and light traffic and it idled fine so it does sound like heat / too rich.

 

You need to find a better indy. you have had way too many issues in the last couple of weeks. Find someone you can trust to tune it and leave it alone....