ok so I'm stood at the side of the road waiting for a recovery truck after my '04 XL1200C died twice.

bike has been running flawlessly up to now, its stock with Screaming Eagle 2 mufflers (no baffle).

today I got out on the highway, was doing about 65 for 15 miles or so and the bike started losing power, almost like running out of fuel, and then wouldn't start. Minute later it fired up and would idle. I let it idle for about 5 mins, held some revs on for a while and all seemed ok.

set off, ran for about 25 seconds and then same problem, lost all power and wouldn't run.

repeated the above again.

any ideas on what to look for??

 

Did you change anything with the fuel line recently? Had a very similar problem with my fxlr when I decided to reroute my fuel line. Ended up not being enough gravity draw and would starve for fuel.

Good luck.

 

Thanks,

No, haven't touched anything but it definitely seems fuelling related. I'm no expert on mechanics so is there a reason the fuelling is adequate when sat stationary, even at high revs, but not enough when moving at any speed?

 

Fuel line, fuel filter, Crap in the float bowl (if carbureted)

 

Yeah it's carb, I'll get the carb off when I get it back home. Hopefully it's just a simple fuel line issue.

 

My daughter had a ricer, it would start, idle, take a little throttle but would stall under load. Turned out to be a sticking float and **** in the bowl. Cleaned it out, fresh tank of gas and no more issue.
It's a place to start. Not having EFI is a good thing when it comes to this type of problem.

 

Thanks, I'm hoping you're right.

Ive changed the plugs, it wasn't that.

I need to go buy some hose clips before I remove the carb, but hopefully when I do a strip and clean will sort it out.

other possibilities seem to be petcock vacuum, fuel filter, crank sensor or ignition coil.

i just don't really understand why it suddenly happened, it was running absolutely perfect right up until I hit that motorway today and it just died like I'd ran out of fuel.

 

Did you try loosening your gas cap I had a problem on a bike once it had a check valve in the tank vent that got stuck and I had created a vacuum in the tank

 

Good point too. If you have dual caps the left one is vented, make sure it's not blocked.

 

Ok I've checked the petcock and vacuum hoses, all fine. Checked the tank cap and the problem still occurrs.

I charged the battery overnight since I'd hammered it yesterday trying to start it constantly. This morning, it fired up instantly, idled nice with the choke out, idled nice with the choke at half.

Then as soon as I kick it into gear to move off, it dies and then runs like crap while I take it about 100m up the road where it dies completely again and I struggle to start it.

Crank position sensor?? I don't think I have the tools to test it, but it's a £100 part here so an expensive experiment if it's not the problem.