Been a busy week. . .I hope this weekend I'll get back out in the garage. I've been riding it with the stock ecm and it was fairly smooth with a full tank but is roughing up a little now down to probably a 3rd of a tank. Love that non-linear gauge

I'll probably be empty come the weekend and the fuel filter showed up today. I'll just splash the tank after I change it and ride test it. If it's okay, I'll put the T-Max back in and check it as per above. Good info and I appreciate the help. I will probably also change out the hose that goes to the check valve as well with Gates H209. Several people have done it and claim it as an upgrade. We'll see.

 

I did that once as was suggested using WD40. Checked each joint from the A/N intake back to the throttle body to head. No change in idle. Maybe try it again when its hotter, or something a little more volatile. But I'm not too charged up about spraying anything too flammable around an aircooled motor. I'll give it another try if the other things I'm doing don't completely fix it. Thanks!

 

"Had this setup almost since I bought it. Has run mostly fine but lately not so much. Have been doing some maintenance to it and after the last oil change the engine performance has gotten really bad"

Have you checked your oil level? Also anything in the areas you were working doing the oil change. Maybe knocked something loose?

 

I think that was coincidental, was getting a lot of oil out the breathers but it seems to have calmed down with the stock ecm. So I think the constantly worsening tune was doing that. And no, the oil level is good and I've double checked my work. Years of aircraft maintenance, I always work with the book open and check off my steps. Not so **** that I write up a gripe and then sign it off, but almost!

 

I'm just going to throw this out there as a possibility. You said that this problem started after your last oil change. Where did you drain your oil from? Did you remove the pipe plug that is under the cam chest area? (On the right side by the riders floorboard).

 

I used the same drain on the pan than I always use. Again, I always work with the book open. Pipe plug by the right foot board? Didn't touch anything there. Now you've got me curious though, I'll look at that tomorrow, it's garage day. I mean Saturday.

 

Cool, i'm not doubting your abilities, but i've seen people drain the oil from that plug before. If you ever take that plug out you DON'T put it in all the way, only untill the top of the plug is about flush with the engine case. If you put it in to far (deep) it will block a passage way that goes from the bottom of the crankcase to the cam chest area. If this happens the crankcase will fill with oil causing a tremendous loss of power. When the crankcase has excessive oil in it you'll often hear it referred to as sumping which can also be caused by a number of other things like a bad scavenge side of the oil pump. If you do remove that plug you should get less that 6 oz of oil out of it. More than that and you have issues. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

LoL, didn't take it that way. You guys are covering the bases and like my buddy used to say, "If the mule is pullin', don't holler WHOA!" Yeah, I figured it was some kind of drain on the crankcase, but I've never messed with it. Haven't had a need to. I'm familiar with excessive oil level in the cam chest bogging down the engine, but I'm good there. This is a persistent miss that seems worse when the fuel level gets down. I'll get into the tank shortly. I'm a little pissed at NAPA. Ordered 24" of Gates submersible 5/16 fuel injector line and they sent me a 12" piece. Turns out that is their part # for a 12" length. It comes nicely bagged with a bold NAPA sticker on it. FML, I hope that piece is enough for the longer hose, the rest of my order will be here this afternoon.

 

I haven't been that torqued in a while.

So, Garage Day: Got all my stuff I thought I needed to work my way through the current round of troubleshooting.
Drained the tank, removed the dash, canopy, fuel pump assembly, changed the filter, and hose. The H209 that I ordered from NAPA, (24") came in two 12" lengths, WTF? Ended up just going to Destination and getting an new check valve assembly. It was $10 less than the hose. But that is later in the story.
So, took the tank off cleaned everything, wiped it out with a lint-free cloth washed the fuel pickup off with brake cleaner and then washed the brake cleaner off with carb cleaner. Changed fuel filter, hose X 2, reassembled, set aside.
Now it's easy to inspect things, and SURPRISE! The plug wire for the front plug had two rub spots on it where I could not see them before. Through the rubber and down to the fiber. Up behind a cable clamp. Okay, that's easy.
Then I pulled the horn/motor mount, and removed the fuel rail. Yes, the injectors were gunked up. Okay, so should I clean them or replace them?
HMM, wait a tick. THOSE ARE THE WRONG F-ING INJECTORS!!! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE MOTHER F-ING KIDDING ME?!?! AS LONG AS I HAVE BEEN CHASING THIS CRAPPY PROBLEM? I had Service Bulletin M-1185 done in 2008. The service manager at (then Legend HD) told me that they changed them out. Dumb@55 me didn't verify the part numbers and took it on faith. The bike really didn't run any different and I just let it alone. I took a look at the nozzles when I got them out and KNEW something wasn't right. I looked up the Service Bulletin, printed it out, lost my mind for a minute and down to the dealership I went. Now Destination HD, the service writer got the manager and he eventually found two brand new 25 deg injectors and wished me well. I got the new check valve and spark plug wires and installed all.
Splashed the tank and cycled the power a few times to charge up the fuel rail and hit the button. She coughed a couple of times and then went to full-military power! Whoops, forgot that I friction locked the throttle open so I could see into the throttle body while shining the light in the injector cavities. Blonde moment.
Anyhow warmed it up, leak checked everything. Rode to Costco and filled up and then did about five miles of road where it has historically been troublesome. So far, so good.
I'll run a couple of tanks of gas through it and if everything is still running smooth, reinstall the T-max, reload a fresh map and see how it runs then. (After checking the cold AFR's as suggested by someone smarter than me)
If anything changes, I'll update this but for now thanks for watching!
k

 

How frustrating that is but i'm glad so far things are running good.