many informed individuals on this forum with knowledge to share.
maybe additional info. would help?
how many miles on the bike? are you original owner?
are all battery connections tight?
is charging system OK?
how old are the spark plug wires?
any leakage of goo looking stuff under timer cone on throttle side...cam position sensor?
any bubbles in the gas tank visible as engine is running?..(broken gas line in tank)
or does fuel pump cycle on/off a few times if you power-up the bike but do not start?
any leakage of fuel by the gas lines under the tank or by throttle body?
is air filter clean?..how are the spark plugs?
is the gas tank clean?..doubtfull that the fuel filter would be dirty unless you have rust in the tank...
what happens if you run bike with wires disconnected to temp. sensor?...you would get a code but is it running smooth?

 

forgot idle speed control could be hung-up on the throttle body
leaking injectors-doubt full
vacuum leaks-spray some wd#40 around throttle body as engine is running
and contaminated fuel....dump all the fuel out and look with flash light and refill to the top..if any debris at all remove tank and clean.

 

finally fuel pressure check.
fuel pressure regulator..the new gas with ethanol seems to push any old almost dead rubber fuel parts over the edge..most of the above items listed are check/test/inspect/clean but do require some time..if you plan on keeping the bike and working on it yourself consider purchase of harley service manual and the parts manual..those books and this forum should help.

 

There are two electrical connectors under the seat. The one place (single) connector is for the fuel pump and the two place (double) connector is for the fuel guage. Check them.
+1 on the Manual.

 

Fair enough, I will address every question...


how many miles on the bike? are you original owner?
Bought the bike with 28K miles, currently 35,000 miles. I bought the bike from a guy in Miami and I am the 3rd owner according to Harley info.

are all battery connections tight? Yes

is charging system OK? Yes

how old are the spark plug wires?

Replaced them last month before going to Sturgis

any leakage of goo looking stuff under timer cone on throttle side...cam position sensor?

The engine is tight and clean

any bubbles in the gas tank visible as engine is running?..(broken gas line in tank)

Don't know, will check, but did plan on removing tank and checking for trash

or does fuel pump cycle on/off a few times if you power-up the bike but do not start?

Bike starts like new, runs great until after about 30 mins when everything is warmed up to full temp... Then it starts with the cutting out when you twist on the throttle

any leakage of fuel by the gas lines under the tank or by throttle body? No

is air filter clean?..how are the spark plugs?

Yes Air filter is clean and the plugs are brand new and properly gapped at .040

is the gas tank clean?..doubtfull that the fuel filter would be dirty unless you have rust in the tank...

The bike ran GREAT from the time I bought it, the ride to Sturgis and back (3700 miles) all up to when I bought gas at this station and with in 10 miles the bike began to cut out like bad gas. I have since siphoned out that gas and replaced it 2 x since. It acts like you are running out of gas when you twist on the throttle, but what concerns me is a couple times the engine speed will hold at 2500 rpms when you let off the throttle until you rev it and then it drops back down... NO engine code while any of this happens.

what happens if you run bike with wires disconnected to temp. sensor?...you would get a code but is it running smooth?

Don't know... I will check it out.

I'm just looking for ideas for things I am capible of doing myself before I bring it to Harley... Why pay them $70 an hour when I can help with the process of elimination.

HD mech seems to think fuel pressure, fuel line, possible further contamination and made a comment of it might take as much a a dozen tank full of gas to finally burn up what has contaminated my bike if it was something in the gas...

So I think I am going to attempt to remove my tank (if I just don't shoot the bike first) and make sure something isn't floating around inside it.

 

when you remove the tank from the bike consider looking at the two wires mentioned in post #14...it is possible that the pump wire may be grounding-out due to rubbing under the seat/tank..this would probably act-up randomly and should be easy enough to spot once tank is removed...the sticking rpm's has me guessing because all i can think of is the idle speed control or temp. sensor...although the book does mention that contaminated fuel can adversely affect idle....hope things work out for you...keep us posted.

 

So, I'll just throw something out there for someone with experience to work with or shoot down.... Since you had the problem show up right after the fill up, it was likely bad fuel. You mentioned you got rid of it and replaced it.. But, what if there is trash (that cannot get through) in the injector? Can these injectors "easily" be removed from the bike for flow checking? On a car, they can clog or hang open fairly easily. Possibly a close visual of the injectors?? Maybe even dig or blow the stuff out of the inlet side??

 

in 1998 injectors there is a screen, but it would have missed the filter in the tank..possible..i guess we will know more when he removes the tank

 

For what its worth dept....

Spoke to my mechanic today (finally), showed him the plugs and he said that it looked like it was contaminated gas. He also confirmed that symptoms I discribed here would be caused by bad contaminated gas and that it will take several tanks to flush out the system. (note, because its EFI and I had no codes) So I was told to drain tank again and remove fuel lines and drain them as well, refill with 93 octane, add some heat and or ocatane bouster, keep running the best gas I can put in the bike and it should clear itself out... unless I want to take the whole fuel system apart.

Yea I got a frown when I told him I had 87 or 89 octane gas in the bike... "Bad Andy", sigh
But in my defense, we actually had a gas shortage since IKE hit Texas. Go figure, Texas get hit with a hurricane and Tenn has a gas shortage and what gas we do get is garbage. Seems a bunch of people have been experiencing everything from what I have to overheating issues on older carbed bikes. It has me wondering if diesel or something else that wasn't supposed to be was mixed in with the gas supply....

Anyhow I drove it 10 miles, allowed to cool and drove it back home and didn't experience anything, but tomorrow is another day.

I'll post what I find after I drain the tank completely this time.

 

I drained the fuel tank again and this time removed the little set screw where the fuel line connects to the fuel tank and finished draining the gas by way of the fuel pump (turning it on and off. I drained an addition 3 qts that way. Refilled the tank with about 1/2 gal of gas and skipped, popped and what other crazy noise it made and filled the tank up with 93 ocatane. Drove another 1/2 mile to auto zone and got some 104 octane booster and dumped a 1/3 of a bottle (1 bottle for 25 gals). I realize that I've probably got an octane of about 105 +/-, but by god the bike will either burn up.. blow up or clean up.

I took a trip to Nashville and a good rate of fuel consumption at highway speeds and back (about 80 miles) and so far so good. Today is another day and so will be tomorrow, but as it is... it seems all this has been caused by contaminated, poor grade fuel that just screwed with the whole fuel system.

Edited below.....
==============================================

Yesterday I went for a ride thinking all was well when almost like clock work the bike began with its issues all over again , grrrrrrrrrrr

Today I decided to brave it out and trank the top of the tank off and do a little exploration.
What I found was the lines going from the fuel pump to a large canister type filter. The lines were mad of heavy duty black gas hose and I didn't see any wear marks. I went so far as remove the longest line that went from the filter to the fuel pump and instected it and did a little mouth to mouth with it. Fist let me tell you that 93 octane with 104 octane booster doesn't taste any better than the 87 octane gas... in fact it has a longer lasting taste that requires more mouth wash...

Now this is where it gets interesting....

I decide to pure out the contents of the filter into a glas jar and this is what came out...

Unfortunantly I have to leave out of town Tomorrow afternoon and might be a couple of weeks before I get back, but at least I might found the real problem, if not, than one of the problems anyhow.

FYI, Harley told me that these filters should be changed every 25k miles....