Poor Drivability Mystery Solved
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 497
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From: New Egypt, NJ
Poor Drivability Mystery Solved
I have recently solved (or HAD solved) a couple of mysteries. My '02 Road King (injected) was getting abysmal mileage and running rough at low speeds & light throttle. It also had an intermittent miss. The bike has >86,000 miles on it & has never had its fuel filter replaced, so Istarted with that, which improved the rough running but the mileage stayed the same, & the intermittent miss was still... intermittent. At first, I thought it was gone but it reared its ugly head now & again still.
The bike would also occasionally idle lower than normal & didn't seem to "bark" right to life when starting. It would sort of weakly begin to run after several cranks of the starter but once running seemed ok. I thought all of this over quite a bit & decided it seemed like low fuel pressure. For various reasons after talking withthe local dealer's service department I decided it would be more cost effective for me to justthrow parts at it than to wait for an appointment and pay diagnostic time. So I threw a fuel pump and regulator in it.
The result was that my mileage came way back up: I had been getting 30 mpg running 80mph on the freeway solo. I'm currently on a short road trip packing my wife & loaded bags, running 80, & am getting 41 mpg! The bike runs much more smoothly, too. I now believe the pump was on its way out for quite a while, probably in part because I didn't change the filter.
However, the intermittent miss remained & became more regular. So, I stopped at the HD store in St George, UT where we are for the weekend, with only 3 hours until quitting time. I got an experienced, conscientious tech who quickly diagnosed the front injector & suspected a broken wire. He raised the tank & found one of the wires pulled out of the terminal. This was repaired & I was back on the road for only an hour labor!
The bike would also occasionally idle lower than normal & didn't seem to "bark" right to life when starting. It would sort of weakly begin to run after several cranks of the starter but once running seemed ok. I thought all of this over quite a bit & decided it seemed like low fuel pressure. For various reasons after talking withthe local dealer's service department I decided it would be more cost effective for me to justthrow parts at it than to wait for an appointment and pay diagnostic time. So I threw a fuel pump and regulator in it.
The result was that my mileage came way back up: I had been getting 30 mpg running 80mph on the freeway solo. I'm currently on a short road trip packing my wife & loaded bags, running 80, & am getting 41 mpg! The bike runs much more smoothly, too. I now believe the pump was on its way out for quite a while, probably in part because I didn't change the filter.
However, the intermittent miss remained & became more regular. So, I stopped at the HD store in St George, UT where we are for the weekend, with only 3 hours until quitting time. I got an experienced, conscientious tech who quickly diagnosed the front injector & suspected a broken wire. He raised the tank & found one of the wires pulled out of the terminal. This was repaired & I was back on the road for only an hour labor!
Last edited by northeastconfederate; Jun 9, 2013 at 09:34 AM.
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