Hey guys I'm new to this forum, actually new to riding. I just bought a 2009 nightster with 3,500 miles on it. This is my first bike ever and haven't been around bikes at all in my life. I'll go ahead and tell you what upgrades it has, and the issue I'm having with the bike, (or I'm pretty sure it's an issue.) the only upgrades that are visible to my eye and that the dealership told me about is that it has Vance and Hines short shot exhaust. Today, the day after I bought the bike, it was about 50 degrees out and I started the bike let it worm up for about a minute (I probably should have done it longer) and then started to go down my driveway. I had the clutch in all the way and about half way down the driveway the bike started to sounds like it was going to stall so I gave it some throttle sounded okay but once I got to the bottom of the driveway it stalled out. I then started it back up and it sounded ruff for about 3 minutes. I drove off and it was fine. Then later today I started it again (cold) and I just let it sit in the driveway and it started to sound like it was struggling and backfired once or twice. I had to give it some throttle because it was sounding pretty ruff at points. Looking into the Vance and Hines pipes I see that it should be tuned using the FP3. I have no idea if the dealership, or previous owner did this. I'll be taking the bike to the dealership tomorrow and talking with them about this issue. Any advice or suggestions would be great!
Thanks

 

You need to check and see if there was any tuning done to it at all. The FP3 is a great programmer but there are other ways to flash a bike. If it has not been done to your bike it sure could use one but if you purchased it from a dealer they should make sure the bike runs properly. They can check with a computer it the ecm has been reflashed or not. If it hasn't hold the dealer accountable some dealers want big money to reflash a ecm I'm not sure how much they can do to a ecm anymore. Good luck let us know what they say

 

I hope you checked oil level, did you? Keep in mind that when it is cold, clutch cannot disengage engine and transmission (friction and steel disks) completely (dragging clutch). Do Sportsters have same oil for engine and clutch?

 

@big-mike that's what I figured I needed to do. The dealership gave me a 30 day or 1,500 mile warrenty so I'll definitely be stopping by tomorrow to have them check the problem out. I'd be pretty mad if I have to go and buy a $400 FP3 to do it myself.

@13roadking the dealership did a fresh oil change on the bike right before I drove off the lot, I checked it before I left too, it was good. As for if the engine and clutch share the same oil, I am not aware.

 

You have a fuel starvation isssue

 

Would this be fixed using a FP3 and remapping it?

 

You are not solely limited to using the V&H FP3. There are numerous engine/fuel management systems on the market.

 

No, they don't.

 

Bike's eight years old - with real low mileage

Translation - its set the vast majority of it life

Change plugs..., clean the **** out of the fuel system / injectors...., clean the air filter...., clean the intake / butterfly

Verify it has good gas

See if the crankcase venting into the intake - if it is re- plumb to atmosphere

Verify the motor oil is not overfilled

Then - see if it still misfiring

You can do all of this..., for a whole lot less than the dealer..., and learn some valuable maintenance skill in the process

Ghost

 

First thing that I would suggest is to check that your battery is fully charged and that your battery cables are tight at the battery posts and the ground cable at the frame.
My best guess is that you'll need a new battery and hopefully that will solve your issues.
Bikes are not like cars, a discharged battery can make a bike run very bad , or no at all and bike batteries usually don't last much more than a few years.

If your battery checks out or if you replace it with a new one and your bike still doesn't run well, the next step (and cheapest) would be draining your fuel tank and re-filling it with fresh fuel.

If these two things don't help, the next cheapest measure would be replacing the spark plugs. I doubt spark plugs are the problem but you should always check and replace the cheapest possibilities prior to spending any real money searching for the problem.

Good luck.