Hello all.

I have a re-occurring problem with me losing my rear cylinder. I took her for a nice blast today and she ran like a bear....right until I got the old 'stutter' as if I was running out of gas and then the check engine light came on and I find myself running on one cylinder. I had this problem last year and replaced the spark plug wire & spark plugs and it seemed to remedy it. When I limped home I disconnected the fuel pack and started it up...ran fine. Just to make sure, I reconnected it, expecting it to run on one cylinder but, it too ran fine??? The bike was still very hot when I did this so cooling down was not a factor.
I have a 2013 FLHTCU, Vance & Hines Slash Cut Oval's, Vance & Hines Fuelpak for the 2013, 103 inch and a K&N high flow air filter. 18000 miles. Always high test gas at least 93 octane.

1) Does anyone have/had a similar problem?
2) Would disconnecting the fuel pak with the upgrades (pipes and air filter) make it too lean/rich?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

I did figure out the problem with my bike.
The problem is with my V&H Fuelpak LED. I thought I fixed it by disconnecting/reconnecting the ECM and the fuelpak and clearing codes but after taking it out for a ride this afternoon, I got @ 15 miles up Rt. 8 in Ct. and the check engine light came on. It was still running pretty good to maintain highway speed but as soon as I got off the exit it went into limp mode. Disconnected the ECM...let it cool a bit, started right up. Made it 1/2 mile..same thing.
This time I disconnected the fuel pack all together, started it up and she ran fine. Checked codes when I got home..had a sh*tload, cleared them and did some research. I put the stock air filter back on but left the V&H Ovals on. From what I could gather, there should be no need for a fuelpak of any kind with only one modification..pipes and no K&N air filter. I also reconnected the O2 sensor's.
I took it back out.....ran it HARD up to 100 on the way up and on the way back. Checked the codes.....none!
The only concern is that when I checked the plugs they are way too lean. Hardly any brown at all...they look new. I'm using NGK not Harley plugs as I've always had good luck with them on my other bikes. I'll take it out for a longer ride and see what they look like.

Any input would be welcome. Thanks for all the post's on the forum to help us non-wrench's figure this stuff out!

I'm a happy man again.

 

Personally I'd use the FP3 app to contact V&H and tell them about your issues to see if they could shed some light on what's happening.

As for reading the plugs, those days of a nice salmon pink colour are long gone with modern fuels and fuel injection.

 

Thanks Phil. I'm going to run it as is for a while and if it continues to run this good without problems....that'll do for me. I'd rather sacrifice a few horsepower for reliability any day. I haven't felt comfortable since last fall due to this problem so riding has been very limited.

Thanks again for the input.