Softail Problems
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Cruiser
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 232
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From: Bedford Indiana
Softail Problems
'88FXSTC
Started as just an occasional miss like a loose wire barely shorting once in a while. Over the course a month and thousand miles, in the past week it's progressed to I'm afraid to drive it down the drive way.
Starts cold, warms up but starts missing, ready to run and under load it starts to miss out, back fire, cut in and out like the ignition is on and off and back fires like you turned it off and back on while running.
Checked battery, charged it up, finally just changed it out for new one any way. No change at any stage so I returned the battery and put the old one in. The test said it was good as well any way. Tighten connections really well. No change. I misted the plug wires with water and a spray bottle and didn't get any spark jumping and I even felt along the wire from the plug to the ignition and never got lit up even a little. I think the wires are good or at least not leaking.
Put timing light on and when it misses, the plug does not fire. When it dies, there is no spark. Same with both cylinders.
Still it acts like it's running out of gas or a stopped filter, bad distributor cap on a car acts this way.
I put new plugs in a month ago and they are gapped correctly.
Today I drained all fuel. Pulled the line off and drained the tank dry. Fuel flows freely at the petcock for sure. Refilled with fresh, premium fuel. No difference. I even nursed it along to drain all fuel from the carb before hooking it up and refilling the tank.
I've got an independent mechanic handy. He's suppose to be good. I just feel like a putz not figuring this out for myself but I'm about to give up and take it in.
History, I don't think this bike was ridden much before me. Had 9K miles on it when I got it a month or so ago. I've put about 3K on it since, changed all the fluids and the plugs right away.
Started as just an occasional miss like a loose wire barely shorting once in a while. Over the course a month and thousand miles, in the past week it's progressed to I'm afraid to drive it down the drive way.
Starts cold, warms up but starts missing, ready to run and under load it starts to miss out, back fire, cut in and out like the ignition is on and off and back fires like you turned it off and back on while running.
Checked battery, charged it up, finally just changed it out for new one any way. No change at any stage so I returned the battery and put the old one in. The test said it was good as well any way. Tighten connections really well. No change. I misted the plug wires with water and a spray bottle and didn't get any spark jumping and I even felt along the wire from the plug to the ignition and never got lit up even a little. I think the wires are good or at least not leaking.
Put timing light on and when it misses, the plug does not fire. When it dies, there is no spark. Same with both cylinders.
Still it acts like it's running out of gas or a stopped filter, bad distributor cap on a car acts this way.
I put new plugs in a month ago and they are gapped correctly.
Today I drained all fuel. Pulled the line off and drained the tank dry. Fuel flows freely at the petcock for sure. Refilled with fresh, premium fuel. No difference. I even nursed it along to drain all fuel from the carb before hooking it up and refilling the tank.
I've got an independent mechanic handy. He's suppose to be good. I just feel like a putz not figuring this out for myself but I'm about to give up and take it in.
History, I don't think this bike was ridden much before me. Had 9K miles on it when I got it a month or so ago. I've put about 3K on it since, changed all the fluids and the plugs right away.
Last edited by Jack Ryan; Oct 11, 2013 at 10:03 PM.
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