I wonder if anyone can help: Over the last few days a problem has developed when I'm riding my bike. Most of the time it runs perfectly. From time to time though the engine dies completely for just one or two seconds, then comes back to life and runs perfectly again. It doesn't feel like fuel starvation, had this problem in the past and it died more slowly. I took the carb off though and cleaned it, although the jets looked clear.

Any ideas what the problem might be here?

Thanks.

 

Hi Ricco

brief loss of sparks? bad HT lead to plug cap connection??

Thanks, I've just wd40'd it, see how that goes.

You don't say when it dies.

At the end of a dual carriageway, at the lights by the chippy after riding through town? 

I had this on a Suzuki many years back and it was just some bits in the float bowl, every now and then it would block the main on a fast run and shut down. Then when the engine stopped it drifted away and ran fine again. It was the filter on the fuel tap had given up and bits in the tank were getting through so even cleaning the carb only fixed it for a while.

Till i realised the bits were actually bits of the fuel tap....

 

It doesn't happen anywhere consistently. It can be when I start it up, when I'm going slowly through traffic, or when I'm going fast down a dual carriageway. I had a similar problem to the one you described in the past, solved by installing an inline fuel filter, the inside of the tank is rusty. This is different, it cuts out very sharply, to nothing, whereas when I had the dirty fuel problem it would struggle to a stop over a few seconds. 

Sudden makes it more electrical then. 

Its not very technical but have you had it running then jiggle the wires (deeply technical term) and waggled (and again) the bars etc. 

 

On 23/12/2017 at 12:51 PM, Cynic said:

You don't say when it dies.

A every now and then it would block the main on a fast run and shut down. 

 

Funny jason, i had a 110  landrover, ,itdid this,,, i  changed  lift pump ,  it ran, for a while,, then died,, i did filters ,  it ran .for a while, ,renewed fuel pipes ,, same  ,it died in a few days, so i removed the fuel tank , and here was this  film of dark sludge,[ like a carpet, ] floating from side to side, This musta been gettin picked up onto the fuel sender /delivery pipe ,  thats how every time i changed a component  it would run,  as it dropped to the bottom of tank,    hair  pulling did you say ,,

Having sprayed wd40 into the spark plug cover it's now run without a hitch for several weeks. Simple fix!