intermittent shutting down / or surge

[Dade22]

I posted this on our previous forum before the crash. 

This problem showed up last fall while riding.  It was like the bike surged or somone had cut the throttle off for a split second.  I continued the ride until I reached another town.  As I entered the traffic round-about the bike shut down.  I tried to restart but the bike wouldnt start.

I kept tring for about 10 minutes.  The bike did restart and thinking it was a "bad gas," issue, I rode to the nearest gas station.  The bike again died on me just before getting to the station.  After adding more fuel, I again tried to start the bike.  It would not fully turn  over.

After about 20 minutes the bike started and I rode home.  The next day the bike started but died about 150 feet from my garage.  I brain stormed thinking about bad gas or some other issue.  I do have a PC-V on my bike, so I started to look at that.  I guessed I had a bad ground so I re-ran the ground and the bike seemed to be ok.

This spring the bike did the same thing.  It started but then shut down again.  I updated the firmware of the PC-V and the problem seemed to have disappeared.

Today while out on a ride the bike started to shut down.  I would turn the throttle but nothing would happen.  I kept doing this while still rolling.  I was able on my 3rd or 4th attempt to get the bike moving again by turning the throttle and down shifting.  The bike popped and sputtered several times but leveled off.

I made it home without any further issues but Im at a loss at what is causing this issue.   Its not consistant at all, but I cant have the bike shutting down everytime I got out on a ride.


Any ideas would be great.   Thanks again.


Dade22

[blanton]

Dade22, have you tried removing the pcV. Perhaps its "going south". That would be on my list to try....blanton

[blanton]

Also, when it refuses to start can you hear the fuel pump?

[Rawman]

+1 on the PC.  Remove it temporarily by bypassing it and ride for a bit.  Don't go WOT or High RPMs and you wont hurt anything, but you will find out quickly if it is the PC.

Also check ALL your battery connections.  The +, -, and where it attaches to the frame.  The battery is in an area that heats up quickly then cools, creating loose connections.

[Dade22]

Yes the fuel pump can be heard.  I have contacted fuel moto about the pc-v last year.  They were going to replace it when I thought I solved the problem with the ground.   I contacted them this year and they werent as quick to want to change it out.  They also told me to go direct with dynojet.   

I will disconnect the PC-V this week and see if it fixes the problem.  While Im at it I will double check the battery connections.   

Thanks.

Just reluctant to disconnect the pc-v.  I have the flies out and v&h cs1 exhaust.  It wont hurt anything by running without the pc-V for a few weeks?

[Rawman]

Not sure if I would go a few weeks, but the Stock ECU runs rich, so you shouldn't hurt it running for a short time to find out if it is the PC.

[Bob]

When mine did that. I removed as much as I could. Carried the tools around with me to unplug the PC V. I rode around the neighborhood and got it to start dieing. Then unplugged the PC V and plugged the OEM plug back in. Bike fired right up and ran fine. Replaced that PC V and never had a problem with that again. Of course pushing it home the first time to look at it, then decide how to troubleshoot it wasn't fun! 

[Dade22]

Talked with fuel moto and dynojet.  Dynojet tech told me to run the ground directly to the battery.  He said all the problems he has seen is caused from that ground.

I have good continuity with the ground I have now, but he states that when the bike heats up, things expand and contract causing the ground to go bad. 

I will try his recommendation but if it happens again the unit is going back.


Dade22

[Dade22]

Well, I re-ran the ground for the pc-v again.  This time it goes directly to the battery (-) side.   I still showed continuity between my old point of attachment, but I ran the new line anyway to remove the doubt.

The down side is that when I was tightening down the groud strap from the batter to the frame, the frame bolt broke.  The head snapped off with ease.  I didnt even use much muscle in tighteing it down before it broke.  Looks like there was a soft spot in the bolt from what I can tell.

Any ideas on how to fix this?  I tried to drill and tap the hole but the drill walked now I have an oblong hole.  I could drill it out bigger to 3/8ths but not sure I want to do that.

So for now I just attached it to the bolt to the right of the original ground bolt.  Seems ok, but need to fill the other one or figure out a long term fix.

Thanks

Dade22

[Behindbars]

What ever happened? Did you figure out what was causing the issue?

[Behindbars]

Update. Mine was doing it. Ground was loose on the power commander.