MERA 5nDime Rally

[datsaxman@hotmail.com]

I go in for the really long distance stuff.  1000 miles in 24 hours is no longer even a novelty. 

Not for everybody, but what is?  I really like this format, and am planning on doing some more ASAP. 

Wrote a really long story about it, not really for general consumption, but here are some characteristics.

5nDime Rally is a bonus-hunting, scavenger hunt type of event.  Like the Iron Butt Rally, but from a different organization.  Plan out a route from the bonus locations available, get to as many as possible within the time limit, take a photo or get a receipt or a souvenir at each location, and collect points for each. 

High score wins.

5nDime was ten days, with no intermediate checkpoint.  A total free for all around the country.  As in San Diego, Seattle, Portland (OR and ME), NYC, St. Augustine, FL, and a whole bunch of other places, finally finishing in SLC.

9490 miles and nine days into it, the Concours started running rough and I could not get it fixed in time to stay on schedule, so I ended up with the dreaded DNF.  Bad gas?  flushed and refilled, then added chemicals.  It got better.  Then it got worse again.  I kept trying to understand the problem, while still staying on the bike and heading toward the Finish. 

Power Commander fail?  Ground trouble?  Trying that next.  There are some clues: Runs great with a full tank, progressively worse as the tank empties.  Is this a familiar problem? 

Thanks in advance if it is.  The problem solving is further complicated by the fact that it runs well for an hour or two, then starts running crappy again.

saxman 
 

[Rony6ble]

I remember reading about that problem. I just can not remember where. Not sure how the hole thing ended but if you find a fix, please share. Never had that problem in my C14.
Regards...

[MAN OF BLUES]

Fuel strainer/filter inside the fuelpump, do a search here, there is a good step by step r/r thread, filter is replacable, and easily procurred kaw part.
Likely when it started getting gunked up, the addition of further chemicals in an attempt to cure the problem simply gunked it up worse, typical results were found in all the ones that needed to be fixed. Best of luck, its a fairly simple repair, I've pulled and inspected mine before in about 2 hours.

Here

http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=1238.msg12321#msg12321


And here

http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=7625.0

[datsaxman@hotmail.com]

Thanks Rich

Way ahead of the curve on this.  Fuel strainer was new shortly before the rally, and was NOT gunked up after the rally when I took it apart.  In fact, it looked "like new".  Definitely not the problem.  Solvents would not gunk the system up worse, unless there was a stash of gunk in the system waiting to be freed up.  Not true for MY fuel system, maybe for others'.

Likely trouble was Power Commander ground.  After the rally I prepped the C14 for the Fall Big Tex Rally, which included setting the valves.  The PC has its own ground, which was NOT connected by the previous owner (more likely the dealer, since he did not work on his own bike).  Yes, the ground wire was doubled back and taped up against the PC harness.  : /

Bolting the ground wire made the bike run perfectly.  I tried taping that ground wire to a bolt head, creating a poor/intermittent ground.  This duplicated the original problem pretty accurately.

With the PC ground wire well connected, there has been no problem in 10,000+ miles.

 

[MAN OF BLUES]

gotcha, I didn't notice that the original thread was dated last july, and as there was no update showing that the cause had been found, totally glossed over it all and thought there was still an issue.

thanks for posting the cause,