Finally got my commando all together and ready to ride yesterday, take it out twice today and both times it died and left me on the road. 73 750, everything freshly rebuilt. Power arch ignition with full old britts kit (coil,plugs,wires,etc) brand new amal premiers, new petcocks, "rebuilt" fuel lines. So i can start and ride the bike no problem, after about 10 minutes on the road it starts to sputter and stalls. at that point i can start the bike back up, and it will idle just fine, but as soon as i touch the throttle it sputters, backfires, and stalls. The first time i limped home, and i saw a tiny bit of something floating in the fuel line. So i took the lines off, cleaned them out, took all the gas from the tank and cleaned the tank out, pulled the pet cocks and cleaned the screens (tiny bit of stuff on them) put it all back together and put new clean gas in, took it out. ran great. for 10 minutes. Same thing happened. this time i pulled over. Sat there for a half hour till the bike cooled off, started it up and raced home with no problems. To me this sounds like an ignition problem because it seems to only happen when things are hot? anyone have any other ideas?
bike strands me after 10 minutes of riding
- Thread starter kevbo82
- Start date
- Status
one other thing i also noticed, a lot of air bubbles in the fuel lines. They seem to be traveling up towards the petcocks. But while sitting around for a half hour if i tapped on the fuel lines i got a lot of little bubbles and a few big ones too. don't know how normal that is.
batrider
VIP MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2008
- Messages
- 2,380
Maybe you are operating the choke backwards? This happens pretty frequently with new Norton owners. The choke is off when the choke slides are pulled up - cables taut. Some say the way the lever operates is counter intuitive but I think it is intuitive. 
Russ
Russ
I'm not that bad Russ! I also think its backwards, I think when the choke is off the lever should sit parallel to the barsbatrider said:Maybe you are operating the choke backwards? This happens pretty frequently with new Norton owners. The choke is off when the choke slides are pulled up - cables taut. Some say the way the lever operates is counter intuitive but I think it is intuitive.
Russ
If your carb are tickling up nicely then the floats are usually not too low.
May not be a fual issue. Sputter, cough, stop. Sounds like a loss of juice to me. When setting for 10 minute or so, this will allow the battery to recover enough to start up and run till discharged again. Your battery may be good because of the seemingly recoverability. However, you better do the dance and find out for sure.
Try these things:
1. Either weak battery, load test it out of the bike.
(more than likely)
2. Charging is insufficient, check voltages DC at battery at different rpm to start with. If no change is present at rpm changes, check AC output before regulator from stator leads. If AC voltage is present then bad reg/rec. If no AC voltage, then bad stator or broken/bad leads.
(Definitely possible)
3. High load present. DC amp probes are not too common so check for a large drop in voltage when lights are turned on. Troubleshoot and isolate if needed. This scenario would also include a bad switch.
(not likely, but possible)
Check all your connections and remember, the stator feeds the battery and the battery feeds the load (ignition, lighting, switches, etc).
May not be a fual issue. Sputter, cough, stop. Sounds like a loss of juice to me. When setting for 10 minute or so, this will allow the battery to recover enough to start up and run till discharged again. Your battery may be good because of the seemingly recoverability. However, you better do the dance and find out for sure.
Try these things:
1. Either weak battery, load test it out of the bike.
(more than likely)
2. Charging is insufficient, check voltages DC at battery at different rpm to start with. If no change is present at rpm changes, check AC output before regulator from stator leads. If AC voltage is present then bad reg/rec. If no AC voltage, then bad stator or broken/bad leads.
(Definitely possible)
3. High load present. DC amp probes are not too common so check for a large drop in voltage when lights are turned on. Troubleshoot and isolate if needed. This scenario would also include a bad switch.
(not likely, but possible)
Check all your connections and remember, the stator feeds the battery and the battery feeds the load (ignition, lighting, switches, etc).
pvisseriii said:
I was starting to wonder about the battery. I bought it from interstate last march when I started working on the bike. I've been using a wicked smart charger and it seemed to think the battery was ok. I think I'll get into it a bit more cause I know the electronic ign like a lot of juice
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2011
- Messages
- 1,723
DogT
VIP MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2009
- Messages
- 7,394
Because the time lets your float bowls fill up again. Like I say, check the simple stuff first, fuel is easy and sounds like a good possibility. The other things are harder to check. Take off the line at the bottom of your petcock and see how much fuel comes out in say one minute. I remember someone had a list of how much the Amals need in a given time while running strong.kevbo82 said:
I never had any dirt in any of my screens, if I did, I'd be worrying. F/G tank.
I know the BAP taps I have put out a whole lot less fuel than the originals did. I was a bit concerned about it, but they work.
Don't start with the long hard involved things first. You'll be kicking yourself in the butt. Not to say it couldn't be something else though.
Dave
69S
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
