Dies a couple minutes after start.
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:09 am
Hi all,
So my '93 intruder ran well for the past 2-3 years, but last summer/fall I used it a lot less, and by the time I was trying to ride again in the early winter there was a new problem—it would backfire at the end of a ride right after I turned it off. Then, a few months later, it started having a super loud idle all the time. Now, it's gotten worse—even with a battery fresh off the tender, it's pretty difficult to get it to start, and once its started the idle sounds fairly normal/not super loud. But unless I wait while it idles and get lucky and it gets super loud, I can't even get it into gear. So basically I can wait til it's super loud, then get it into gear and ride it around for a couple minutes, but after about 2 minutes of riding as quick as I can, I'll slow down for some reason and the idle will drop, then it'll die, then I won't be able to restart it no matter what, then I'll walk it home.
A note on choke. I can usually only get it started with choke on, and this is esp. true when colder and has also been true recently. But I wonder if maybe the choke cable is stuck—I think I recall last fall it sometimes sounding when I was riding as if the choke cable was still pulled out even if I'd already pushed it in. Can't remember, though.
Also, if I manage to get it started and just let it sit idling, it'll basically always die after a couple of minutes, then it'll be a little difficult to get started again.
Any ideas? I'm thinking something gunked it up. I've run a fair amount of seafoam through it. At this point the gas is probably fairly old but I think I added stabil to that tank. I'm hoping the normal+super loud idle issue is a big clue. Otherwise what would my first steps be given the situation? Look at the carbs, probably?
Thanks!
So my '93 intruder ran well for the past 2-3 years, but last summer/fall I used it a lot less, and by the time I was trying to ride again in the early winter there was a new problem—it would backfire at the end of a ride right after I turned it off. Then, a few months later, it started having a super loud idle all the time. Now, it's gotten worse—even with a battery fresh off the tender, it's pretty difficult to get it to start, and once its started the idle sounds fairly normal/not super loud. But unless I wait while it idles and get lucky and it gets super loud, I can't even get it into gear. So basically I can wait til it's super loud, then get it into gear and ride it around for a couple minutes, but after about 2 minutes of riding as quick as I can, I'll slow down for some reason and the idle will drop, then it'll die, then I won't be able to restart it no matter what, then I'll walk it home.
A note on choke. I can usually only get it started with choke on, and this is esp. true when colder and has also been true recently. But I wonder if maybe the choke cable is stuck—I think I recall last fall it sometimes sounding when I was riding as if the choke cable was still pulled out even if I'd already pushed it in. Can't remember, though.
Also, if I manage to get it started and just let it sit idling, it'll basically always die after a couple of minutes, then it'll be a little difficult to get started again.
Any ideas? I'm thinking something gunked it up. I've run a fair amount of seafoam through it. At this point the gas is probably fairly old but I think I added stabil to that tank. I'm hoping the normal+super loud idle issue is a big clue. Otherwise what would my first steps be given the situation? Look at the carbs, probably?
Thanks!