[alwscout]

Here's what's happened, I think it's water in the fuel, your opinions are requested:

The Green Weenie has been running great ever since I got her but this morning on the way to work we made it about 3 mile's and she started hicupping a few times and quit running. She will restart after kicking her over 3 or 4 times but will not restart with the electric start.  This repeated itself twice more on the way back to the house to pick up my truck.  She idles fine and sounds good when she runs until the problem starts (usually in 5th gear around 40-45 mph) and then the motor just dies.

I checked the points and they are good and the plug was fine when I changed the oil last week (I checked it out of curiosity). The bike has 430 miles or so.

Thanks

Adam

[Thumper]

Water in the fuel should be easy to confirm or reject. Drain your petcock and carb float bowl. To be real thorough, drain your tank completely.

Matt

[Spitting Bull]

Water in the fuel could fit the symptoms, especially if you can think of circumstances in which water could have found its way into the fuel for one ride while it wasn't there the ride before.

Petrol is lighter than water, so the petrol will float on the water in your tank and in your float chamber.  Eventually the float chamber could be mostly full of water, with obvious results.  Or maybe the float chamber isn't full, but there is water in there and the increased drawing of fuel at higher revs could be drawing the water into the carburetter.  Both these possible reasons might cause the engine to stop after a certain time or when running at a certain speed.  But they would not necessarily explain why the engine will start again soon after it has stopped.

Draining the whole lot and cleaning out the float-chamber (as Matt suggests) is a good first move.

The symptoms also fit another cause - the possibility that there is no adequate ventilation in the tank.  Air must be able to get in to replace the fuel that is used up.  Is there a breather-hole in the filler-cap, and if so, is it clear? These holes often get blocked by wax residue when polishing.  If there is no ventilation, the flow of petrol will eventually stop (or be unable to meet the demands of higher revs.)  Once the engine has stopped the pressure has time to equalise a little, enabling a good start followed by a repeat of the problem after a few miles.

I hope you get it sorted.  It must be very annoying.

Tom

[alwscout]

Thanks for the help. I figured I'd go ahead and drain the carb to see and hoped I wouldn't have to drain the tank.....but it isn't much anyhow so no big deal I guess.

I never thought of the breather hole in the cap thing. Do 2006 Bullets have them?  I figured it was water pretty much because it rain like a son of gun yesterday at work and that's how water could have gotten in.

I'll check it out more thoroughly when I get home this evening.

Adam

[Emmet]

Mine's second-hand. Rode great and strong at the original owner's house; took four hours (and multiple unplanned stops) to ride home. Seems I was running on "Reserve" instead of "On", sucking all of the nastiness from the bottom of the tank. Drained it, disassembled and cleaned the carb, and installed an in-line fuel filter, refilled with High Test with 1 oz/gal of fuel treatment and a squirt or two of Sta-Bil; it's started on the first kick ever since.
My 2006 has the keyed hinged gas cap; it resists disassembly, but certainly doesn't appear to be capable of being air-tight. To check for vapor-lock, I drained the tank with the cap open and closed, but didn't see any difference in fuel flow (as it should be).
The Mikarb's easy to field-strip and reassemble, and a fuel filter's cheap insurance.

[Spitting Bull]

Thanks for the help. I figured I'd go ahead and drain the carb to see and hoped I wouldn't have to drain the tank.....but it isn't much anyhow so no big deal I guess.

I never thought of the breather hole in the cap thing. Do 2006 Bullets have them?  I figured it was water pretty much because it rain like a son of gun yesterday at work and that's how water could have gotten in.

I'll check it out more thoroughly when I get home this evening.

Adam

Adam I imagine your 2006 will have the snap-shut hinged filler cap.  They are notorious for leaking fuel if you fill the tank right up to the top and then leave the bike on the side-stand!  As Emmet says - certainly not air-tight so I think you can discount the "ventilation" theory if you have that filler-cap.

Tom

[alwscout]

Well, I drained some fuel out of the carb and there was definitely water in it so I've got the tank draining as I type this.  I put a light to the tank and was amazed at the amount of rust in there...wow!! An in-line filter is definitely gonna be my next purchase!

I'm pretty sure ya'll are right about the cap not being air-tight....that's where I think the water got in during the gully washer we had yesterday afternoon at work.

Adam

[alwscout]

Well apparently the water I saw wasn't the issue(it wasn't alot anyhow).......the problem happened again this morning. The only thing I can think of now may be some sort of ignition problem since it will restart and run fine for a short period before taking a dive again.  I made it to work and haven't had time to look closely at it yet.

Adam

[alwscout]

I think I've pretty much got it narowed down.....I got the Green Weenie running again and just took my time wiggling each and every wire I could reach and low and behold the one coming out of the distributor is the ticket. Barely touch it and she dies. I removed the airbox and where the wire is spliced into another one it is very loose, I guess the vibrations did it in. When I mess with it here it dies just like when I'm riding.

It makes sense I guess because it did seem to occur most frequently immediately after hitting bumps or rough spots on the road.....

So, I'll be working late tonight so I'll sleep in the office and after work tommorrow I'll get to work fixing that. Hopefully it'll be the ticket! Aren't these bikes fun!!!!!

Adam

[Kevin Mahoney]

Another owner victory of mind over matter!!

[alwscout]

I changed the conection from the stock one that had two ends with odd little points at the ends stuck inside a small plasctic sleeve, to a more secure connector and it seems to run fine now. I guess the vibrations were seperating those two tips enough that the bike would shut down.

Adam

[DaveG297]

I have had wires disconnect behind the battery box and also had the intake manifold.....rubber tube connecting carb to head,,,,,crack and let in unmetered air.    It would only run with choke on but taped it up and got home ok.  Vibrations will do strange things on the bullet not to mention my butt..........dg

[gapl53]

Remember, they are not problems merely challenges to be met!

[rfreddie]

I have a new 2007 Bullet 500ES Delux with 700 miles on it and the same thing (first time) happened to me. It starts fine and runs fine for a while and then stops while doing 30-50 mph. I pull over wait a few minutes, it starts up fine but the stops again after a couple miles. There was a heavy rain last night (though the bike was covered) so I thought moisture somewhere, perhaps the in the tank (it only had 1.2 gals), or the gas.

I filled up the tank and problem went away. Perhaps I have a leaky fuel tank cap?

Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks.

[SRL790]

Sounds like a blocked gas tank breather.