Drip Drip Pop Pop Bang Bang

[ManWithAVision]

My wife and I decided to go for a ride downtown in Toronto last Friday night. It was a warm and muggy night. My bike had been sitting in the garage all day. I pulled out the choke and pushed the start button. It didn't want to start right away but fired up after a second push on the button. I reduced the choke as soon as it started and pushed it off entirely within a minute and a half. Off we rode. Me on my 06 RSTD and my wife on her Suzuki C50.

 

Everything seemed fine until we got downtown near the lake and my bike started missing on one cylinder at idle (a popping sound on the right side that my wife said she could hear as she sat ten feet behind me on her bike) and baby backfires on deceleration. I was also noticing the smell of gas. We turned around and headed for home. I wound it up in first and second a couple of times as I pulled away from traffic lights and it purred like a kitten each time. After that the problem was gone. No missing, no backfiring, and no gas smell.

 

The next morning I noticed fuel spots down the length of my driveway and a larger spot where I had stopped briefly before we headed out onto the street. I hopped in my truck and headed to NAPA to pick up a can of Sea Foam. I poured about half a can of Sea Foam into the nearly full fuel tank and have put a couple of hundred more kilometers under the wheels during the last two days with no further signs of trouble. I pulled the right rear spark plug and it appeared to be clean and dry. Didn't feel like pulling the fuel tank to check the front one!

 

Has anybody else experienced this problem? I don't want to find myself in this position during our upcoming bike holiday.

[V7Goose]

Sounds to me like you might have had something stuck in a float valve, and hitting it hard a couple of times might have lowered the float enough for the greater flow of fuel through the valve to clear it. I wouldn't sweat it unless it happens again.

Goose

[Marcarl]

Sounds to me like you might have had something stuck in a float valve, and hitting it hard a couple of times might have lowered the float enough for the greater flow of fuel through the valve to clear it. I wouldn't sweat it unless it happens again.

Goose

Ditto on that

[RedRider]

You may want to drain the fuel bowls to see if there is any gunk in there. Otherwise, ditto Goose.

 

RR

[ManWithAVision]

Maybe it is all in my head but after pouring half a can of Sea Foam into the tank before we set out on a 200 KM ride yesterday the bike seemed to run a lot smoother. I noticed the idle speed was up slightly on the tach but otherwise she was running quite well without any hint of the problems I had two nights earlier.

 

I bought the bike new in October of 08 as a non current model, so it only has 5000 Km's on it so far. I did drain the carbs for the winter lay up last fall. My wife and I just returned a couple of weeks ago from a thousand kilometer trip around norhtern Ontario (all highway driving) and my bike never missed a beat.

 

I do recall however, when I took it into a local dealer for the first service at 1000 KM in April it was missing and popping on one cylinder on the right side on the return trip home. The dealer claimed there was nothing they did that could have caused it, but I did ask for a carb sink so I was suspicious. After a couple of good runs on the highway and performing my own carb sink it cured itself until last Friday. I suppose I will continue to add a maintenance dose of Sea Foam periodically for now and maybe once she is laid up for the winter I'll get ambitious and check out the right side carb floats.

 

Thanks for your input. If all else fails I have my trusty SPOT satellite locator device in the saddlebag with free roadside assistance.

[Yammer Dan]

Just keep running the Sea-Foam every now & then. Maybe do a good soak on them.