Hi all , new guy here , great site ! I have a problem with my 95 Honda 300fw 4x4 , the bike is totally stock and well maintained . It started when my kid was riding around the back yard , it was running fine , then died , cranked right back up , but when you put in gear or tried to give any gas , it would die again . I put it up , figuring it was the carb , as it sits up quite a bit .
So I pulled the carb and cleaned it , not that it needed it , didn't find any sludge or varnish ect... anywhere . Next I serviced the air filter , no buggers here either , and cleaned the tank and fuel filter and added fresh gas . All seemed fine , it started right up ran fine but I didn't ride it long and put it up .
Today I go for a ride with my buddies , about 15min. into the ride it started to act weird and died , cranked right back up , but would die when given gas or put in gear (sounds like a pattern!) . Cranked it 7 or 8 times with the same results and it backfired , checked for gas , yes , checked for fire , yes but weak . We fooled around with it about 10-15min and I decided to have my son pull me back to the truck with his Rhino , so I wouldn't hold the other guys back . We start towing back and I crank it up and it seems to be fine , everything working good , I just keep it going in gear with the tow rope hooked up , following the Rhino . This lasts for about 1/4 mile , then it dies , same thing all over again , crank , die ,crank , die , so I just shut it off and tow to the truck , at the truck I crank it up , load it , no problem and go home .
I get home , crank it unload it , no problem , Check the spark with a new plug , good spark , check it with the old plug , good spark WTF ? When it's cool it runs fine , no problems , when it warms up , it dies , but will crank right back up and idle to the cows come home , but won't take any gas . I don't think it is a fuel problem , could be the coil heating up and going open circuit ? My experiences with electronic ignitions is they either work or don't work , but I'm not a authority on that . How would I go about testing the coil , with what it's doing with the cool and warm cycles ? Sorry so long , I just wanted to tell all the information I had to try and trouble shoot this problem . Terry

 

I know I'm new and all that , but did I put this in the wrong place or something ? No one has ever experienced this before ? Anybody ?

 

maybe something is loose check the battery cables check the spark plug booth if its on tight on. did u take it in water?

 

Symptoms do seem to point towards ignition - rarely do coils go bad, but it is a possibility. On the other hand, could be lack of enough fuel to run more than idle.

Possibly the vent is stopped on the fuel tank cap?

To test the coil, first I would check the fire situation - immediately when the engine stops running, see if you have spark at the plug - - you can do a resistance test of the coil, but it won't tell u much unless u are testing it at the time it "fails" = 2 wires @ back of coil (primary & ground) should run less than 5 ohms - ground side to high voltage wire (cap removed) should run around 6K ohms.

For an ignition problem, I would more suspect the CDI box as it controls the ignition timing, therefore the dying at rpms higher than idle

 

Thanks for the replys , I haven't had time to do any more testing on it , but with it quiting when it gets warm in a consistant manner , then cranking back up after a brief cool off time , it does seem to point at ignition problems . There was no water involved when it is doing this , but I will check all the connections for corosion and tightness . I checked the fuel flow at every connection and all is well there , I even removed the filler cap on the tank and the problem persisted . I am also going to try a known/good cdi box and see if that fixes the problem . Thanks again , Terry