hello,

I've been reading this forum for ages, and thought I would post a problem I am having with my bike, and see if anyone has any suggestions for me. I am new to this forum so please bear with me, and I am by no means a mechanic, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

a couple of weeks ago, my bike lost power while coming back through heavy snow and quit suddenly.

I got the bike back into nuteral and it started up again, had good response to the throttle but as soon as the bike came under load (shifting from first to second) it would lose power and act as though it were starved for fuel, eventually stalling out.
I got back to the shop and had a friend of mine (he is very good with engines, Honda motorcycles).

1) Spark plug was loose, I replaced it, the threads weren't stripped. The bike also has good compression

2) emptied the fuel tank, it was clean (no mud or dirt in the tank) and checked the carb, it was also clean with a good flow of fuel to it.

3) (next step) I think I blew out a baffle in the muffler when coming back through the trail ( I know that riding the bike in deeper snow can be hard on it) so I am going to take the muffler off and run it, then blow the air through it and put it back on ( a new one is on order)

4) I have been speaking with the local Honda dealer (they've been pretty supportive, I want to eliminate as many of the possibilities as I can before I take it in), they are suggesting that it may be an electronic issue and to check and clean the ECM, the connectors on the back of the tranny and the electronic shifter itself. The bike has also had a couple f issues with the electronic shifter. The digital dash will go blank where it shows gear position (I don't have a manual, but I have ordered one) and they feel that the problems may be all connected.


The problem seems to come and go without any pattern or regularity


So that's it in a nutshell, any suggestions??????

and thanks again.

 

By checking the carb, did you take it apart and clean it?

The baffles let go in my muffler 2-3 years ago, and every now and then they will shake around and partially block off the flow of exhaust creating a temproary loss of power (until I hit another bump a couple seconds later). Could be a problem with yours like you mentioned.

Could have been water in the gas, but you should have that fixed now by draining the tank and cleaning the carb.

 

yes. We pulled the carb off and pulled it apart. There was no obstructions and we gave it a good (but probably not thorough) cleaning. it was spotless and there was no sign of dirt or mud.

 

*edit/update*

so I pulled the muffler off and gave it a good run down the road (much to the annoyance of all my neighbours) and I couldn't *make* the problem act up.
The bike had good acceleration and smooth shifting between gear (up shifting).

a question, does the bike have a rev limiter? I noticed that in third gear, while accelerating and getting ready to gear up to fourth, the bike would govern itself and wouldn't rev any higher.

There is a hatful of metal in the muffler, you can hear it tinging and pinging around. Would that be enough to cause the bike to lose power and die out?

 

I am having the same problem but mine started out as the quad not charging. I have since found a wire loose in the rectifier plug and that is causing the sputtering. It does not do it all the time just occasionally, and does not charge the battery. maybe this will help. I found the wre by wiggling the plug and wires while idling, the quad will stall if you move the lose wire.

 

I had a charging issue in the fall. it turned out to be a faulting "pulse regulator" (???).

I was afraid that when they had the bike in, that they may have had all the connectors undone and eventually broken a worn one or bent a pin, something like that.
but they told me that all the connections were good and one of the suggestions this time was to go over all of the connectors and check them.

everything seemed to be good and clear.

but I will try that as well, just see if the bike re-acts to the wires being jostled.

thanks!