I have a 2002 Honda Rubicon and when I push the throttle it stalls, dies, hesitates or falls on its face as they say. This happens when shifter is in neutral or drive. Selector can be in ESP, D1 or D2. If I can get RPM's up some it runs great. I have pulled carburator and cleaned. Checked throttle position sensor with ohmmeter and appears ok. Thought it might be something to do with angle sensor or ECM, but being that it happens in neutral and I am not getting any of the codes I have eliminated this until someone tells me differently. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Can someone please let me know if I am on the right track or not? This has got me puzzled as there are electronics involved. Thanks.

 

When the bike is in "D" can you drive it then if you apply the throttle slowly ..?..

I would send you ignition tests for the 2002 Rubicon but unfortunally my ignition tests for that bike are all using the Honda peak voltage adapter ..

 

HondaMechanic thanks for the reply. I can put the bike in "D" and accelerate slowly with only a slight hesitation around 4-6 MPH. I give MPH as I do not have a tachometer. From 0-4 MPH and 6 MPH onward there does not seem to be any issues. The slight hesitation feels as if the engine is bogging down. It never misses or stalls. I also tried to accelerate from a dead stop by going wide open with throttle and bike hesitate, stalls, stumbles or dies. Even if I accelerate at a moderate rate it does the same as going wide open. It appears that the only way bike will respond correctly is by accelerating slowly. One other thing that happened was that one of the times the bike died it acted as if the power from battery was momentarily interrupted. The display on dash and headlight went out. The clock on the display was blinking when it came back on. The battery had enough power to crank bike even with headlight on. I remember this happening once before when I first started having this problem. Don't know if it related. The bike currently has 2200 miles and 220 hours and I have never had any issues with it. Hope this information helps and again thanks for the help.

 

One thing I want to add is that the valves have never been adjusted on this bike. From reading posts on this forum it appears that this is something that should be done. I don't know if this has an effect on my problem. I don't hear any strange noise coming from that area. Any help would be appreciated.