Triumphrat

Trudie · 03-20-2005

For a week or so I had been riding my bike on a low battery (about 7 volts out of 12) but the bike still fired up and ran great. Yesterday I finally had time to recharge the battery. I then took her out on a ride and stopped to refill with premium 91 octane gas. After about riding 2 blocks the engine just stopped. I checked the plugs and they where covered with black soot. I cleaned them off as much as possible and reinstalled. The bike finally fired up after trying to kickstart it for about 10 minutes. By the way, the engine started only after I had shut off the tanks. I turned the tanks back on and was able to ride off for a couple more blocks when the engine conked out again. Cleaned the plugs and got it to start. At this point, I was just trying to make it home. I did notice that the engine would feel like dying only when decelarating. I would rev the engine at the stop light and proceed. However coming to another stop, even while reving, the engine would eventually die for the 3rd time. The plugs were black and sooty as ever. I suspect a rich gas mixture. But how to correct? Am I using using too high of a gas octane? As for the electrics, there is a spark from the plugs but is it enough? Could this be the problem? Re-charged battery the problem? Anyway, it ended up with the wife bringing the truck to pick me and the bike up. Not a banner day indeed. Sugeestions / comments welcome. Thanks.

oldgit · 03-20-2005

Sounds like the fuel / air mixture setup is wrong.

First off, have you stripped and checked that the carbs are OK? Any loose bits laying in the float bowls that shouldn't be there? Blocked air filters? OK, check the following:-

The needles set at the right hight, correct main jet sizes, slides in the right way around, mixture setup correctly, choke slides are fully up, throttle cable/cables pulling equally so the carbs are balanced.

In fact, just do a basic carb set up from scratch before you start looking for electrical problems. Good luck!

cat · 03-20-2005

start w/ the carbs but it kind of sounds like the rectifier, if you have one: it converts ac to dc to charge the battery.

start w/ new plugs and back out the air screws, but i've had the same symptoms w/ a bad rectifier.

cat

radio shack rect

[ This message was edited by: cat on 2005-03-20 05:18 ]

squod · 03-20-2005

I have been there a few times. In fact before I went Boyer I used to hitch the trailer to my green earth destroying, polluting Ford truck so the wife could just drive on over and pick me up. Many times I have believed the problem was in the wrong system (IE Carb vs electric) because of faulty logic on my part. The most reliable clue is what did you just do? You had a battery problem. You charged the battery but why was it down? It dies at idle or when you close the throttle, is that the rich mixture hitting a weak spark? I think so. On the other hand you just bought gas! Octane is not the problem, but did you switch to reserve? Was there water in the tank or other crud? I don't think the needle set up etc. has changed since it last ran well. (But a real mechanic would not hesistate to do exactly what Oldgit suggested). For us amatuers, it is often faulty where we have just been. I vote for electrical problem, but I would drop the float bowls and make sure there is no crud in them. If they are plugged I would expect the idle to be fine and the rough running at speed. Good luck as Triumph continues a proud tradition of turning ordinary men into mechanics.
Martin

KWJams · 03-20-2005

With the motor running try disconnecting the battery.

If it dies then you are not producing any electrical current for the ignition system to operate on.

It sounds like that is not the problem since you can keep it running with the rpm's up but if your battery is fried then it will not store the needed power to keep ignition running.

It is all a process of elimination.

For a 4 cycle motor to run it needs to be able to
Suck-squeeze-bang and blow.

Trudie · 03-21-2005

All right, I found the problem. In squod's response, he noticed that I may have had the reserve on just before filling up. Yes, I did have the reserve tank on. Looking at the bike this morning, I noticed bits of tank residue in the reserve gas line. I was willing to bet that some of that crud got into the left float bowl. I say left float bowl because it was that side only that began to overflow when I got the bike to start. Once it overflowed, the engine died. (I did not mention this in original post.) I took oldgit's suggestion of cleaning out the carb. I removed the left float bowl and found all sorts of tank bits at the bottom that was preventing gas from entering the main jet. This caused the float to rise, close the float needle, and gas to overflow. I had also learned that gas above the float bowl level will cause a fouled plug which also contributed to the starting and idling problem. Anyhow I cleaned and put the carb back together. Started the bike and it held an idle. Went on a test ride and the stalling problems disappeared. So far so good. I suspect I may have not have had a problem wth the electrical, but I will keep a close eye on it. Once again thanks to all who offered their advise. Cheers.

squod · 03-22-2005

Now you need to Kreem the tank. I PM'ed you more details on that than anyone wants to hear. Clean the rust with Lime Away, (Phosphoric acid)
Martin