Triumphrat

kyre_kyre · 05-01-2008, 04:54 PM

I desperately need advice on how I can troubleshoot my own bike. It has been taken to 4 different shops in the last 5 or 6 years and it continues to stall at any rpm under about 2K. I can no longer afford repair bills that fail to fix the problem. The bike will randomly stall at traffic lights as well as just sitting in the driveway warming up.... it starts up immediately afterwards and purrs until the next stall... so the consensus is that the problem must be electrical/electronic. Computer replaced in '01... #1 coil and ignition sensor replaced in '04... numerous carb and tank clean outs... I deactivated kick stand kill switch... & most recently, the clutch sensor was adjusted to a tighter clearance... None of which has helped!
What can I check for that four different shops have failed to find over all these years? I am now willing to tear the thing down on my own out of sheer frustration... and very few Legend owners with this problem have had any success to my knowledge. Someone please save what's left of my sanity....

patrol21 · 05-01-2008, 05:59 PM

you've come to the right place my friend. There are so many people with similar issues/problems and there are some very knowlegable folks here to help. I am a bit perplexed how they worked on your clutch/kick stand etc, when your bike runs great over 2 K? A bit of dealer money grubbing me thinks.........anyhow, if your bike is running fine thru the range but ends up dying out only under 2K, I have to assume this is a carb/mixure issue. GregP/JimmyJ are your guys for these kind of issues.

BigAl8295 · 05-01-2008, 09:48 PM

Is the problem only at idle or when you are actually moving as well?

Where is your idle set at?

jimmyj900 · 05-01-2008, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyre_kyre

It has been taken to 4 different shops in the last 5 or 6 years and it continues to stall at any rpm under about 2K. I can no longer afford repair bills that fail to fix the problem. The bike will randomly stall at traffic lights as well as just sitting in the driveway warming up.... it starts up immediately afterwards and purrs until the next stall... so the consensus is that the problem must be electrical/electronic. Computer replaced in '01... #1 coil and ignition sensor replaced in '04... numerous carb and tank clean outs... I deactivated kick stand kill switch... & most recently, the clutch sensor was adjusted to a tighter clearance... None of which has helped!

OK...

HOW does it stall when idling? Does it misfire a bit, slow down and quit or does it shut down like somebody threw a switch?

(That's a key question for sorting out whether this is a carb or electrical problem.)

Does the bike ever seem to buck or misfire during hard acceleration with large throttle settings?

How about at small throttle settings and either gentle acceleration or constant speed between 3000 - 5000 rpm -- any bucking or misfiring?

Jim

kyre_kyre · 05-02-2008, 02:55 PM

The bike will stall (average twice per ride) at idle or any rpms slightly higher....including when I'm making a turn into a break in oncoming or cross traffic. Once I get through that initial acceleration and past the 1000 to say 1800rpm range there are no problems. It has never stalled or given me any problem on the freeway or any long stretch of road, but [I]getting[I] to and from that freeway (ie. stop & go traffic) is when the nervousness sets in. The stalling itself is pretty much intantaneous as if some gremlin had his little hands on my kill switch. (When someone suggested I might have a short in the kick stand safety switch, I deactivated the circuit.)
No backfires...no surging, stumbling or hesitation at any throttle speeds, specifically the lower range...basically no warning signs whatsoever...it just dies when it feels like it (either at idle or the initial seconds of acceleration from a stand still)...and it comes back instantly when I hit the starter button a second later. Over the years I found that the only way to [I]slightly lessen[I] the problem was to jack up the idle speed...typically to the 1300-1400 range. I didn't feel right about doing so, but it increased the chances of the engine recovering on its own... I guess due to having more momentum... or still being in motion once the "gremlin" had finished his work.
I am a conservative rider/accelerator and have never been one to hammer the **** out of a bike. I respect my machine...but it just won't behave...and all the shops that worked on it were reluctant to admit that they were clueless, but happy to have me pay the bill, of course....

jimmyj900 · 05-02-2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyre_kyre

The bike will stall (average twice per ride) at idle or any rpms slightly higher.... The stalling itself is pretty much intantaneous as if some gremlin had his little hands on my kill switch. ...

I don't think it's carbs but I can see two or three possible electrical problems that will cause that specific problem.

Do you have a Volt-Ohm Meter? It's going to take a couple of voltage checks to track down and/or eliminate some possibilities.

You also need to print out the starting circuit diagrams in my photo album -- clicky below -- for reference. It looks like this:

The block diagram there might also be useful to you -- it's a bit simpler to see what's going on.

Jim

gregp · 05-02-2008, 03:51 PM

Jimmy's diagram should prove to be very valuable in seraching for this problem. I agree that this particular problem does not *sound* like a carb problem, from all that you have described. This sounds very much electrical. I would check closely all of your connectors, ground terminations, and wiring harness. If you can not find anything obvious, start jumping out switches, as you have already started. I would go as far as jumping out the kill switch on the handle bar switch pod. You should also check any fuse blocks for good contacts. Clean any surfaces with Scotch Brite and maybe apply a little dielectric grease. After that you can either start cutting open suspect portions of the harness, such as around the steering head, or start replacing components. One thing I always keep in mind is to start with the lowest cost items first, spark plugs, caps, fuses, fuel filters, stuff like that. Before I got into any big dollar components, I would pull the carbs again and make extra sure that things were spotless.
The absolute worst thing it could be is the igniter/ECU (big $$).

patrol21 · 05-02-2008, 04:25 PM

Greg/Jimmy,

Wouldn't he be having this issue all thru the range if it was an electical conntection? He mentioned that kicking up his idle is helping.......are you thinking at low RPM's the alternator might not be pulling enough voltage and the bike simply dies or he has something at lower RPM that is zapping the circuit?

KD5QOQ · 05-02-2008, 04:47 PM

This is carbon copy of one of my symptoms when one of my coils STARTED going bad.

gregp · 05-02-2008, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrol21

Greg/Jimmy,

Wouldn't he be having this issue all thru the range if it was an electical conntection? He mentioned that kicking up his idle is helping.......are you thinking at low RPM's the alternator might not be pulling enough voltage and the bike simply dies or he has something at lower RPM that is zapping the circuit?

Good question, Patrol! And you made me think that this might even be a bad battery problem, as our bikes seem to be very succeptable to any weakness in the system. A weak electrical system will usually give you symptoms at lower rpm's first. From everything that the original poster described, it just sounds electrical to me. There may be a corroded connection that is just bad enough to stop a very weak current (ie: low rpm/voltage/current). These types of problems can be very difficult to diagnose (especially over the internet!) because they are intermittant, so he can not just check for a lack of spark when it happens. Of couse he could just have a tank full of crud, but again, the OP said that he has checked this out to his satisfaction.
Although, I once had a very similar problem with my DRZ, and it turned out to be the placement of the kill switch. I found that as I was riding it and crawling all over the bike, I would hit the switch with my wrist just enough to kill the motor.
Anyway, the problem as described here, definately warrants re-checking everything that was already checked. I do not know if the OP had to pay a dealer or a mechanic to perform those checks, but the fuel filters and carbs are definate suspects *if* they are still not perfect.