I rode 1295 miles from Oak Island, NC to Cherokee, NC; up the entire Blue Ridge Parkway; continued on the Skyline drive in Virginia; then half way thru W.Va. visited family. Left house, topped off tank (maybe 2 gallons) rode about one mile when bike started hesitating. Within 15 seconds, serious missing and stuttering and white smoke coming from exhaust. Managed to pull off road and am able to restart bike 3 more times, but would only barely run at 4-5,000 rpm then finally would not run at all. I immediately thought "Water in Gas". Seemed obvious, at least to me. Called Father in law, and trucked bike back to his garage. Pulled tank, completely emptied, and put a gallon of good gas back in. Tried to start, nothing. Next, pulled tank, air box and plugs. Plugs were wet, so cleaned and dried them, checked and they were sparking, reassembled, still no start, not even a backfire. Found new plugs, after 15 calls, installed them, still no start. I have spark, have fuel, (the fuel pump is pumping gas and plugs will get wet) and am out of ideas. In the past, if I had fuel and spark, an engine would at least fire occassionally or back fire, but I'm getting absolutely nothing except a spinning engine. The battery is good and spinning the engine correctly. What am I missing???? Help??? (Bike is a 2006 sprint with 12,000 problem free miles)
What's my problem?
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Given the last thing you did before it was playing up was fill it up with fuel this is the most likely culprit. Probably blocked up your injectors. White smoke would indicate that it was running excessively lean which is consistent with blocked injectors.
I would look at getting those ultrasonically cleaned by a fuel injector specialist.
Other than that you may be suffering an electrical gremlin such as a faulty crank sensor or a faulty relay.
Good luck sorting this one out.
I would look at getting those ultrasonically cleaned by a fuel injector specialist.
Other than that you may be suffering an electrical gremlin such as a faulty crank sensor or a faulty relay.
Good luck sorting this one out.
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8,211 Posts
Any electrical failure that deals with sensors would throw a code. Is your check engine light on?
The white smoke..... is it sticky, is it sweet smelling? Do you have a residue on your tail pipes? You might not have gone long enough to get that but white smoke is indicative of burning coolant as OnD has suggested.
I have never heard of a lean engine burning white smoke but I am willing to learn something new everyday.
The white smoke..... is it sticky, is it sweet smelling? Do you have a residue on your tail pipes? You might not have gone long enough to get that but white smoke is indicative of burning coolant as OnD has suggested.
I have never heard of a lean engine burning white smoke but I am willing to learn something new everyday.
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2,040 Posts
Did you fill it with gasoline.......or......something else, by mistake, maybe their pumps/tanks weren't too clean??
I know it's a not too uncommon problem, over in Blighty/Europe........but, at least in NY, the diesel pumps seem to be black, and miles away from the 'regular' ones......still............it was purely a 'stab in the dark', as OnD and the other poster's ideas seem more likely........
I know it's a not too uncommon problem, over in Blighty/Europe........but, at least in NY, the diesel pumps seem to be black, and miles away from the 'regular' ones......still............it was purely a 'stab in the dark', as OnD and the other poster's ideas seem more likely........
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I keep learning things day by day. A bad injector would have never occurred to me because I always associated that fault being mainly on diesels.
To me, pulling the injectors and having them cleaned at this point would be a reach. There are firms that claim to be able to clean injectors; there are few that actually do it successfully.
Recognizing that I am quite lazy, and always look for the easiest way to do things, I would still opt for the leak down. It is easy to do, will identify any combustion chamber pressure variance(s), and can be used to locate the failure point. If it passed the leak down test, trouble shooting can continue having exonerated the usual suspects.
Of course all of this is predicated that the gas in the bike at the time of failure has been drained and replaced, and the hoses drained/purged.
To me, pulling the injectors and having them cleaned at this point would be a reach. There are firms that claim to be able to clean injectors; there are few that actually do it successfully.
Recognizing that I am quite lazy, and always look for the easiest way to do things, I would still opt for the leak down. It is easy to do, will identify any combustion chamber pressure variance(s), and can be used to locate the failure point. If it passed the leak down test, trouble shooting can continue having exonerated the usual suspects.
Of course all of this is predicated that the gas in the bike at the time of failure has been drained and replaced, and the hoses drained/purged.
My sweet wife came all the way from NC to W.Va to trailer me and bike home. I charged battery over night since it was nearly dead from trying to start it in W.Va. and again tried starting it today. After probably 12-15 long (maybe 20 seconds per attempt) tries at starting, the motor hiccuped a couple of times and fired up. Running very rough, again, white smoke (vapor maybe), then after about 5 minutes, ran as if nothing had happened. Took bike for a ride and all is well. My best guess is it takes a long time to clear the line, fuel pipe, and injectors if they are full of water. I never would have thought it would take that amount of engine cranking to clear the lines ( there can't be more than 12-15 inches of piping, a lot of which drains when the tank is removed). Any way, I have no other explanation of what happened, but engine runs well now. Thanks for your thoughts.
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I would still get things checked out.
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289 Posts
Just curious
What did the gas that was drained out of the tank look like? Water would be easy to spot.
Floating on top of the gas. Kerosene and or desiel would be hard to spot but would make the gas smell odd. Was the bike in a heavy rain the night before? Washed with a power washer?
What did the gas that was drained out of the tank look like? Water would be easy to spot.
Floating on top of the gas. Kerosene and or desiel would be hard to spot but would make the gas smell odd. Was the bike in a heavy rain the night before? Washed with a power washer?
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1,325 Posts
I am curious to know what may happen if you accidentally put deisel in your tank? In MI the deisel pumps are usually green but are most of the time at the same pump as regular gas. It would be tough to do but possible to put diesel in.
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2,040 Posts
If it was just a shot of diesel.......and a lot of gas..it SHOULD just smoke for a while...a bit like a Triumph two stroke motorcycle ( if they made one..........are you old enough to remember the Yamaha strokers ...??)
Petrol ( gas) in diesel is another matter entirely........if you run the motah!!
Petrol ( gas) in diesel is another matter entirely........if you run the motah!!
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