Flummoxed!

[ruckman101]

Bertha's engine seems to be having issues, I suspect of an electrical nature, but haven't been able to pin it down. Perhaps someone has gone through this before and can point me to things to check.

Here's the issue. She started running rough. Less power on the hills, slower throttle response, but before I could check my timing, the rider on a second set of points collapsed on the way to work. This was the set that went in last July or August when the other rider collapsed on my set of points. This new set is well lubed. All Bosch.

So threw new points in, and was 30 minutes late to work. And now, the engine starts dying at stops, just revs down dead, unless I goose the gas a tad, which sometimes works. Starts right back up and idles fine. Downshifting and winding down gears, the engine feels like it has no spark. Under load, like up a hill or accelerating, engine seems just fine. Cruising at a constant speed, or a slight down-hill, the engine hesitates, kind of missing spark here and there.

"Well!" I tell myself, better check the timing. It wasn't quite two degrees off closer to TDC. Nothing drastic. Rechecked my gap, no worries. An odd thing though with the timing light. On occasion it seemed out of time. The dot of white paint and the notch disappeared. I couldn't see them. Then they would be back. What could cause something like that? So my timing is on, at least when I can see the mark with the timing light.

Runs the same, like a**. Put a new condenser on. Still running like....let's just say it apparently wasn't the condenser. What next? Coil? Sheesh. And somehow I don't really think it's the coil, but for no good reason.


neal

[Amskeptic]

dying at stops,
Starts right back up and idles fine.
Under load, like up a hill or accelerating, engine seems just fine.

"Well!" I tell myself, better check the timing.

What next? Coil? Sheesh.

No Neal,
not the coil Neal,
what's next Neal?
Up a hill under load, ignition has passed the test,
fuel supply has passed the test,
dying at stops?
Easy.
Cut-off solenoid misbehaving.
Checking wiring, spade connector first, at cut-off then at source
(coil + #15 ).
IF this doesn't clear it up, remove solenoid and clean it and the opening into the carb with GumOut. May start hard until you clear out the GumOut.
Lettuce no.
Colin

[hambone]

Could be a vacuum leak, or a carb adjustment too. Choke working?
What days you have off this week?

[ruckman101]

My mind never would have drifted to the shut off solenoid. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to futz with it, a 14 hour day tomorrow, and working daylight hours Saturday. Maybe I can sneak it in sometime Before my next day off, Sunday.

Thanks!

neal

[Hippie]

Had those same symptoms when the wire came off my cutoff once.

I was goosing it along home and some tweaker is on my ass honking his horn. So's I roll down the window to see if he is trying to tell me the Bus is on fire or something...and dude passes me up, rolls down his window and yells "Bitch!" and speeds off squealing his tires.
Guess I was holding him up on the way to get some meth.

I had to laugh out loud because there wasn't anything I could have yelled back at him to piss him off anymore than he had already pissed himself off.

[ruckman101]

Could it be that easy? The cut-off plunger thingy-bob assembly was loose enough to tighten by hand. Put a wrench to it and now will give it a test run to the homefront.


neal

[dhoch14]

Could it be that easy? The cut-off plunger thingy-bob assembly was loose enough to tighten by hand. Put a wrench to it and now will give it a test run to the homefront.


neal

ding ding ding.....keep those bad boys tight.

[ruckman101]

No kidding. It would appear that it was indeed that easy.

What a relief. Now I can get back to why oh why my drum is still scraping the brake assembly backing plate after new bearings were installed.

Thanks Colin and everyone else, too. It would have taken me awhile to get to that. It wasn't even on my radar. But symptoms are burned deep should it ever experience the same, that'll be the first thing I check.


neal