Throttle Loss

Sharpie66 · Post by **Sharpie66** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:25 pm

Gentlemen, I am currently on a road trip and am having a slight issue with my bike that is troubling. I hope some of you can kindly give me some ideas.

So I rode my '82 from Buffalo to Indianapolis to visit my Mom for Mother's Day. The ride was just over 500 miles and I did it one day. She rode fantastic until about 100 miles out from Indy. I'm cruising along at 75-80mph when all of a sudden I completely lose throttle response. I'm twisting away on the throttle and nothing. As the bike is slowing down to about 35-40mph and I'm heading towards the side of the highway, throttle response sudddenly returned. Fantastic! I knew I had fuel so it wasn't a matter of running out. Well, I keep riding and about 20 miles later the exact same thing happens again. Cruising along great and there goes throttle response again. This time I pay attention to the electrical system and everything seems fine. Voltmeter is reading 13+. I slow down to a stop on the side of the highway and start inspecting my bike. I have fuel, the throttle cable is intact, there are no leaks that I can see, all electric connections are tight, oil level is good. After about a half hour of investigating and scratching my head the bike starts up just fine and I finish my ride to Indianapolis without another problem.

This all happened on Thursday and today I took her out for a ride around the city. She rode just fine without any problems. I am staying here in Indy until next Thursday and sure would like to have this little problem solved before heading back to Buffalo. I am completely at a loss of what this could be. It was extremely hot out the day I rode here if that could have had anything to do with it.

Thanks for any suggestions that anybody might have.

Patrick

tevan · Post by **tevan** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:57 am

I would pull all electrical connections apart and clean them and put dielectric grease on them. This is a place to start. Connections can act weird sometimes. Good luck!

whatscooking · Post by **whatscooking** » Sun May 10, 2015 7:43 am

Something I found on one of mine was the connector at the bottom of the ignition switch was loose\burnt.
I live about two hours south of Indy, Madison, got tools.

daves79x · Post by **daves79x** » Sun May 10, 2015 8:18 am

Second the ignition switch check. That's exactly what they do. If it happens on the road again - reach up and wiggle the key and see if it picks right up again.

Give me a shout if you can detour just a wee bit into N/W PA on your return trip.

Dave

Sharpie66 · Post by **Sharpie66** » Sun May 10, 2015 8:36 am

tevan wrote:I would pull all electrical connections apart and clean them and put dielectric grease on them. This is a place to start. Connections can act weird sometimes. Good luck!

Thank you Tevan. While doing maintenence over the winter I did take every electrical connection apart and cleaned and greased. There was only a slight amount of corrosion here and there and no signs of any over-heating in the connections.

whatscooking wrote:Something I found on one of mine was the connector at the bottom of the ignition switch was loose\burnt.
I live about two hours south of Indy, Madison, got tools.

Thank you for the offer Whatscooking. The only tools I have with me are the original Honda tool bag that came with the bike.

As I'm starting to fall asleep last night, I start having thoughts about the regulator/rectifier. Knowing it was so hot that day, I wonder if that would have had an impact.

This next idea of mine is a little kooky....this particular road I was on was surrounded by open farm land and the winds coming across were pretty intense. At imes it felt like a negative pressure was swirling around me and the bike was ''lifting''. Is it possible that for a moment the bike was starved for air??

Patrcik

EMS · Post by **EMS** » Sun May 10, 2015 10:07 am

Sharpie66 wrote: This next idea of mine is a little kooky....this particular road I was on was surrounded by open farm land and the winds coming across were pretty intense. At imes it felt like a negative pressure was swirling around me and the bike was ''lifting''. Is it possible that for a moment the bike was starved for air??

Patrcik

I think that would be unlikely. Take the seat off and check the connections of the spark units mounted on the inner fender.

NobleHops · Post by **NobleHops** » Sun May 10, 2015 12:32 pm

Ya, and I had a weird one a few months back: the little plastic fangs that snap the connector into the ignition switch had rounded off enough that it was making intermittent contact. You can reach up and push/wiggle that connector and see if it's in there positively.

Jeff Bennetts · Post by **Jeff Bennetts** » Sun May 10, 2015 12:39 pm

It also sounds like it could be a vapor lock, pull the gas cap off and blow through the pin hole in the bottom of the cap to make sure it is clear.

daves79x · Post by **daves79x** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:18 pm

The ignition switch failing would result in the bike shutting completely off, which is what I think you are describing, whether you know it or not. Everything should go off when it happens, then you hit a bump and it all comes back on. I really think that's your problem.

Dave

jt · Post by jt » Sun May 10, 2015 9:34 pm

If your sure you are not losing electrical power when this happens, do you still have the Auto fuel
shut off valve? If so you might want to check that. I had the same problem on my 95 CB1000, it looked great shape but after two roadside teardown, I limped to NAPA store and bypassed the Vacuum side and forced it to stay open. Ended up finishing the last 800 miles with no more issues.

whatscooking · Post by **whatscooking** » Mon May 11, 2015 5:49 am

For piece of mind run a fused wire,20-25 amp, up to the hot side of one of the coils. Leave it out so you can unplug when you want to kill the engine to get you home.

daves79x · Post by **daves79x** » Mon May 11, 2015 8:48 am

'Sudden throttle loss' is not running out of fuel. Picture how these bikes go onto reserve - you have a couple of miles of warning. If it was a fuel problem, the loss would be much more gradual.

Dave

Sharpie66 · Post by **Sharpie66** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:13 am

Thank you so much for the replies, Gentlemen. I feel really good knowing that all of you are there to help.

jt wrote:If your sure you are not losing electrical power when this happens, do you still have the Auto fuel
shut off valve? If so you might want to check that. I had the same problem on my 95 CB1000, it looked great shape but after two roadside teardown, I limped to NAPA store and bypassed the Vacuum side and forced it to stay open. Ended up finishing the last 800 miles with no more issues.

I'm not sure what you mean by the ''auto fuel shut off valve''. Of interest, I always turn the fuel tank on-off-reserve petcock to off when I am done riding. Before I left Buffalo, the switch leaked a few drops of fuel when I turned it to the on position. This has not happened before. I do have the vacuum actuated fuel valve at the carbs. I recently disassembled this and all looked good so I put it back together. I also took the hose that goes to the bottom of the bike from this component and re-routed so that I could lightly blow into it and let the fuel fill the carb bowls prior to starting. This works fantastic and the bike fires right up everytime now. I checked the vacuum hose coming off carb #3 for any looseness or cracks last night but found no issues.

daves79x wrote:The ignition switch failing would result in the bike shutting completely off, which is what I think you are describing, whether you know it or not. Everything should go off when it happens, then you hit a bump and it all comes back on. I really think that's your problem.

Dave

I recently had this switch off to clean and grease and actually found it to be the most difficult to put back in. Late last night I was able to investigate this and it certaintly wiggles around a bit. I will run the bike today and reach underneath and wiggle it around to see if that causes the problem again.

I would like to think that it is related to some mistake I made when putting the bike back together last month. I did a full carb re-build and cleaned alot of varnish and rust out of the bowls. I am so neurotic (super nerd actually) and I check myself a million times before moving on. I feel very confident about the work I did and the bike is running so good right now.

By the way, Mom says this is the most beautiful bike she has ever seen and we all know Mom's are always right.

Patrick

whatscooking · Post by **whatscooking** » Mon May 11, 2015 9:36 pm

When you did the carb re-build did you take the ground wire loose from the battery to the starter body I think it is, I have read some do I don't might look there. If you still have the dog bone fuse at the start relay they make trouble. If it goes dead on you again look to see if the headlight is out.

Patriotprop · Post by **Patriotprop** » Tue May 12, 2015 9:17 pm

Gas cap, gas cap, gas cap. Your vent is clogged. Already fixed this twice this year on some of my fleet

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