Really Stumped

Hello everyone, Well today was a really cool day for riding. I was out for awhile and I had a great time. Until, I was on my home and all of a sudden my bike started to sputter a little and real shortly after that it quit. I happended to notice that once it quit, I saw the oil light come on. I pulled over and I let the bike cool down for awhile and same thing would happen. Finally, I called a buddy and he brought a trailer and some gas because I have been riding for a while, and no I did not have a full tank. We put that gas in, and I took off again. The bike ran for a longer time, but eventually, the exact same thing would happen. I have not put anymore gas in it to see if it is the gas because I am a little annoyed and I have had a few to drink since then.

Any Suggestions?:gah:

My bike is a 96. Yeah the light came on, but only after the bike would stall. Since my last post, I have pulled the inline off and checked that for restriction. Everything there is good. I am now draining the gas. I am noticing that there is a lot of sentiment in the gas. So what I think what it is that I am going to do is drain all of the gas and put some C Foam in it and put some really fresh gas it to see if that helps. What do you think?

yeah I think that it is just a bad case of that I screwed up and not clean the tank well enough. I will keep you posted if that is cool? Thank You for the hint!

Is it ok to put some carb cleaner through it?

I guess what I meant was is it OK to spray some cleaner through the filter?

There is no fuel filter on that bike, but there is a screen inside the tank on the petcock. It's not a particularly difficult or time-consuming job to remove the petcock & while it's easier with the tank off the bike, you can do it without removing the tank. Best thing to do is clean that screen & you should also shine a bright light down inside the tank to see what shape the liner is in.

I had a similar problem with the '95 & when I took the tank off & turned it upside-down, the liner fell down like an umbrella - pieces of it had been coming off & getting on the screen. The lining was shot & the only way to deal with that is thoroughly clean the inside of the tank & line it again, which is not something I'd do myself, as I've seen too many problems from people doing it themselves with "Kreme" or some-such product.

A radiator shop has the chemicals & equipment to do it right & the local one here uses a fiberglass type lining they guarantee will NEVER come loose, chip or flake off. They charge $85 to clean the inside of the tank down to the bare metal & line it with the new product.

Art, yeah when I put the new tank on, I had put an inline filter on it but I did not use the the petcock screen because a buddy gave me one so I could save some money. I drained the gas and I am seeing a lot of dirt in the gas. I think I am going to run some Cfoam through it and put some new gas in it. the inline is still good, has good flow. I will see if this works first. Thanks for the tip though.

As easy as a Sportster tank is to remove, I'd take it off, swish some Gumout around inside, turn it upside-down & shake it until every last bit of dirt comes out. Seafoam is good stuff, but while it'll dissolve gum, varnish, etc., it won't get rid of pieces of trash & you don't want that in the tank, 'cause even if the liner is still in good shape, pieces of dirt will wear it out.

For now all I did was drain the fuel completely and put in fresh gas. I did add the Seafoam. I took it out for a spin (stayed in town this time). The bike started out rough, and there was a little bit of backfiring, but that did not last long at all. The bike again now pulls really hard, like it did at first yesterday. I am going to the dealer soon and getting a petcock filter, because I am going to have some added protection. I think that I will do what the both of you had suggested and put a new inline on and also I will have to take the tank off to put a set of new thundervolt wires on so I will clean that tank out really well then. Thank You All for the suggestions. I will keep you posted.

I had the same issue with my bike today. This time I knew that the fuel level was low so I switched the reserve on and that did not help. So I drained the gas again, this time I took the petcock out and there was a lot of junk sitting on the bottom. I am going to go get a screen for the valve here in a bit.

Now, there have been suggestions to put gum out in the tank and swish it around so it will come clean, my issue with turning it upside down to empty it is that I just put a nice paint job on it and it has not fully cured yet, so I really do not want to do that. Is there a different way? Also, do aftermarket tanks have this lining that people are talking about?:witsend:

Since you've removed the petcock, you could cap the opening off & drain the cleaner out there. Gumout (carb cleaner) is a favorite of mine, but you could use warm water & Dawn dishwashing soap if you wanted - you just have to get the inside of the tank cleaned out.

Nope.

I had a similar issue with my 87 XLH. But it only happened when it was a hot day. If all the suggestions concerning gas don't fix it, I would suggest pulling out the ignition relay, located on the rear fender, put a meter on it, and hit it with a heat gun. If it's bad, the state of it will change under heat. Sorry, but I can't remember if it was normally open or closed. Mine was bad and once I changed it, problem never came back. Good luck!