On a long tour & engine sputtering

[BlackSails]

I had my 20k miles service a few weeks before departure last week and the bike was running great for a trip out west. So all was good when I left Nashville but started sort of hesitating and sputtering. It accelerates ok, but holding any speed below 75 or 80mph. It sputters. This mostly started east of st. Louis on my way to Colorado. Not much I could do but ride on going across Kansas. I made it 725 miles across Kansas to 80 miles east of Denver cruising at 80 and running fine until I slow down for gas. When I stopped for the night and started in the morning it ran like there was never any problem. My main observation is it seems better at higher elevations. Also whenever I've been at low elevation temperatures have been in the mid 90's and above.

With it seeming to have cleared up, we took a ride to Zion. All was ok until we were riding interstate back across Utah with light throttle low speed sputters until we went up high in Colorado & it cleared up again.

I took the bike in for service at Foothills BMW/Triumph. Their diagnosis ... "bad gas". Still I had them do a few simple things & If I start describing my experience there, this long post would get ridiculously long and the pages would burst into flames.

Any help will be greatly appreciated with this rocketeer forever in your debt. (Unfortunately I can only repay in stories & beer HELP PLEASE!!

 

[Tripps]

See my recent thread, weird problem with Touring miss, I'll tag you. Sounds similar, unfortunately I i haven't solved it yet but I think I'm in the right track.

 

[1K9]

I had my 20k miles service a few weeks before departure last week and the bike was running great for a trip out west. So all was good when I left Nashville but started sort of hesitating and sputtering. It accelerates ok, but holding any speed below 75 or 80mph. It sputters. This mostly started east of st. Louis on my way to Colorado. Not much I could do but ride on going across Kansas. I made it 725 miles across Kansas to 80 miles east of Denver cruising at 80 and running fine until I slow down for gas. When I stopped for the night and started in the morning it ran like there was never any problem. My main observation is it seems better at higher elevations. Also whenever I've been at low elevation temperatures have been in the mid 90's and above.

With it seeming to have cleared up, we took a ride to Zion. All was ok until we were riding interstate back across Utah with light throttle low speed sputters until we went up high in Colorado & it cleared up again.

I took the bike in for service at Foothills BMW/Triumph. Their diagnosis ... "bad gas". Still I had them do a few simple things & If I start describing my experience there, this long post would get ridiculously long and the pages would burst into flames.

Any help will be greatly appreciated with this rocketeer forever in your debt. (Unfortunately I can only repay in stories & beer HELP PLEASE!!

My 07 Classic gets moody just like that when elevation and temperatures change. Happens every time I go to D Smokies. Carry a PC or android with you and tweak the TPS. Set it a little higher that 60/72 V. Recently another Captain suggested tweaking the TPS with the bike at 3000 rpm by ear! Last time in MV it was running fine and suddenly started to sputter. BaaadGas?, I just put on a new TPS and it was a lot better. When I rechecked it in Houston the TPS voltages were off by a lot. Reset them to 63V on the TPS and 75V on the Stepper. Its been running fine at sea level and 95 degree heat.

 

[Prestaged]

That is the same issue I had with my '08 R3T. It was the throttle position sensor (TPS). I was able to use Tune ECU to adjust it and it was good for a while, but I had to replace it several hundred miles later.

 

[Boog]

Did you do the 12 minute tune during any of this time? I ask because I had something similar years back and I fixed my issue from sea level to Denver.
Bad gas does us no good, but you've traveled way beyond a single tank of bad fuel. Still, running some injector cleaner for a few tanks wont hurt anything.

 

[BlackSails]

Wow. I ride a touring and didnt even mention I had an aftermarket tach that went out. I thought it was due to water getting in it after a heavy rain i would see the needle jump now & then prior to its failure. Ordered a replacement that arrived an hour before departure. I disconnected the existing tach & took the new one with me. When I got to Denver I let a Dealer install it hooking into my existing wiring along with checking tb sync and check the condition of my coil connection please. 10am service appt. They never called when they couldnt get it to power up. After 5 calls late afternoon to see what was going they told me everything was done but they couldnt get the tach to power up. I didnt mention to them that I disconnected the old one from the battery. They brought it back in late in the afternoon and connected the battery. Amazingly it powered up!!! but they couldnt get it to work (I had sent them r3 set up instructions but either the right person didnt get em or they cant read - I think it was the latter) they returned it to me with the tach sweeping but not operating. Later I did the set up and found they set it to the high side wire. Also when I took off my seat to check the wires for myself I discovered one of my seat screws jammed 1/2 way in due to them stripping the threads. So the tach was working. The bike was running fine (maybe it was baaadgas but I was still at high elevation). Late in the day when i parked the bike & turned the handlebars hard left to lock the fork, it pulled the wires they attached & the tach stopped working again. Not happy with foothills Triumph in Denver.

Since i have no cable or computer I plan to go to another triumph dealer in Denver for the tps & coil analysis.

Any other thoughts are appreciated and I'll keep hunting & let ya'll know where this goes.

Fingers crossed!!

 

[BlackSails]

Hindsight ... next time I go touring I'm gonna pack my cable & computer with pcv + at & tuneecu software.

 

[Scholle]

I would definitely not stop the engine with the kill switch, but always with the ignition key. Stopping the motor with the kill switch is similar to stopping a computer by simply turning off the power.
Regards, Georg

 

[Tripps]

I would definitely not stop the engine with the kill switch, but always with the ignition key. Stopping the motor with the kill switch is similar to stopping a computer by simply turning off the power.
Regards, Georg

I'm curious why you say that, I would think both cut power, but @DEcosse would have a more educated opinion than an old carpenter.

 

[1K9]

Hindsight ... next time I go touring I'm gonna pack my cable & computer with pcv + at & tuneecu software.

Get and old Android unless you have a small PC. The Androids have to run a certain version in order to run TuneECU. You can buy them used, cheap, $20 used. Shuv'm in a plastic bag with the LoneTech and store under the seat with the star tool to loosen the TPS and a 6mm wrench for the stepper.