Won't run when hot

[arthurdent510]

So I was out riding yesterday and everything was going good.  Started to head home and jumped on the freeway, and it really didn't want to accelerate.  As soon as I pulled the clutch to shift, the engine dropped rpm's, really fast.  Faster then normal.  I rode it to my exit and as soon as I came to a stop the engine died.  Tried starting it again and it turned over really slow.  I was close to home so I started pushing it home.  So along the way my friend caught up to me and gave me a push start, and it ran fine as long as I kept on the throttle.  I figured at first that I had a dead battery.  So this morning I went out and looked at it and tried starting it, and it fired right up and runs fine.  No signs of the starting or running prolbems that I had last night.  So my thoughts were leaning towards something wrong with either the coils or the tci?  Something is going out of whack once it warms up?  I was going to pull the tci later and start going over the solder joints, make sure nothing is loose.  Or am I misdiagnosing things?

[Lucky]

simplest thing to check & a usual culpret:  check the charging system.  if the battery isn't charging & the bike dies, it's sort of a normal symptom that it'll start the next day.  just put a meter across the battery terminals & check your voltage.  12.-anything running & over 2000 rpm is bad news

TCI failures are rare

[Walt_M.]

Also could be the fuel tank vent in the fuel cap in plugged.

[arthurdent510]

Finally got my hands on a volt meter, and the charging system checks out fine.  The battery had 12.3v to start, and was reading 13.5 at higher rpm.  So we're good there. 

What's the easiest way to check the gas cap?  Or could it be a bad coil?  Does anyone know what the readings should be when they're hot and cold?

[arthurdent510]

Well, don't have to worry about that anymore...  was out getting some gas and started on the way home and the motor froze on me...  so here we go with this again.  /sigh  I just can't win...

[QBS]

How many miles on the bike, and has the starter clutch attachment ever been upgraded?

[arthurdent510]

I'd say it's around 1k miles on this motor since Rick and I rebuilt it.  All the starter clutch upgrades were done to it then.

[Rick G]

Sounds like the engine bound up. Pull the "yics" inspection plate on the left side , the one over the stator. Use  a socket and breaker bar to try and rotate the engine. Beyond that drop it out of the frame and pop the top end off, . You need to determine if its the crank or a top end problem.
What a bummer!