Hi everyone noob rider here. Was driving from work last night when I noticed that my tail pipe was emitting sparks out of the muffler. Shortly after I started to loose power until the bike cut off on me. I didn't risk trying to turn it over and since I was so close to home I pushed the bike back to my house. I waited till the next day (this morning) and she fired right up no problem. The muffler does sound a bit weirder than usual or else its my imagination. Any help as what it could be would be great. I have a Vance & Hines exhaust.

 

There are a lot of things that could cause this from carbon burning off to an engine burning up.


Could really use more info. Does the exhaust smoke at all? How does the bike run? Have you made any changes recently?


My guess, given the little info you provided is that the exhaust internals (baffles) are collapsing and burning up. Sparks out the exhaust usually mean something that isn't supposed to burn is burning. If the pipe is old, could be rusty inside...if the sound is changing and the bike is still running okay, then your pipe is shot.


Loosing power is concerning tho...could be more serious issue.

 

That might be from the baffles breaking off and blocking the flow. The sound would change and also a loss of power.

 

My guess is on rusted baffle burning up too. I once had a Honda NS125R `89 that I tried to get started, I eventually did but it ran very poorly, was cutting out and stuff. I noticed from my right side mirror that sparks were coming out of my exhaust. I turned around and gave it the redline treatment. Was very very close falling over with the bike as I was laughing so hard while watching our garage wall and roof getting covered in black sooty baffling wool as the inner pipe of my muffler gave in and burned away.

So, the first thing would probly be to look inside the muffler with a flashlight, you should see a perforated pipe going all the way through and not much else. If not then your muffler is shot, if you do see an intact pipe remove the muffler and see if there is excessive amount of soot buildup in the exhaust and report back.

And btw welcome to the forum!

 

Ok will take all advice and will post a more descriptive response when I take a look. I had to leave the bike at work as she didn't want to turn over this time :/ and it might be till Monday before I'm able to take a look. Thanks again for the warm welcome I love the site so far

 

But so far what happened was it started to stall then stopped running. I swapped out the rectifier as it wouldn't hold a charge when I noticed that that the wires were melted. I had the electrical back probed and was told that all the voltage seems to be ok and just to swap out the connectors so thats what I did and once done she fired right up but sounded rough and yes sounded rough. smoke did come out but stopped after a minute or so. I thought because the bike had been sitting for about 2 months that it could be the oil being bad from sitting so I did a oil change and filter change and she fired right up. I rode for about 4 miles but sounded rough like boggy ( I guess the way to describe it) On the way home I looked in my rearview and seen the sparks coming out and started to bog. I was told that I could have had a air/fuel ratio messed up, fuel pump is going and would dump to much fuel causing the spark. I didn't ride it that night but rode the next morning with no problem but sounded ya know spuddery. Sorry if I'm not giving an accurate detail.

 

A fuel issue will not cause sparks out the exhaust unless your running too lean and are burning up the engine. This is a possibility, but there are other things to check first. If the engine is running too rich you will see flames out the exhaust...you could have a pipe burning up because your running too rich and the pipe is shot...or the pipe is just shot.


You need to verify the pipe as a first check. Since the bike hadn't run for a while it would be nice to know what you did. Did you drain the old fuel? Clean the carbs, etc.?

 

This is a problem common in 2 stroke engines - carbon buildup in the pipe which breaks off when the bike gets warm and the exhaust throws out sparks.
I guess it could be the same on a 4 stroke if there has been too much oil in the exhaust from poor rings which over time could solidify and then get blown out as sparks.
If your baffles are burning up you'd have a similar problem, loss of power, louder exhaust sound....
I'd remove the complete pipe and heat it up with a torch and tap it with a plastic mallet to loosen any carbon build up................then check your baffles and replace as needed.

 

Is it an actual spark that's coming from the exhaust? Or is it firing, accompanied by a big/loud bang?

 

It's actual spark. I'm ordering a voltmeter tonight to do further (self) diagnostic testing lol. Um but yeah it was actual firing type of sparks not metal on metal sparks. I tried to turn her over today but nothing happened. she seems like she's really trying though.