I have not posted anything in awhile, it has been very busy. So I bought a 87 1000f back in august. It ran good for a few weeks than carb problems started. I cleaned, and cleant them some more. Finally brought it to the shop. The problem turned out to be a bad needle seat on number 3, it kept dumping fuel. It would work for a day or two than start up again. I also had the starter clutch problem. I bought a used one off ebay ( yea I know I should have gotten a new one) and it workd for a few days thenm the starting problem started again. I think it may be the dampner now. So I bought a 06 honda VTX and let the Hurricain sit for a bit since I was very frustrated with it. So now It was running great after I changed out the float and needle. I noticed after a few days of sitting and maybe a couple of short trips to the store it would give me the starting problem again but nothing serious. So here is the problem now. It sounds like it is missing, or not firring on all cyclinders. As you ride 30-45 miles an hour you can feel it hit the them all fire than back to 3 cyclinders. Does that make sense? kida like running on 3-3-3-3-4-3-3-3-3 ( number of cyclinders funning) so I get off work yeatrerday it started yesterday morning on the way to work. And I am looking at it, I have fuel, Battery states something like 12.4 volts with everything off. And when I start the bike it drops to 11 or so than comes right back up to 12.5 and climes to 13-14 volts at an idle. I am not 100% of the numbers since I was a little tired and I came back to work at 4 am this morning but they all looked normal to me. Now here it the kicker. I unplugged the regulator plug the one with two wires in it and the bike ran normal! no sputter nothing. Could this have something to do with it? Could it be going out, or a failing battery maybe?

So for the free hurricain! I have 2 87 hurricains. one running and one I have for parts. The parts one is offered to who ever wished to help me get this one running right again. I have it listed ot sell but I do like the bike. I will gladly buy a new alternator dampner and give my other bike to someone if they care to replace, and fix my bike for me. I should mention the parts bike is missin a startor, and the plastic is realy rough. other than that is is almost a compete bike. and it has a clean florida title!

 

wish I was closer....would gladly take the 87 off your hands....but I wonder if you have a short in something thats shunting the power to ground instead of fire

 

That is what I am thinking. I am trying not to lump all the problems into one cause. I know the carb leaking was one problem, and when that was going on it was boging down a lot. But that si not happening now. I did find a wire that the coating was cut cracked going into the regilator ( left side under the side panel two prong wire plug, right above the fuel pump plug. I put tape on it last night but it was getting late. when I get home I will try out my other regulator and see what that does. I dont think it is a fuel problem.

Any sugestins are welcome. I like the bike and if I can get it running right I would keep it. I would hate to see it go in the back to my project area with my xs650 and a fz600 I just picked up.

 

Running on 3 cylinders as you describe can be caused by a number of issues -
1 Too little fuel in the tank - switch to reserve (mine does it when low on fuel)
2 Something jammed in the primary fuel feed between 1 and 2 or between 3 and 4.
3 Flooding in one carb - maybe running/set too rich
4 Break in an HT lead at the coil.Possibly faulty coil but I doubt it.
5 a dodgy plug or plug lead.
I'd check these first.

Your bike runs off the battery - it'll run if the battery's full no matter what you do to the reg/rec. Plug it back in though, or you may damage the stator, which pushes current based on the reg/rec telling it how much is needed.

Hope this helps - sure to be other causes.......

 

One mor ething tha twil cause a cylinder not to run is a cracked carb boot. I had this issue with mine and woudl only coem to life after the engien warmed up enough to close the crack enough for hte fuel ratio to be adequate to fire. The way i chased this problem down was with a can of starter fluid. In small bursts, I sprayed it around each intake boot, both sides of the carb and when the RPMS jumped, I had a closer look at the area. You can do this with a small propane tank too!

 

could be a bad plug...Ive had them crack before...inside where you cant see it...they look normal, but dont fire all the time...maybe swap the plugs with another one and see whats up.

 

OK I want to thank you Shadow, I took the carbs off and low and behole there were small bits of rust in the #2 carbs, whitch was the problem. So I cleaned it out even though the carb looked ok. I cleaned out #1 as well and put it all back together, drained the gas tank and added freash gas. Then the next day I took it out on the interstat. Stupid construction stoped me from runing it hard butr it did the trick. So I am going down to get some tank coating this week and coat the tank. Thanks Guys

 

CAREFUL WHEN YOU COAT THE TANK........!!
There's an internal breather tube that runs up inside the tank from underneath.........
when you coat the tank, run a thin length of wire into the breather and remove it after coating, or you won't have any fuel flow ! (It's very thin, about the same thickness as a paper clip wire.............

This cost me a lot of heartache on my own bike when I had the tank ceramic coated.....

 

DO NOT CREAM YOUR TANK!!!!!!! Use an alternative like Por15 etc, the cream adds a layer of thin plastic like material over the inside of the tank and is poorly bonded to the steel, if for any reason the plastic layer should get a hole (even a pin *****) the fuel will slowly flow in between the layer and breakdown the bond between the Cream and the steel leaving you with a tank full of little pieces of plastic and rust.

For the Cream to work you should leave it in the can and throw the lot in the bin!!!

I have repaired several tanks that have been Creamed and they are a F%$#en nightmare as i have yet to find something that will melt the cream. The Por15 etc are a epoxy metallic activated paint that bonds extremely well to the steel and any holes or scratches will only damage the area exposed.
They work similar to loctite, as they make contact with a metallic surface they harden leaving a fuel resistant surface.

Rod

 

The one golden rule when deciding whether to go with POR15 or another product is to choose POR15.

Back when I was on the beetle scene I have seen floorpans that you could push your finger through they were so rusty, treated with their rust preventative paint they come up tough enough to stand on and have a really good smooth appearance.

I have since used a lot of there products and have not found any that dont deliver the goods