When searching I saw a few older posts about this, but I guess they never worked the issue out.

Anyway, I was riding the other night going about highway speed and then my bike acted like it ran out of gas. I pulled over and pushed it to the nearest gas station. Luckily, I had roadside assistance because I could not get it to start even on a full tank of gas.

The next day I went out just to see if maybe it was just flooded from me trying so hard to start it. Sure enough, it fires right up and runs for about 3-5 minutes. Then I noticed that it started to idle rough. Like it was only firing on 2-3 cylinders. Then the idle was getting really low. I tried to add some choke, but it didn't help. I then blipped the throttle and it reved up a little but with the same roughness. It stalled out shortly after that and I could not get it back started.

Also, I've attached a picture of what looks like a vacuum tube/valve thing that I've never noticed before. It looks like it's disconnected. Yet, I could not find that hose that needed to be connected there. Some jack off knocked over my bike in a parking lot so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't jar anything loose. Could this be the problem??

Sorry I've been away from the board for a while! I'll pop in when I have time between class and work.

 

there's a solenoid switch that switches between the low speed air (im guessing under 12mph) and high speed air, and your picture there shows one of them is disconnected, which will cause an imbalance in the air/fuel being sent to your bike.

 

Will it cause the rough idle that only sounds like 2-3 cylinders are firing? I'm uploading a video to youtube right now. I may just have to take off the tank and take a look. Anything else to look for?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhA9V6RHtM0

Here is a clip of when I first start it cold. I checked the coolant and oil. They are fine. Not milky or oily. The oil smells a little like gas. But, I know that's to be expected. It's sounds to be running on two cylinders.

 

I see what you were saying about the solenoid switch. I found a diagram for that shows the part that I found. I'm sure this has been disconnected since I've had the bike. Because the bike doesn't have any front fairings to hide the air intake tubes, I'm sure they just took them off. It's part number 7 in this diagram.

 

did you rehook the tubes back up?

after doing that, you need to take it out for a ride and ride it hard.
(at least thats what i do) it will ride a bit grungy like that for about a mile or so and then the bike gets back in line so to speak,

 

I don't think it was ever hooked up. And really that should only effect higher engine speeds, not 2-3k rpm or idle, right? Maybe it's just time for a good carb cleaning.

 

hook that line back up right. cant hurt to clean the carbs either, your bike sounds like mine when it had nasty idle/slow jets. make sure you take a guitar string or the wire from a wiretie that comes with garbage bags, and clean it out really good. its the jet you cant remove from the carb assembly. how does it sound when you hold it at about 5-6k, or rev it up to near redline? youre using different jets by doing that... should sound healthier.

 

Well finally I've had some free time to take good long look at my bike. I found that my fuel pump has completely failed. I opened her up and started the bike. It almost never clicks. If I manually pushed it down with a screw driver to the contacts it will work. It runs soooo much better when I make the fuel pump work. No more "running on 2-3 cylinders" sound. Thanks to Idodirt's write up, I'll have my bike back running in no time! Thank you!!