Help! AT down in france!

[Chewy]

All, my at has broken down near toulose on way to monaco. Now waiting for mechanic to come out on monday. Problem started with cough and splutter, then engine cuts out, wait 1min and it restarts, goes 10 miles, or less, coughs again and dies. Have cleared fuel lind to filter, any further beyond my mechanical ability. Anyone had similar issue? Please rsvp! Thanks

[DaveS]

Might be the fuel pump as these are notorious for going.
If you need one shipping quickly, speak to Annette or Stormforce8 as they have a replacement Facet fuel pump in stock I think.

If it is the fuel pump, if you fill the tank up the problem will go away for a few miles due to the pressure of a full tank.
Someone better qualified will come up with some other answers no doubt.

Let us know what's going on and if we can help.

[blue skies]

by the sounds of it you have fuel to the pump. Take of the fuel pump outlet hose at the pump and try to start the bike. If no fuel is coming out then its the pump. Then Get a small piece of hose or tubing if you can or something to connect inlet hose to outlet hose (bypass the pump) and as DaveS says with a 1/2 full to full tank you should get the bike going.

[moon]

not a specialist AT bloke but I had identical symptomes some years a go on an old bike, eventually discovered that my tank bag was blocking the air inlet to the fuel tank (part of the filler cap assembly) & I would do about 10-15km & it would cough & die as if it had run out of fuel, i'd stop & take things apart (inc removing the tank bag of course) & it would restart & run fine... i did this about 5 times before it dawned on me..

I'm nowhere near you i'm afraid, but the company i work for has a base in Moissac, about 75k north of toulouse (towards montauban & a bit left) where you could use tools, speak to someone english with mechanical knowledge (albeit boaty rather than bikey) & have a cup of tea if you need it.

If that could be of any help, phone me, (i don't want to put me phone no on the web so i'll pm you it)

MooN

[BobA]

Chewy

I agree with both of these suggestions.

Fuel Pump: The contacts inside weld up, so it stops pumping. You could either take the IN and OUT tubes off the pump, and find a suitable tube to join them together. Fill the tank and gravity will fill the carbs until it gets down to half a tank.
If you prove the pump is faulty, take it out (easy) and give it a good whack with a lump of wood. This MAY free the contacts inside and make them work a little bit longer.

2 choices for replacment, an OE Honda one, which will plug and play, but PROBABLY fail again at some point, or a FACET vacuum pump (available from the forum shop) which is most peoples preferred replacement.


Tank Breather: You could prove if it is this by running the bike with the fuel cap off or loose (allowing air to get into the tank). If this cures it, you have a blocked breather.


It could be other things, but start with the checks that cost nothing.

May also be worth checking your leads from the battery to the solenoid and the Master Fuse, under the solenoid connector.



Good Luck



Bob

[Chad]

all of the above chewy but most likely the fuel pump hope you get sorted quickly mate

[Chewy]

Guys, you are all legends. Thanks so much for your advice. So far have joined in and out hoses together, and jump started bike, with full tank. pump not working (could not check b4 as battery flat). After 5mins punp starts, i guess its intermittamt fault? Bike tried to stall again after 10miles (just riding up n down outside hotel) but this could have been a crimped hose, which has now been straightened. How far will bike go with no pump? Mechanic finally coming today after two nights in hotel. But may decide to give it a go and head off. Opinions please! Ps-on phone typing! Cheers all.

[meljordan]

Hi you could dismantle your pump and clean up the contacts as this is usually the part that actually fails, If you remove the pump and connect the fuel line straight through it will work on gravity if you keep your tank as full as pssible.and undo your fuel cap every so often so that it does not pressurise.(just in case your breather is old or blocked)
And remember you can fit any 12 volt fuel pump, as your in a fix just to get you home so long as the pipes will go on and it will bodge onto your bike. good luck....... mel

[blue skies]

in theory the bike will go forever with no pump as long as you have enough fuel (head) in the tank to push the fuel to the carbs. You might find that at high revs you may starve the carbs as not enough fuel is getting through. I think there are people on the forum who have run without a fuel pump for some time.

Suggestion would be to carry some extra fuel in a can so when your tank level drops too much to push fuel to the carbs you could top up. But beware sometimes police, ferry companies etc. do not like fuel being carried separately.

Good Luck

[BobA]

Blue Skies is on the button.

Looking from the side of the bike, all the fuel in the tank ABOVE the level of the carbs will be fed to the carbs by gravity. Once the level drops below the carbs, the bike will stop.

Assuming your bike is tuned OK, it should be good for 200 mile tank range. You would have to assume that less than half of that can be gained from the top of the tank, so at 60mph for example, you could get upto 100 miles. Carrying some fuel in a 5 litre can will give you an extra bit of re-assurance.

If you have a long trip planned, I would just swap the pump out now (but keep the old one in case it isn't actually faulty)

The Honda OE pump will swap over in less than 30 minutes.

A Facet vacuum pump (forum shop) will probably give you longer life, but will entail a little extra bit of work which you may not have the time and patience for if you're on a deadline. The extra work just involves using one of the vacuum take-off points on the engine to connect a tube which then connects to the Facet pump to make it work.


Bob