| Author | Message | ||
     Kesselrunner |
After a parade on Sunday for our beloved Jayhawks NCAA Championship Basketball team, where I enjoyed last minute rock star parking in the middle of 80,000 people courtesy of my almost-as-beloved 2000 Buell Blast, the girlfriend and I decided to go on a drive. It was our first real drive, ever, on a bike. Long, hilly, winding roads. I got up to an unfathomable 65 mph before it happened: In chronological order: Cruising up a hillcrest, loss of throttle control (twisting but no response, or indication that the blast even knows I’m twisting). Engine is still thumping away. Cars are beginning to catch up to me. Engine dies. Rapidly I slow, and turn into a condo parking lot. Try to start her up again. Chugs and sputters. “Oh, must be out of gas!” I say to my girlfriends down turned mouth, upturned eyebrows, and rolling eyes. Flipping to reserve, I try again, same response. Opening the gas tank confirms my fears as I have plenty of gas sloshing around in there… I call 2 friends who are either too imbibed, or in too much of an ‘artistic’ state to come help me out. I call Progressive. Of course I don’t have roadside assistance, because I have 5768 years of indoctrinated cheapness bred into me, telling me the extra $10 per year would be better-suited in a high-yield enhanced leverage capital investment fund… Whatever, I use it for beer, the good beer… Anyway, I digress. Luckily the poor-college-student thing pays dividends, and the wonderful folks at Progressive let me add on the roadside assistance and use it the same day, huzzah! Salvation comes, in 40 minutes… Meanwhile, I keep trying to start my bike. In retrospect this may have been a bad thing, as the noises changed from a respectable engine-that-could earnestness to turnover, into a schizophrenic electrical / metallic rapid-fire clacking. It was towed back to my house. The last few days have been 70° and sunny… Please help me. I bought a new spark plug (copper, not iridium, that had to be special ordered). Do I need to remove the gas tank to get at the plug properly? The Official Factory Manual has detailed instructions for everything except changing the spark plug! I was told to start with the cheapest fixes and use the process of elimination to fix the bike. I don’t know what those are. I figure I can change the plug; maybe it’s fuses? I also heard gas filter clogged, ignition coil dead... Any help would be great – I’m new to the mechanical aspect of things.} | ||
| P_squared |
Kesselrunner - Post a condensed version of the above in the Thumper forum. The folks in there can run you through everything and hopefully have you back up & running shortly. | ||
| Court |
Ain't it great . . . . and I was still coming down off the Orange Bowl win. . .  | ||
| Ezblast |
DAS BOOT! | ||
| Kesselrunner |
P Squared, will do. Court, I have a great shot of the Lawrence after-party with 40k+ down on Mass St. I'll try to find a link... Ezblast, great film... Or are you referring to the Manifold Carburetor Coupler? | ||
| Ezblast |
oui - das coupler' - also you might want to recharge the battery - lol EZ (Message edited by ezblast on April 17, 2008) | ||
| Jlnance |
What EZ is saying is that this rubber piece:  which we call the boot and HD calls the manifold coupler is likely broken. It costs about $7. Buy two, they are known to break often. Court, you were going to do some sluthing about this part. Did anything ever come of it? | ||
| Rotzaruck |
Kess I hope you get it running soon cause I suspect we may get some more tales from you. This was a good one on something as simple as breaking down on a Blast. It should really be good when you go out and do something more dramatic or stupid. Oh yeah, back when I was smart enough to have a girlfriend (instead of wives), though I loved hauling them around on my bike, if I was going to break down or get stuck it usually came out better if we were in the truck. The blast seat is just too small to get away with the "we'll just have to stay here till daylight" thing. Unless, of course, she's the stout stalwart type who will say "that's okay you steer and I'll push". I never had one of those types though. Rotzaruck!!! | ||
| N1hlist |
Well, you killed the battery. Charge the battery first. Then try to start the bike again, but pull the plug wire off. Either get a plug tester, which is about $5, or use a piece of wire. Attach the wire to the plug wire and hold it about 1/8" away from your plug. If you see a spark, your coil is probably ok. (i say probably because if it is a really weak spark you have problems, this is unlikely) If you don't see a spark, your coil is bad, OR what ever is telling the coil to make the spark is bad. If you see spark, check the plug to see if it is good and see if the wire looks good or corroded. If the bike isn't running, you have an air, fuel, or spark issue. The things listed above are the first to check and don't cost anything to check. See where that gets you. DON'T get shocked while testing for the spark, it WILL HURT. If air and spark aren't your problems, you have a fuel problem... | ||
| Walterj |
while you are at it, check the compression. i had my blast do something similar and it turned out to be a bad piston. hope you get it fixed, check out the thumper forum too. |
