Over the last few days, I've noticed the bike briefly "cutting out" for a split second as I throttle it. Doesn't really matter if I'm taking off the line or shifting on the highway. After that split second it's back to normal. Bike has 33,337 miles, carbureted. Any ideas? Maybe needs a new fuel filter, carb cleaned, Seafoam? I dunno.

 

Mine had a similar problem. Twice.
1st time it was the in-tank fuel line.
2nd time it was a dirty sensor. Sprayed a bunch of WD-40 in the throttle body, hosing every sensor I could see, and now runs like a champ.

I also have fuel injection, so issue probably isn't the same, but I would start with carb cleaner, sea foam, filter (both air & fuel), like you mentioned and see what happens. Start with the easy stuff.

Good luck.

 

Most likely a dirty fuel petcock screen or the vacuum system of petcock is failing.

 

Same here, check/replace vacuum lines and clean the fuel filter in the petcock.

 

I cleaned the air filter and added Sea Foam to the tank, still have the issue, I will attempt to clean the petcock this weekend.

 

I'd change the fuel filter for peace of mind then suspect water in the gas from the last place you fueled up.

 

The vacuum petcock internal diaphragms fail slowly with age. This causes the petcock to not fully open with the engine running. Easy check, remove the fuel line and vacuum line from the petcock, install a length of vacuum tubing on the vacuum nipple, suck on it lightly. It should hold solid vacuum and then allow fuel to flow freely. If it requires continual vacuum to keep open its bad.

Also there is a screen on the petcock inside the fuel tank. It gets clogged with gunk over the years.

A new Pingle non-vacuum petcock and an inline filter is the way to go with most bikes.



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For ***** n giggles, pull your spark plug cables out of the ignition coil. Check to see if the contacts are burned to a crisp. Problem could be the coil or ignition black box.

 

With 33K miles on it, this could very well be the accelerator pump giving it up or it could be gunked up and not flowing smoothly. Get a book, a rebuild kit and some cleaner and spend some quality time getting to know your carburetor. These things are very simple and difficult to muck up if you are paying attention to what you are doing.

 

I had a very similar issue--running fine, then cutting out for a split second, then running fine again. It was a loose connector on the negative side of the battery. Does the speedo die down at the same time?