I finished my 1000 mile service this past weekend anddecided to takemy 07 Low Rider for a ride today. I started it up and everything seemed fine. I started driving down the street and the engine started missing bad. It ran as if is was low on gas, but I had a near full tank. I returned home and checked the plug wires and they were fully seated. I decided to go for the ride and see if it gets better once warm. After the engine got warm I pulled up to a light and the engine at times felt like it was running on one cylinder and the idle was jumping up and down. I would give it gas and it would be ok for a short time and start running like crap again. As I pulled away from the light the bike started to lurch as one cylinder kept cutting out. Once up to speed the bike ran fine until the next light.

I got home and decided to readjust the throttle and idle cables. I started the bike and all appeared to be good. I decided to go for another short ride and the bike ran great until I got close to my destination and it started doing the same thing again. This time the hesitation was not only at idle and initial take off, but extended thru acceleration too.

The problem is intermittent and is driving me nuts as I have no clue what it could be. Has anyone got any experience with a similar problem or have any ideas what I should check.

Thanks,
Chris

 

May be going into heat management with a faulty head temp sensor or..
a hole in the fuel line inside your tank or.....
a faulty fuel pump...

I pick the head temp sensor.

 

Do you have a power commander?

 

Check your battery leads. I had similar problems this summer and my Neg. lead was loose. A little loctite and your good to go.

 

In addition to the above replies, I had a broken fuel injector wire and minewas running on one cylinder. Much like your was at the end of your ride. I don't recall what the code was for it, though. Just don't pull a plug wire while it's running to check like on a carburator equiped bike, cause if the coil isworking you will get a 'surprise' don't ask how I know...Plus it throws a code for the wire being off. Any possibility you may of bumped something when doing your wervice? Not faulting you, just trying to diagnose the problem. Good luck, and let us know what it is/was.

 

any connector can cause this ... I had water in my engine management connectors after a ride in the rain (they are now filled with petroleum jelly) ... no problems when i was riding, it was the next day when it played up

 

I'd pick the battery leads because one of the first steps HD sez to do when servicing is to disconnect the battery. find a couple of lock washers, put them on the bolts hold the cable while tightening down, hook up positive first then negative, less chance of sparking and sending stray voltage most anywhere. I am going on the premise the only thing you did was fluid changes, right? Did you wash it prior to riding it?

 

Thanks for all the replys. I do not have a power commander so I have no problem there. I did the full 1000 mile service as its listed in the Harley Manual. I did wash the front of the bike and the voltage regulator area after I changed the filter cause I made a mess pulling the filter off. My check engine light has notcome on so there are no codes for me to check.

I checked the battery leads... they were tight, but there was some buildup on the negative lead. I pulled it off and cleaned it and set off my alarm! I will take it for a ride tomorrow to see if that solved the problem.

 

If you "made a mess" of your filter cleaning - whatever that means - perhaps you didn't allow enough time for your filter element to completely dry, OR one of the breather tubes could be pinched. Sounds like the bike isn't getting enough air.

 

May sound silly. It was stupid on my part I guess but when I did my 1000 mile service, I replaced the plugs and thought all was fine but just a few days later, it started doing exactly what you are talking about. When I got home, I called all my Harley friends and it came down to these new plugs another friend gave me to try. They werent the "Harley" plugs. So, I go out to replace them with the ones called for in the manual and what do I find? The plug on the rear cylinder wasnt even finger tight. : ) I guess it came lose because I swear I tightened em up right. After a little turn of the wrench, never had the prob again. : )