Help please.

I have a 2013 Fat Boy with 1100 miles on it. No modifications. Premium unleaded gas.

Today as I was returning from a short trip to the store, the bike hesitated rolling away from a stop sign. Going up through the gears, there was more hesitation and backfiring. I was able to make it home, but the problems persisted for the duration of the ride. I'm going to take it to the dealer Monday, but wanted to know if anyone had a similar experience.

Thanks.

 

How many miles since your last fill up - bad gas?? If not kinda sounds like a spark issue. Any codes??

 

Check to make sure your spark plug cables are fully seated on both the coil and plugs.. i just had this happen and that was the reason. i hope it's the same for you.

 

It had about two gallons of gas that I'd been running for a couple of days. I filled up before a short ride on Thursday and had no problems during that ride. Stopped during today's rough ride home and topped off. I didn't have a check engine light, so I don't think there were any codes, but I don't know.

Thanks,

Larry

 

Jim,

Just went to the garage and checked all four connections. Both wires appeared to be fully seated at both ends. I popped them off and reseated them a couple of times just to be safe.

I'll let you know if that did it though.

Thanks,

Larry

 

Check to see that your battery connections are tight. One wouldn't think it would matter, since the charging system is putting out current, but it did for me. Symptoms pretty close to what you described.

 

All,

I took the bike out this morning to see if the problem would replicate itself. It started fine and ran fine for the 15 or so miles I drove into town. I parked the bike and came back about 20 minutes later to head home. It started OK, but I got the same symptoms that I had on the return trip Friday. Sputtering, backfiring, misfiring, and loss of power. I was able to make it home, but had to keep the revs up just to have enough juice to get up hills.

So the only variable seems to be a warm engine. I can't find a thread that explains how to read codes on a '13 model, so I don't know if there are any, but the check engine light isn't on.

Still taking it to the dealership in the morning, but I hate being perplexed.

Thanks,

Larry

 

You would need a device to read codes. If the cel isn't on I doubt you have one.

My first thought was bad gas, it can cause the issues you described but not as severe as you're describing.

Is it at all possible the bikes overheating and shutting off the rear cylinder? If you're overheated the rear cyclinder will stop fueling and sparking via the ECM. It will continue to push air just no fuel which obviously reduces power.

It's possible this is happening, you just have to figure out why you're overheating.

Do you have a way to monitor your oil temps?

Just a guess

 

i'm having the same issue with mine on the backfire. ever since my stage 1. might be normal, but it backfires quite a bit. i assumed it was because my pipes have no baffles on them, but i'm not an expert. no loss of power though, just the backfires.

 

I took my bike to the dealership this morning. After explaining what was going on, he went out to the bike, scanned for and found a couple of codes. What they were, I don't know. He took off the fuel filler cap, looked inside, turned the ignition switch on and said, "there's the problem." Something inside the fuel tank was broken/missing and the fuel pump was pumping fuel back into the tank agitating the fuel, so it apparently was starved for fuel. He couldn't explain why it would happen when hot and not cold, but at least he found something right away and I didn't have to suffer through a "could not duplicate" episode after trailering the bike to them.

I'll let everyone know what parts and work were required when I pick up the bike. Hopefully it will be ready for the poker run this weekend!

Larry