Losing Power on Highway

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Lonewulf666

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
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Location
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Hi everybody. I recently left New York on my way to Florida. Everything was fine until today. The bike started losing power and would only maintain about 50 mph. I stopped, let the bike cool down, checked the fuel filter (it was fine), added some sea foam, and changed the spark plugs. I noticed that the coolant was a little overfilled. Anyway, it seemed fine after it cooled down but about 20-30 minutes later on the highway it happened again. I'm sort of stranded in NC until I figure this out. PLEASE HELP!!!
 
hmmmm might be the gas cap vent is pluged and creating a enough vacume to make the fuel pump quit or slow down to not providing gas ...when you get it going again just half way on gas cap so it wont seal up and work the pump.....you said nothing about battery so im assuning its staying charge ...you sould check the three yellow wires connection for over heated or melted looking ...if so that sould be hard wired together to protact the stator ....whe the battery loses power it will slow and eventualy quit usaly this is stator connector and sould be fixed now before it takes out stator...poost back im watching for you...those wires are in the battery side cover towards the front of bike
 
Does it still run smoothly when it looses power, or does it spit/sputter?
Does it act like it is running out of fuel, and does it eventually die. or is it just loosing power, but continues to run....just at a slower speed?
How about temp? Is it running hotter than "normal"?
Could be looking at a coil problem?
 
Lonewulf and I talked on the phone.

He's going to try an narrow down the problem between fuel and ignition by cracking the cap loose to see if the cap vent is clogged causing a vacuum in the tank preventing fuel flow.

Next if that aint it, turn the fuel to reserve, maybe the run fuel pickup is clogged.

If that aint it then turn the fuel to off to see if maybe there's an over rich problem (flooding) that's acting like running out of gas.

It sounds like he has a Dyna ignition.
I have read some problems with Dyna's acting up once hot.
Hoping it's not that.

Still open for suggestions from others what to try.
 
it starting to sound like it mat have after market ignition on it that might be cutting out when it getting hot on a 78 the ignition is on the left side head towards the back under the cover is either points or an after market electronic ignition ...that would be nice to know what it has ...those cover screw3s can be hard to loosen sometimes ...channel locks or vise grips work good to start them off instead of phillips
 
okay the best thing to do is find a place to stop so you can run the bike with the ignition cover off at idle till it starts to stumble and want to die ...you have to keep it from getting hot under good condition a box fan on radiator is enough ...if not availible just watch it good if starts getting to hot and still running good shut it off and let cool ...if its a dyna unit bad it will probably show itself stumble and die and it will happen quick at idle as it has nothing to help keep it going ...if it idle bad to begin with might want to trun the idle up a bit on the carbs right side of bike behind carbs just below bellcrank and cables....look at ignition see if you find any name on it like dyna prestolite martek .....
 
It does sound like it might be a problem with the ignition. It might also be valves set too tight. Once they heat up they don't fully close.
 
i had the same problem with my 75 gl1000 and found a ground wire not right on my coils moved coils and got a better ground now it runs fine. just sayin. might not be ur problem but worth a try
 
Anyone heard any news from Lonewulf666? Hope he's otay, and got something figured out, and back on the road safely. :beg:
 
Thanks everybody for the advice and concern. I AM back on the road. Seemed to be the vent in the gas cap like Joe and Dan suggested. I am very relieved that that was all...this forum is the greatest resource and you guys are awsome.
 
:clapping: :Egyptian: :yahoo: :moped:
Glad to hear it wasn't a major problem!
 

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