Starting to sputter. Troublshooting needed

[jestephens]

:-[
This last Saturday, I rode about 150 miles to meet some friends for lunch. Just before starting the ride home, I bought 2.71 gal of gas. About 20 miles down the road I noticed an overall lack of power, and severe sputtering in acceleration. The entire ride was interstate, with speeds about 75 (on the speedo), but at times I had trouble holding speed.
I stopped after about 50 miles and got 2.3 gal of gas and a bottle of STP fuel stabilizer and cleaner.
Idle seems normal, but any acceration is week.

So far I've replaced spark plugs, and inspected the plug boots for cracks. Even if a boot was cracked, it appears to have additional insulation on the heads to prevent any spark leakage as I suspected to find.
-No backfiring or other odd noise

Before I go to a mechanic and pay diagnostic fees, can you all think of other things to check? :-/
2005 with 45,053 otherwise trouble-free miles

Thank you in advance!!!!

[AlabamaNomadRider]

I had that problem with the '07 Honda VTX1300 and it turned out to be a bad connection with the wiring harness. Other than that I don't know what to tell you. I thought mine was gas as I had just filled and about seven miles down the road it started missing. Since it was under warranty I took mine back to the dealer. Could have something to do with your throttle control also.

[Cajunrider]

Jay, that sounds like a restriction such as a clogged fuel filter or pinched fuel line. Maybe you got some bad fuel at the first stop. I've never had that problem with the Nomad but had it happen to two of my vehicles in the past. Good idle and slow speed but no power when you need it. The injectors get enough fuel for idle and slow speed but not enough for power and higher speeds.

[blowndodge]

I've had that happen to me Jay. It was bad gas I got on the way to Custer. I dumped a can of injector cleaner for the remainder of the tank and refuled with fresh has and it stopped. Just get that crappy gas through and you should be fine. Those sound just the the symptoms I had. Sometimes overfilling can cause the gas to back up into the fuel canister (if you had a smog version of the Nomad, I do) overfilling caused this type of bad running until I took off the canister and emptied it out.

[jestephens]

:) These are great tips guys. I will check electrical connections for now.
As soon as it stops raining . . . ::) I'll get out and put more good fuel in.

I knew at the time I should have insisted we went to Bp for 93 gas. Instead, I followed my Harley-friends into a P-66 that only offered a max octane of 90. The Bp was only a block away!

If anything else comes to mind, PLEASE add it too! - Thanks again

[ringadingh]

The lower octane gas wouldn't be the reason that it ran poorly, you most likely had water in the gas. Thats the most likely reason for it to start running like you describe.

[macmac]

Remove and dump the tank..... Water may or not come with fuel and it could take time to get enough water. The best way to KNOW there is none is to dump the tank into a container and look.

There is a unusable anount of fuel and the water will be under that level, so with just a little more you can have enough to bother the engine.

You can see water in fuel if you look hard. A little will appear like beads, and alot will show a line in levels of each gas always on top.

It is possible to pour off most of the fuel and leave any water, but I wouldn't put that fuel back in anything injected.

Was it raining on that Saturday ride too?

Do you have a cali version bike?

Pull off the battery terminals and look at the underside where you can't see. Clean all the terminals and on both ends of the cables.

[jestephens]

Mac, there was no rain, and I don't have a cali bike. I'm sure I can get 3-4 gallons of new fuel now, but since you mentioned it, I think I will definitely dump the tank rather than continue to dilute it.
I downloaded the repair manual someone posted here, but do you recall off the top of your head where the fuel filter(s) are?

[barrynfla]

Originally Posted by jestephens

Mac, there was no rain, and I don't have a cali bike. I'm sure I can get 3-4 gallons of new fuel now, but since you mentioned it, I think I will definitely dump the tank rather than continue to dilute it.
I downloaded the repair manual someone posted here, but do you recall off the top of your head where the fuel filter(s) are?

Per the service manual:

›The pump screen [A] and fuel filter [B] are built into the
pump and cannot be cleaned or checked.
If the pump screen or fuel filter is suspected of clogging
or being damaged, replace it with the fuel pump as a set.

[jestephens]

Originally Posted by barrynfla

Per the service manual:

›The pump screen [A] and fuel filter [B] are built into the
pump and cannot be cleaned or checked.
If the pump screen or fuel filter is suspected of clogging
or being damaged, replace it with the fuel pump as a set.

:'( Let us pray that is not the case. Thank you for looking that up for me.

[Top Cat]

If it was bad fuel wouldn't the Harleys who got it run bad also.

The filter being in the pump is definatly a piss poor idea. Your filter clogs and you have to spend 360 dollars to replace it.
The engineer who designed that should be on the unemployment line.

[macmac]

The harleys indeed would 'IF' they got a real bad dose of watered gas. 'IF' there was a little water in the Nomad and a little more from condensation warming and cooling effect, and then a little water more was in the gas, that would mean standing gas was in the tank for a longer time and it finally came to where it bothered.

Water will not mix or dilute with gas. it sort of does with dry gas, but still not well.

Now i don't know for sure, but most harleys get there tanks dumped as a matter of habit, since they require so much work... ::)

Naw..... HD doesn't have that curved tank, and so water gets lesser chance to go and stay some where.

The pick up is higher than the bottom of the tank by far. 'SO' if this is a water problem there will be a lot and worth the dumping.

Now I can't tell if this is water or not. If it is it will be evident, and if not you will KNOW it wasn't.

That would be worth it for me. But water and gas will not mix.

I am leaning more to some fault in the wiring.. With the tank off I would be all over the wire harness. I don't know why i didn't think of that before. Right behind cly 2 the harness turns down and has been a chaffing problem on other bikes.

So look real hard at the frame contact to wire harness right there.

[jestephens]

TC, the first thing I did when I got home was call those guys to see how their rides home went. Neither expressed having any problem, but we all pumped from different handles too ??

What ever it was is gone for now I removed the tank and dumped it in a can, but didn't wait around for it to settle for inspection. With everything back together I gave it a little gas from the lawnmower can (<1wk old gas), and headed to the station. I added a FULL can of 104 octane boost and filled it with 93 from Bp.
During the ride home via the long way (additional 20 miles), I felt the power creep back what seemed like one spark at a time. Southern IL is dark and damp right now, but I hope to do some more "testing" ;) this weekend while the wife has to work.

Thanks for all the help!

[macmac]

see my post above this one.... Although this is sounding like water from your last post.

[jestephens]

I did have the tank off, but only gave special attention to the connectors as I put it back. I've never noticed an interference of any kind with the wiring harness. Has this been common?