The SRAD

[Ride-or-die]

well it still doesnt run properly, it appears to always run for around 20 miles perfectly then just splutter and die, followed by it failing to re-start. i cant see why it only occurs after 20 or so miles, suggests to me that something is failing when the temperature rises to a certain level.

Anyway it is now stripped in my garage. i just took the air box off. is there any reason as to why it would have a small amount of liquid in it, seems to be oil? apaarently according to my old man might be because the engine is running badly but not the cause of it

[bayonet]

well it still doesnt run properly, it appears to always run for around 20 miles perfectly then just slutter and die, followed by it failing to re-start. i cant see why it only occurs after 20 or so miles, suggests to me that something is failing when the temperature rises to a certain level.

Anyway it is now stripped in my garage. i just took the air box off. is there any reason as to why it would have a small amount of liquid in it, im assuming petrol??I'm a bit out of touch with modern bikes, is this a carbed machine, if so sounds like a sticking choke or a blocked petrol cap breather.

[Ride-or-die]

thanks bayonet ive checked the breathers, no blockages, i wouldnt know where to begin with the choke tho.

ive now also discovered a dirty connector that was all rusty so i have WD40'd all of them and cleaned the dirty one up, this might be the cause ive been told but not being able to track to what the hell the connector is i dunno. also ive just realised my coolent level is below where it should be, but my bike wasnt running hot.

[bayonet]

thanks bayonet ive checked the breathers, no blockages, i wouldnt know where to begin with the choke tho.

ive now also discovered a dirty connector that was all rusty so i have WD40'd all of them and cleaned the dirty one up, this might be the cause ive been told but not being able to track to what the hell the connector is i dunno. also ive just realised my coolent level is below where it should be, but my bike wasnt running hot.A sticky choke will show up as a sooty sparkplug as the bike runs rich. This has no effect until the bike warms up. However it would only affect tickover and lower rev range, high speed riding would be relatively unnafected.

The fuel cap breather is part of the lock mechanism and should be blown through. If your bike cuts out, but will restart after opening and closing the fuel cap, this is your problem.

[Dal]

A sticky choke will show up as a sooty sparkplug as the bike runs rich. This has no effect until the bike warms up. However it would only affect tickover and lower rev range, high speed riding would be relatively unnafected.

The fuel cap breather is part of the lock mechanism and should be blown through. If your bike cuts out, but will restart after opening and closing the fuel cap, this is your problem.

I would also have a look to see if thee are any other breathers from the tank either kinked or blocked.

I had a similar problem with a classic car I rebuilt. It would run fine for a while then just die. We would then sit there for 10 minutes or so and it would start again.

We sorted it by blowing compressed air through all the petrol pipes and breathers. :grin2

Good luck I know just how annoying this sort of problem is !!

[Ride-or-die]

oh the breathers i checked were coming from the tank lke dal mentioned, not the acutual fule cap, sorry i got confused. i didnt even realise the fuel cap had any sort of breather mechanism. i shall take a look. thanks again. as for the sooty spak plug due to the choke they are all fine, spark plugs look to eb in good nick

[Dal]

The Oil in the air filter could simply be from the crankcase breather!

I guess it would depend on the amount of oil and the condition of it eg is a milky white colour?

[AlexG]

I had this exact same problem with my SRAD, the bloke in East Hanningfield couldn't solve it, neither could the suzuki garage in Chelmsford :(
Good luck
Alex

[Ride-or-die]

oh great cheers alex g lol. well ive put it back together now after checking at all out, all seems ok, i cleaned up that connector i mentioned and now im going to take it for a blast so see if it breaks down again. if anyone see's a biker at the side of the road near or around braintree stop for a chat i will be waiting for a trailer lol.

just one more thing how many miles worth of fuel will be held in the carbs, as i was thinking maybe my fuel pumps buggered and so runs on the fuel available in the carbs then cuts out when its all gone.

[bayonet]

oh great cheers alex g lol. well ive put it back together now after checking at all out, all seems ok, i cleaned up that connector i mentioned and now im going to take it for a blast so see if it breaks down again. if anyone see's a biker at the side of the road near or around braintree stop for a chat i will be waiting for a trailer lol.

just one more thing how many miles worth of fuel will be held in the carbs, as i was thinking maybe my fuel pumps buggered and so runs on the fuel available in the carbs then cuts out when its all gone.Aha, fuel pumps I know about, I have an Africa Twin. With that if you have a full tank of fuel you can pull the pipe off the fuel pump and plumb it straight into the carb. If the bike starts, then the pumps had it. I replace mine about every 40,000 miles which seems to be their lifespan at motorway cruising speed. Even tried a vacuum Mikuni pump which also lasted 40K miles depsite having no electrical contacts to weld shut, as happens with the Mitsubishi/Honda original. Africa Twin owners buy old CBR600 pumps from the many crashed bikes in breakers, or microlight fuel pumps from America.

[DoodleBug]

The fact you say it happens after X amount of miles strongly points to a breather problem, as you will use roughly the same amount of fuel in that distance and therefore build up the vacuum in the tank. Next time it happens, quickly open the filler cap and try to restart straight away. A good pointer would be if you get an audible hiss when you open the filler after cutting out, a sure sign that a vacuum is developing in your tank.

[Ride-or-die]

thanks for all your help. well as i said i just took it for a ride, i went braintree, home braintree home, in total a tad under 40 miles and i had no problems with it, so it appears to be sorted, maybe the dodgy connection i cleaned up was the problem, or when i replaced the fuel tabnk this time i done so without blocking any pipes.

i will however now know if it happens again to try that little tip of opening the fuel cap so thanks doodlebug.

u know what this means guys, im back

[Shorty]

so its all sorted J?

[Ride-or-die]

it appears to be yes