B
biglou
Had some trouble with my kTm for the first time in the 13 months that I have owned it. My buddy Joe was riding with me, just putting along when he said it just quit as if the kill switch had been pushed. Hmmm, well, it did sit for about 30 minutes while he was taking pics of me jumping. Maybe he fouled the plug (This bike has never, not once fouled a plug. No kidding). I changed the plug, no fire. OK, maybe there is water in the gas. I drained the float bowl. Still no fire. Well, lemme pull the carb off and check the jets to see if they're plugged. No problems there. Put it back together and she missed and sputtered for about 3 seconds but didn't quite catch. After that, nothing. No fire. OK, we're done for the day. It is 100+ degrees here and we had been riding for about 4 hours at that point. Actually, probably 30-45 minutes of ride time on the kTm since I had Joe busy with the camera!.
On the drive home, I am thinking reeds for some reason. Just remembering justql's GasGas dying like that all at once at BadlandsMX in texas. So this morning I tore into her. Kill switch: working, no sticking contacts. Reeds were perfect. Gap on the stator was perfect. Spark was good and strong. Compression was 195-200 PSI. Well, heck. That's about all I can think of! I had just put two fresh gallons of Amoco Premium in her yesterday. I usually mix the day of the ride and only keep what I burn for the day, then discard the rest for fresh gas next time out. I really wonder if I could have gotten bad gas from Amoco? I have used them exclusively for 2-1/2 yrs now.
Last step: Drained every last drop of premix out of the punkin. Poured it into friend's wife's car, and went up to Texaco for some of their Premium, which is one pump octane point lower than Amoco's 92 at 91 AKI. Anywho, after draining the float bowl, and letting it refill with the fresh Texaco fuel, the bike fired first kick and sounded great! Music to my ears. Nice to know that everything on the bike is in good shape.
The lesson here is, bad gas can be a major PITA! I would have never thought I'd get bad gas from Amoco, but I guess there's a first time for everything. It can sure make you work at it to hunt that problem down. Lesson learned! :D
On the drive home, I am thinking reeds for some reason. Just remembering justql's GasGas dying like that all at once at BadlandsMX in texas. So this morning I tore into her. Kill switch: working, no sticking contacts. Reeds were perfect. Gap on the stator was perfect. Spark was good and strong. Compression was 195-200 PSI. Well, heck. That's about all I can think of! I had just put two fresh gallons of Amoco Premium in her yesterday. I usually mix the day of the ride and only keep what I burn for the day, then discard the rest for fresh gas next time out. I really wonder if I could have gotten bad gas from Amoco? I have used them exclusively for 2-1/2 yrs now.
Last step: Drained every last drop of premix out of the punkin. Poured it into friend's wife's car, and went up to Texaco for some of their Premium, which is one pump octane point lower than Amoco's 92 at 91 AKI. Anywho, after draining the float bowl, and letting it refill with the fresh Texaco fuel, the bike fired first kick and sounded great! Music to my ears. Nice to know that everything on the bike is in good shape.
The lesson here is, bad gas can be a major PITA! I would have never thought I'd get bad gas from Amoco, but I guess there's a first time for everything. It can sure make you work at it to hunt that problem down. Lesson learned! :D