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This morning I wanted to leave to work with my motorcycle. Everything seemes fine, but after a few meters of driving the engine just stalled. Retried, same thing, retried, same thing, ... Sigh | :sigh:

A (knowledgeable) friend of mine gave a few options:
* fuel out (very unlikely since I only drove 200 km or so. It should be able to do 240-300 km with one tank.
* dirt in the ABS sensor or something ?
* Perhaps a mouse or marter (weasel like creature) bit some cables or something (to be checked still)

Question is: does anyone think of something else I could check?

to be complete:
* Honda XL700VA (transalp) 2008 (with ABS)
* I drove this Wednesday and everything was fine.
* The engine starts fine, it's only after driving a few meters that it stalls (this morning I did less than 100 meters and it stalled 4 or 5 times)
* Don't think I saw any weird lights on my dashboard
* It had a checkup a few weeks backs and have since driven about 300 km without issues.
Checkup was, engine oil and filter, new sparkplugs, valve play (? that which you measure deep down in the engine and can only by like a few tenths of a millimeter) and air filter.

thanks.

V.

(MQOTD rules and previous solutions)

S**t in the carburetter?

Or water in the fuel, or the fuel is very old (it doesn't age well) and the engine doesn't like it.

Rough rule of thumb, if its electrics, it wont run at all, if it runs badly, it is fuel.

So it looks like it gets enough fuel through to start, but not enough to run, so dirt in the carb, blockage in the fuel pipe.

Fuel filter or fuel pump? The residual fuel/vapour in the line may be enough to get you a few yards, but without the pumped fuel behind it will cause the engine to cut out.

Andy B

I sold a bike to a mate some years ago, and the next day he was at my door, fuming and swearing. He'd gone out to a pub on the bike the previous night, and had to ride home in short bursts: 100m or less before it died, and what was I going to do about it?
Had a look, took his scarf out of the air filter intake where he had stuffed it under the seat, and watched him go very, very red ... Laugh | :laugh:

Could be anything. Start with the "big two": fuel and spark. Is there a spark at the plug? Can you smell fuel when you turn it over? Should it be on reserve?

I grew up on Hondas, and my first Norton ran out of fuel on me because I was used to 30+ miles of reserve fuel, and Commando fastback tanks have a reserve for under 5 ... Blush | :O

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I had a similar problem in my car. I just closed all the windows then re-opened them and that fixed it. If your bike has windows maybe give that a shot.

He could also try rotating the tyres, getting off, then on, the motorcycle, or simply buying a new one.

Big Grin | :-D

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

When you start it, does it continuously tick over (i.e. so you could leave it still for a few minutes without it stalling)?

Just wondering if it's only stalling when you try to ride off? Might be a dodgy fuel injector or something blocking the throttle..

Now is it bad enough that you let somebody else kick your butts without you trying to do it to each other? Now if we're all talking about the same man, and I think we are... it appears he's got a rather growing collection of our bikes.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

Already thinking of testing this when I got home Wink | ;-)

V.

(MQOTD rules and previous solutions)

Check the fuel filter as well - if it's partly blocked then it'll let enough through to tick over, but not enough to run far: a little gets through slowly, so it'll start, but then higher demand drinks the lot and it dies.
I had that on my Lancia when there was water in the fuel tank: it froze in the filter overnight, so the car would go a little way and then die. Leave it alone for 20 minutes and the ice melted, and it ran fine. (Solved by buying spare filters, and swapping them each morning / evening to empty out the ice - easier than draining the tank.)

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

I'm probably the wrong guy to ask. All I know about Honda is that they make great lawn mowers.

I had this problem once. Long story short, I discovered that the fuel valve at the bottom of the tank has 3 positions:
[1] On
[2] Off
[3] Reserve

Hopefully "Off" is obvious. If you run it "On", you will run out of fuel about 20 miles or so before the tank is empty. Turn it to "Reserve" to get the last drops out of the tank.

Your numbers seem to suggest the same or similar problem.

I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey

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