Died on road

[Mike G]

Riding along and bike acted like it was running out of gas, flipped to reserve and no improvement, flipped to prime and coasted to the side of the road and the engine died.  I still had turn signals, neutral indicator etc so electrics OK.  I turned the key off and back on and no start. Checked gas in tank, that was good.   I thought about giving J-box a whack but decided to check if the headlight was working, it was out so I hit the starter again and it fired and ran fine 50 mi. to home.  Definitely seems to be fuel related as sitting on prime got it running again.  Anybody have this happen to them?

Thanks for any help,
Mike G
2002 C-10, 40K

[George R. Young]

Guess #1 - the gas cap vent isn't allowing air in. Easy enough to check, if it  happens again, just pop open the gas cap.

[Outback_Jon]

Guess #1 - the gas cap vent isn't allowing air in. Easy enough to check, if it  happens again, just pop open the gas cap.

+1.  Mine does the same thing from time to time.

[mdr]

Quess 1A - Kinking fuel line, especially if there's an add-on inline filter.  I like adding a filter to keep crud out of the float needles, but it comes at the cost of the fuel line being fiddly to get so it doesn't kink when it gets hot.

[Daytona_Mike]

Mike, you do know that the headlight is supposed to be out when you turn the key on. This is normal.
When you hit the starter button the headlight comes on.   It sounds like you had a vapor lock  or your tank is not letting air back in to replace the used fuel.
If you have  installed an add on fuel filter remove it.
 You may also have a vacuum leak which effects  the hose that runs the auto-petcock. This will  shut off the  fuel flow  from the tank. Check all your carbs for  rotten  leaky vacuum caps and  the small  hose from the carb that runs your petcock.
 Other wise your fuel cap is not venting and you will know because  ( like George said) you just pop open the fuel cap to let air in and your good to go (you would have to fix it of course)

[Mike G]

Thanks guys, I'm thinking it's a venting issue and when I opened the cap to check for gas it took care of the problem.  Tonight I'm going to take the cap apart and  check the vent.

Mike G

[connie_rider]

If starving for fuel.
I would first suspect kink in fuel line.


Ride safe, Ted

[Summit670]

I once installed a longer hose for the fuel line to make draining easier.

Well, my first interstate ride the bike died about 5 miles from home.  Pulled over, looked things over, etc.  Bike fires up.  I headed home via local roads.

I pulled the fuel filter and ran without that next.  Bike dies almost exact same spot on interstate.  I was like WTF, looking around for overhead electrical interferance, UFO's, heck, that was wierd.  After a few minutes bike fired up.  Went home via local roads.

Bottom line - I had tucked the extra hose behind the cylinders and it was probably boiling the fuel and causing vapor-lock.  Once I shortened the hose to stock length, no problems ever since.