Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

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awander
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Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#1

Post by awander »

My '52 has been running near perfectly for the last couple of years. Yesterday, I took a ride, and filled up the gas tanks about halfway through. I don;t remember whther it started with the new gas , or was happeninng before I filled up, but now, if I am riding with the throttle about 1/4 to 1/3 open, if I roll on more throttle slowly, it will cough and hesitate, and then catch and run fine again.

Any thoughts on what could cause this? I was thinking I should check the fule and air filters, but I don;t really know what to do after that.
steinauge
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#2

Post by steinauge »

Maybe some water? I got a batch of bad gas last week with about the same result and there was water in the bottom of my filter.I have a 2 gal XL tank on my 49 so I drained the filter,put 2oz of acetone in the tank and that pretty well cleared it out.
awander
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#3

Post by awander »

Water-yeah, could be. This is also the first time in a while that I have run the tanks down to reserve. If there was water in the tanks, running them down low might have gotten some water into the filter at the Linkert....

thanks,
FlatHeadSix
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#4

Post by FlatHeadSix »

Andy
Water would be my guess also.

If you want to prove it to yourself and positively identify that as the cause you can hold a glass jar under the fuel strainer when you remove the cap. If you're careful you can get the entire contents of the strainer to dump into the jar. Let the jar sit on a level surface for a minute and it won't be hard to spot the water as it separates from the fuel and settles at the bottom of the jar.

Remember that fuel is lighter than water, the fuel will "float" on top of the layer of water. That's why any water in your tank will not show up in the strainer and fuel lines until you hit reserve which draws from the lowest point in the tank.

let us know what you find

mike
awander
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#5

Post by awander »

Yuck-I guess I should clean that filter more than once every 2 years. Lots of little bitty particles. The liquid is now in a jar settling.

I took the bike out tonight, but only for a 10-mile round trip. On the way there, it was doing the coughing and hesitating a lot-sometimes all by itself, even when I was NOT rolling on the throttle.

On the way home, it only coughed once. Might have done the trick!
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#6

Post by 51Hog »

Hmmm....
Wonder if there is enough alcohol in the fuel now to keep the water suspended?
I have not seen water in any of my rigs in a couple of years-----And we get a lot of temp extremes. Used to have water in fuel due to condensation.
Dale
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Re: Hesitation when I roll on the throttle

#7

Post by awander »

I just looked at it-it is not all settled yet-but there is definitely a lower layer(probably water) and an upper layer separating out. There is about 1/2" of gas(upper layer) and maybe 1/8" of water.
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