Any ideas what this problem is?

[foster]

After thousands of hours of faithful service, the 185s left me high and dry in the woods yesterday.
First time ever, so I can't complain. But I was wondering if any of these symptoms sound familiar to you folks. I'm wondering if I'm in for some major repairs or if it's something simple.

The machine, as I said, has always run excellent, except for a bit of blue smoke.

Yesterday, after a couple of hours hard riding in thick muck and 90F+ temps, it started sputtering, crackling and backfiring, but then right away it started running fine again. Never even shut it off.

About a half hour later it did the same thing. I shut it off for awhile.

Then about every half hour after that, it would do it again -- to the point of stalling. Snap, crackle, pop, backfire, stall. However it would always start right up again and run fine for about another 30 minutes.

I changed the plug on the trail and that had no effect. Decided to play it safe and head back to the car and it died about 20 minutes from its destination and wouldn't start again.

Any clues? :confused:

Thanks in advance!

[bigredhead]

that sucks... did you push it back to the car or left it there to get help ?

It was HOT yesterday.. and i mean HHHHHOOOOOOTTTT... after sitting overnight.. does it start this morning ?

Run out of gas by any chance ? LOL... that happens !!

Check your choke, make sure it's not on by accident...

Was it in any deep water at all ? or only muck ?.. check your oil for the heck of it.

You keep your air filter clean ? kinda sounds like the carb got dirty and clogged up some... Could be spark related too...

I have the manual if you need to borrow it !!

[foster]

Haven't tried it yet this morning. I'm going to do that in a few minutes.
Yeah, it was hot. Hot HOT HOT!!!! Of course, as soon as it crapped out, the thunder showers rolled in and I got soaked, after which the winds came up and the temperatures fell like a rock. I called for help on the cell and a good buddy rescued me but only minutes before hypothermia set in. Or so it felt like!

It didn't run out of gas, but it does have a small leak in the gas tank where it it's beginning to rust. I'm getting that fixed today. I mention it in case that somehow played a role in the machine dying, though I can't imagine how. (Maybe some rust from the pinhole entered the gas tank?)

Checked the choke and it wasn't on.

Went through some deep water, but geez it wasn't anything I haven't done before, and that was many hours before the engine trouble began.

Air filter hasn't been checked in quite some time. You might be on to something there. It was really dusty yesterday, as you can imagine.
Mostly, the trip was two hours of hard slogging through thick clay muck, then some smooth dusty trail riding with intermittent periods of deep water, then back to nice but dusty trails again.

It was strange: snap, crackle, pop and backfire and then die. Then it would start right up and ride fine for about half an hour, and then snap, crackle, pop. My son was behind me and he said there was some significant smoke when it would start acting weird, but I never saw any more smoke than it normally makes, so I'm not sure if I trust his observation or not.

[bigredhead]

Hmmm...... does she knock much ? ever adjust the timing chain on it ?

running that hot and hitting water is a scary thought... hot metal quickly switching to cold.. ya know..

If your tank is rusty to the point of having pin holes... this will become a problem.

[Lomax]

Sounds similar to what my old 250SX was doing. It as rust particales in the carb. It was so bad on the inside I still havent figured out how it was running in the first place. Just a thought

[foster]

Doesn't knock at all.
BTW, I just stepped outside and the pinhole in the gas tank is now dripping, so it's growing.

P.S. It gave the pullstart and yank and it started right up, first pull.
?????

[bigredhead]

I bet the petcock is clogged... remove the fuel line from it. or pull the fuel line from the carb .. with the lever on OFF>

then with a cup under it go to ON and also REZ and see how pours.. it should pour freely.... swish the bike around a bit and see if it all of a sudden cloggs up.

[bigredhead]

Another thing to do is grab the bowl drain line and put that in the cup and then back out the drain screw and see if the bowl fills as quickly as it drains..... then you know if it's not clogged on the carb intake side.

[foster]

Thanks for the tips. I'm on it.
P.S. I've never adjusted the timing chain nor checked the timing in more than three years of rough, frequent riding.

[foster]

Could this be an electrical issue? Seems odd that the problem only cropped up every half-hour or so.