Consistently Intermittent Fuel Pump

Hi!

I've been having an intermittent problem with my fuel pump.

At a cold start, I hear the fuel pump prime, and the bike starts.

If I run the bike for a while, and then turn it off, the bike will not restart. When I try to restart the bike, the fuel pump will not prime - and the bike will not start.

I've left the bike to cool overnight. It will start the next morning.
This has happened several times. Consistently. Consistently intermittent starts.


Some things I've noticed:

Somewhere between ten minutes and a half hour into a ride the running lights (front and rear) will begin to "flicker" or "modulate" (maybe 100% full to about 80%). This is particularly noticable on the two auxiliary LED lights that I tapped into the two front running incandescent lights).

The first time I tried to start the bike this riding season, the fuel pump didn't prime. I replaced a burned out 30 amp fuse and that fixed it. Since then, there have been no fuse burnouts, and the problem has consistently been cold = prime, warm = no prime.

There was a dead mouse on the garage floor directly beneath my VFR on the first day of the season. :frown:


I've got the plastic side panels off and am prepared to deal with whatever suggestions anyone might have.

Thanks!

Greg

 

Update:

The last few outings have been without incident. No problems whatsover. In fact, a number of other electrical-related problems that I've been having also were not evident.

Maybe this change has something to do with the fact that I spent several hours this weekend installing a new stator. Testing of the old one had indicated possibly marginal operation, and when I got to eyeball the thing I saw that charcoal had apparently been substituted for the topmost windings (95% of it looked perfectly fine, though).

Anyhoo, I had a great learning experience switching out the stator. It'll be a relatively quick job next time.

:smile:

Greg

 

O kay greg that was a quick fix...glad to have been helpful in this smallish problem..... as to the dead mouse under the VFR... Thats an easy one.... it is an omen that you must take the VFR out and ride it as much as possible.... Every waking moment MUST be spent on the VFR....as a matter of fact, you must eat, watch TV, aand do anything else you do on the VFR.. you must not anger the spirit of Mr. Honda.( he is still pissed about the DN01)

Welcome to the world

 

Crusty,

Thank you for that. Even as a novice I could see that the mouse was key to the whole thing (even more significant than the woolly caterpillar I forgot to mention).

I'll take up your advice "ride it as much as possible". For a while there, crawling around on the concrete floor, I kinda forgot what the purpose of this particular two-wheeled device is. I'll make a point to remember that.

:biggrin:

Greg