I have a 1999 1500 drifter with 45,000 miles. It was running great, but yesterday started cutting out randomly when I accelerate. The idle is fine, but ever fourth or fifth acceleration after stopping at a light was really rough. The engine seemed to die (or at least miss) then it would fire back up, then die (or miss) again. It would do this 4 or 5 times, then run smooth until the next light. It made the bike buck a bit.
Any ideas on what this could be?
Unrelated: I am a longtime reader of the forum, but this is my first post. Thanks to the advice of you all, I was able to ride this bike from Ocean City, MD to San Francisco. Thanks!
Sounds like a classic case of spark failure.Wires/plugs...the bike is 14 years old. A leaking spark plug wire cap will do this, as will a wire going bad.
Thanks, Troll. I replaced the plugs and wires before I went on the cross-country run, but did notice that one plug was so loose that I could turn it with my hand when I parked this morning.
I will tighten the plug and see if that does it. If it still misses, maybe the plug is foul?
That will certainly make it misfire.. combination of electrical loss and compression loss. BE CAREFUL when tightening the plug...stripped threads are not fun.
Thanks Troll!