She's Dead Jim!

[Darkbob]

Hey people. I've been stuck in Canada for the past almost 2 years. Finally the border opened up and I was able to get back to our place in Arizona. My baby (2008 Sportster) was sitting on a Battery tender all this time.

Back in feb 2020 we left in a hurry (some weird bug going around). When I got back a week ago I found I had left some gas in the tank. Not stabilized. Oops. But I fired it up in the driveway and wonder of wonders it started instantly!

I loaded it up with premium, drove out to the lake, launched and was in heaven. For 5 minutes. Then it started running rough, coughed and choked a few times and died. It still turns over and almost catches but it won't fire up. *sigh*

I have almost no technical skills. The boat is at 94 hours and just about due for it's 100 hour. Boat shop can't get to it for at least 3 weeks. Do I just leave it for the boat shop? Is there anything simple I should try to maybe salvage the next couple weeks?

Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

 

[Joe Starbuck]

How bad are your skills? Can you drop in some new spark plugs? This is a 4-stroke, right?

 

[Darkbob]

How bad are your skills? Can you drop in some new spark plugs? This is a 4-stroke, right?

Yep 4 stroke. Great minds think alike. My skills are pretty bad but I was thinking plugs too. I drove it across the valley today and dumped it at the shop asking the guy to give it an oil change and put in new plugs. He was thinking fuel pump. Could be. Anyway it's almost due for it's 100 hour so I'll get him to do that. Thanks for your feedback though.

 

[NPack]

For fuel pumps, when you put the key in, you should hear an electrical buzzing noise, and if you do hear that noise, you know it's getting power and that probably isn't it. When you're turning it over and it's not firing, are you smelling excess gas fumes coming from the engine like it's being flooded?

I think you're on the right track with the spark plugs. Did you take out the old gas or just top the tank with the old gas + premium? My biggest concern would be if there is some condensation that was in the old tank from sitting there with no stabilizers. Best of luck and hope it's as easy as a few plugs!

 

[Darkbob]

Update: Ok... it was fouled plugs. Probably some bad gas left in the tank when I took off in a rush. I took it into a shop for plugs and an oil change plus it was near it's 100 hour so I asked the guy to take care of that too. He changing out the plugs (they were disgusting and probably never changed) and that fixed the starting issue.

On a positive note, the tech found the cluster was displaying 94 hours but the engine was showing 140 hours. Apparently some previous owner (I'm at least owner 3 and probably #4) had replaced the cluster at some point. That reset the time on the dash to zero.

My poor baby was 40 hours past due for the 100 hour without me knowing! As you know, with those ceramic washers in the supercharger that's a recipe for disaster. When those things break they can get sucked through the engine and it's game over.

When you buy a boat it's worth getting a tech to check the hours on the engine and not just go by the reading on the cluster. I really dodged a bullet on that one!

But all's well that ends well. I'll have my baby out on Lake Saguaro this weekend.