'09 Buddy Sputters & Dies

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tommyred
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'09 Buddy Sputters & Dies

Post by tommyred »

I was headed out with our group for a nice ride in the mountains, and about 3 miles from my house, Big Red started sputtering like it was out of gas & died. I'd try starting it, and it finally did after a couple minutes. The same thing kept happening. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.

It has 6300 miles, have kept up with all service., and of course, it ran out of warranty on Feb. 5th :-( I. Due for my 6000 check up, but don't wanna get screwed if imay be something rather simple.

The only thing I've done lately is add a new LED for the rears directional. I have thE Voodoo BOB combo harness installed, a little over a year ago.
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jdanderson1449
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Post by jdanderson1449 »

Did it do it while you were on the rear brakes? Try to give us a little better idea of all circumstances if any others. I've seen auto-chokes fail at 1500 miles, I've adjusted valves as early as 2000. Genuine is a decent importer but PGO is still not quite manufacturing to the American or even Japanese standards yet.

Just saying, the more we know about the situation, the more we can all help. I'm not the best mechanic in the world but it's my job and I'm happy to share that knowledge as many others here.
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00 Suzuki SV650
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TVB

Post by TVB »

Not enough information to know if this is what happened, but there's a fairly common phenomenon (sometimes called "vapor lock", but it's not the same thing as that) in which the seal on the gas cap creates a partial vacuum in the tank, and starves the engine of fuel. The pressure will equalize again given time, but it's quickly fixed (temporarily) by loosening the gas cap (then tightening it). If this is what happened, there will be a little sucking sound when you loosen it. The long-term solution is a vented gas cap.

It could be any of a number other things instead, but this is the one I know about. :)
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tommyred
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Post by tommyred »

jdanderson1449 wrote:Did it do it while you were on the rear brakes? Try to give us a little better idea of all circumstances if any others. I've seen auto-chokes fail at 1500 miles, I've adjusted valves as early as 2000. Genuine is a decent importer but PGO is still not quite manufacturing to the American or even Japanese standards yet.

Just saying, the more we know about the situation, the more we can all help. I'm not the best mechanic in the world but it's my job and I'm happy to share that knowledge as many others here.

Nope, not hitting rear brakes at the time. Just going down a straight road
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tommyred
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Post by tommyred »

TVB wrote:Not enough information to know if this is what happened, but there's a fairly common phenomenon (sometimes called "vapor lock", but it's not the same thing as that) in which the seal on the gas cap creates a partial vacuum in the tank, and starves the engine of fuel. The pressure will equalize again given time, but it's quickly fixed (temporarily) by loosening the gas cap (then tightening it). If this is what happened, there will be a little sucking sound when you loosen it. The long-term solution is a vented gas cap.

It could be any of a number other things instead, but this is the one I know about. :)

I've heard of, and experienced, vapor lock,but in a cage. I'll check that today. Didn't even think of that. The thing that gets me is I thought my warranty lasted until March, and it ran out last week, so now I gotta pay to get it fixed, if the gas cap trick doesn't work.
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jdanderson1449
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Post by jdanderson1449 »

The really nice thing that I've noticed, at least about the buddy line, is that a home tinkerer/ mechanic can do a lot of routine maintenance on them with only a little know how and a pretty basic set of tools.

Try to get us some more of the specifics about the problem that you're having and we can almost certainly help you without you having to get to the shop.

It's just really difficult to diagnose an issue without having the bike in front of you or having experienced it yourself.

Good luck.
09 Blackjack (less than stock)
00 Suzuki SV650
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zuki
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Post by zuki »

tommyred wrote:
TVB wrote:Not enough information to know if this is what happened, but there's a fairly common phenomenon (sometimes called "vapor lock", but it's not the same thing as that) in which the seal on the gas cap creates a partial vacuum in the tank, and starves the engine of fuel. The pressure will equalize again given time, but it's quickly fixed (temporarily) by loosening the gas cap (then tightening it). If this is what happened, there will be a little sucking sound when you loosen it. The long-term solution is a vented gas cap.

It could be any of a number other things instead, but this is the one I know about. :)

I've heard of, and experienced, vapor lock,but in a cage. I'll check that today. Didn't even think of that. The thing that gets me is I thought my warranty lasted until March, and it ran out last week, so now I gotta pay to get it fixed, if the gas cap trick doesn't work.

I have had the same thing happen, if it dies I just pop the seat and unscrew the cap and it starts right back up. I haven't fixed it yet but all there needs to be done is a tiny hole drilled in the cap.
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Post by Cheshire »

If you inadvertently overfilled it, you may have flooded the charcoal canister that's part of the emissions stuff. I did that on my '09 B125. :oops:
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tommyred
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Post by tommyred »

Thanx for all the input guys. And sorry for not getting back to you sooner about the problem, especially if it can be of any help to anyone else with the problem.

It was the stator plate. I wrote a post in discussions today under Buddy Warranty.
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tortoise
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Post by tortoise »

tommyred wrote:It was the stator plate.
For those with multimeter testing aptitude . . volts . . Ohms . . pickup coil resource.
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