2012 KTM 990 Adventure R power loss when running over 1 hr source found

I have been chasing a power loss problem on my '12 KTM 990 Adventure R when the bike ran for more than about an hour. It took a while to determine the parameters in which the problem occurred. This was due in part to the winter and also my using the bike primarily for commuting as my daily trip was too short to cause the symptoms.

The cause was a mis-correction on my part. During an unrelated repair, removing the left side tank, the two wires to the fuel pump on the harness side had ejected themselves from the connector. After scouring the repair manual and wiring diagrams with no clarity, I could not readily determine which wire belonged to which side, so I took my best guess thinking that the bike would not run if it were backwards. (I also mistook the blue wire for black and the brown for pink, doh)

Apparently I was wrong on both counts.

This was 3 months ago.

After trailering the 990 to March Moto Madness and discovering the power loss issue after riding for an hour or so each day, I started searching for the cause. On a hunch, since I was not one hundred percent on this wiring guess, I took the time to scour the forums to determine the correct wiring for the fuel pump.

I stumbled on a photo of a new connector and sure enough I had corrected it wrong.

I have since corrected the wires and switched the connector with a marine grade connector that can be detached a bit easier than the stock.

So to those that need the correct wiring for the fuel pump to harness:

Brown harness goes to Black pump
Blue harness goes to Red pump
Blue on pump is unused

On the plus side, I have done quite a bit of preventive maintenance by replacing almost everything else on the bike in the process. :huh

wow, never would have thought the pump would have run if you connected the leads swapped.

glad you sorted out the problem.

Thanks for letting us avoid the same mistake. I'm not sure I'm man enough to have posted it <public shame>

Thanks

I think I may have done this within the last two weeks I'll be checking tonight

This is weird. Most pumps run backwards when the polarity is reversed. In fact, this trick is used to unstick 690 pumps when they seize/stop. Not sure how it even ran at all.

The back flush thingy for the 990 reverses polarity to back flush the petrol filters. AFAIK

I am not sure how or why it ran at all. I am just reporting my experience.