Stuck in Vernal, UT

[Narsisco Lopez]

Left Denver this morning for the Dalton Hwy trip, filled up the night before with 91 octane (zero ethanol - Brad's Conoco). Bike ran strong all morning. Didn't grab fuel in Steamboat, so thought I'd better top off in Maybelle... put in 5.5 of 91. 20 minutes later I decide to open it up a bit while passing my buddy. At around 7 grand I felt hesitation/fuel cut off. Over the next 30-40 minutes it got worse and worse till I was pulling over, letting it idle, then trying it again. Any throttle/RPM over 4.5/5 grand would make it cut out. Suspected bad gas from the Maybell top-off.

Limped into Vernal and got to a shop (Vernal Sports Center... Harley and KTM, go figure). Shop guys too busy to help, but the counter guy let me roll it in the shade to drain 5 gallons out of the left tank (right tank's petcock shut off). After adding in 2 gallons of fresh fuel, I rode it around and it seemed fine... till I turned around to head back and brought it back up to 7/8 grand... felt the cut-out again.

Sitting in McDonalds typing this, wondering if the fuel filter is clogges or if the pump is fooked.

Particulars:
2009 990A with 3100 miles, Safari tanks. Pump and filter seemed fine when I installed the tanks and it's been running strong/problem free ever since.

Any ideas/suggestions greatly-appreciated! Not expecting much help from the dealer... shop short-handed and grouchy!

[Katoom119]

I'd ride the tanks dry and fill it up with fresh fuel, just keep it under 5 grand until then if you can. If it's still doing that after you refuel then I'd check the fuel filters. I just wouldn't want to try and pull those until you can change out the fuel, that's easier.

[Narsisco Lopez]

I feel stoopid for not knowing this, but on the 990 (fuel pump in tank) how many filters are there? Is there just the 1 on the pump or is there another in the line to the throttle bodies?

Like I said, I shut off the right petcock and drained MOST of the left tank... left in a bit to get me to the gas station and only put 2 gallons in. Hesitant to leave town and head into the middle of nowhere with it doing this.

[catalina38]

Sounds like filters, both are in the pump in the tank. No inline filter. It is an easy quick change if the dealer or you have the parts. Buy 2 filter sets and carry one with you. One bad load of fuel can clog them up and strand you but you already know that.

[Narsisco Lopez]

The dealer here does primarily Harley stuff and stocks almost nothing for KTM. The parts guy told me a week and a half for the filter kit! KTMTwins.com has 4 kits in-stock, but the very helpful Jennifer is trying to find a way to get them over-nighted to me at our motel. UPS doesn't do Sat. delivery anyplace in Vernal, but FedEx does... she's willing to drive the kits over to the FedEx location once she confirms Saturday delivery... way to go Ron and the KTMTwins.com team!

These kits aren't cheap... sure hope it doesn't turn out to be the pump!

[Flyred]

It sounds like bad gas to me

If it is the fuel pump filters clogged, its an easy fix. 4 bolts to pull the pump from the tank. 2 screws to take the cage apart for the sock, 2 straightened cotter pins to defeat the clips to get to the pleated filter. get a tube of O-Ring lube to grease everything up for the reasembly, especially the big o-ring that seals the pump to the tank.

I put 58,800 miles on my first filters with 2 rides to Deadhorse, Inuvik, and Mexico. They never clogged

[Hondo]

Bad luck D, def sounds like clogged filters OR a kinked fuel line - check those too as they can collapse in high heat.....

[el' hefe]

Not sure is this helps but.... I encountered a similar problem on a trip that I did a couple of weeks ago, and my problems has similarities to yours, and they started in Denver (Littleton to be exact) CO.


Bike was running strong all trip, but then the bike would basically completely cut out and lose power if I tried to go hard on the throttle. Backfiring, popping, and lose of power. I first thought this was a bad gas or carb issue. I thought my trip was done, and I ended up pulling the bike apart to look at the carbs, spark plugs & coils and to also inspect wiring. Came up with nothing, so I decided to ride to the next town to trouble shoot further. While riding, I noticed that my tach was dropping out when I tried to go harder than 20% throttle and this is when the issues were occuring. I also noticed that by shifting through the gears, I could coax the tach back to life and power loss issues would go away (as long as I didn't throttle on beyon 20%). I did this game for about ten minutes, and then all of sudden the issue would completely disappear. After learning this trick I would only have the power loss issue for the first ten minutes of the day, and then everything would be fine from there on out and that bike would ride great. This led me to then think that I had a electrical gremlin of some sorts. My problem in troubleshooting in the beginning was that I kept thinking I had bad gas or clogged needles, and that I had to be heavy handed on the throttle, which was only making matters worse.


Anyway, I was able to make it back to Washington riding a total of 1500 miles while only experiencing issues for the first ten minutes of the day. I know this isn't giving you much to work with, but I did want to share my issue with you in case it relates to your issue in anyway and that my workaround may work for you as well (key hear would be to watch your tach when the issues happen). Obviously if my issue is carb related (which I think it is not), our issues would be completely different.


I am going to tear apart the beast this weekend to figure out what is up. I hope you can work out your issues in the mean time.

[Narsisco Lopez]

Jen at KTMTwins worked her ass off for me tonight to get a set of filters to Vernal tomorrow, but no dice... both UPS and FedEx won't deliver till Monday. Ack... had to have the filter set sent to the UPS Store back in Steamboat Springs. Walking over to the parts store to grab some brake cleaner and a couple of plastic tubs to to a stealth tank drain in the motel parking lot and pull the pump. Will try to clean the filters as best as I can so I can limp back to Steamboat and put in new filters tomorrow.

Hondo... thanks for the tip about the heat-kinked fuel line. They all look good, but I'll double-check as I start pulling it apart.

Many thanks to all of you for the suggestions and pointers. Hopefully our Dalton trip isn't blown because of 5 and a half gallons of bad gas!

[Cyclops Motorsports]

I'm thinking you have a pump or maybe a filter issue. How many times have you actually seen gas be so contaminated that a bike or car will run that bad? Very, very few for myself.
My stock pump points went bad on a trip a few weeks ago, nearly the same symptoms as you describe.It was easy to see the points in the pump where toast.
I was able to get a facet 105 at NAPA and rode the rest of my 2k mile trip trouble free.Not quite the correct pump, but better than ending a trip.
Good luck!!

[JayRider83]

My Adv did tha same thing. It was the fuel filter. Now I just replace them every 10000 miles. No problems since

[catalina38]

Be careful cleaning the round paper filter mine started to fall apart when I inspected it after the filter change, the metal ends fell off and the glue crumbled.

[CharlieFox]

Originally Posted by Narsisco Lopez

Jen at KTMTwins worked her ass off for me tonight to get a set of filters to Vernal tomorrow, but no dice... both UPS and FedEx won't deliver till Monday. Ack... had to have the filter set sent to the UPS Store back in Steamboat Springs. Walking over to the parts store to grab some brake cleaner and a couple of plastic tubs to to a stealth tank drain in the motel parking lot and pull the pump. Will try to clean the filters as best as I can so I can limp back to Steamboat and put in new filters tomorrow.

Hondo... thanks for the tip about the heat-kinked fuel line. They all look good, but I'll double-check as I start pulling it apart.

Many thanks to all of you for the suggestions and pointers. Hopefully our Dalton trip isn't blown because of 5 and a half gallons of bad gas!

Let me know if the steamboat delivery doesn't work out. There are 2 dealers in the slc area. If needed, tomorrow I will check if they have the filters in stock.

[hontri]

I was playing with some sport bike guys on a twisty road,flogging it pretty hard.It was near red line when it just quit.Coasted to a stop thinking i had seized the engine.Anyway it would crank over but no way it would start.I could hear the pump running. Drained the tank pulled pump and filter was plugged solid.I'm cheap so i cleaned the tea bag filter with carb cleaner and a tooth brush repeatedly until it came pretty clean.Put it all together and she fired right up.That was 6000 miles ago.I really should put a new filter in there!

[EOD3MC]

I had the same issues with my 08 a couple weeks ago during a group ride of the CDR. Record temps at the time.
I'm not sure of the configuration of the safari tanks, but my vent line connection in the left fairing for the right side tank looked good when I checked it, but I noticed a kink in the fitting not the hose. Would look good when I pulled the fairing off, but would kink when I pushed the fairing back in place. I still had fuel issues after that, but it certainly wasn't helping

My symptoms were about the same as you described, I was able to keep moving (at least off the interstate) by pulling the clutch, shutting the bike off while coasting, turning the key back on and letting the clutch back out. When I restarted I had full throttle back. The more I did it, the less time it would work for. But like I said it got me off the interstate.

I was able to get the bike from Demming New Mexico back to Washington DC. I only seemed to have issues when the day time temps were high and I was riding long hours. I've been riding daily to work and haven't had issues.

I'm hoping the fuel filters look crappy when I replace them and that it's not the fuel pump failing.

Hopefully this info helps, best of luck regardless .