Engine Dies At Low Speed When Clutch Pulled In (Once In-A-While)

[VFRfix]

It did it again today after start up.

It seems to always happen this way:

start bike > warm up for a minute or two> idle is good and solid at 1300 to 1500 rpm> start driving> bike kills when i pull in the clutch as I approach the stop sign 3 blocks away from the starting point > restart it and everything is fine doesn't happen again for the whole day.

This has happened a few times now and I'm starting to loose my confidence that it will keep running. This has happened after i have run the bike for a while. Then hut it down. It's not usually when i start riding it first thing in the morning...

And I just took the battery to autozone and he said it tested good. But he seemed not to know about the cold cranking amps - what they were so maybe he set the battery tester wrong? I was told the battery is 5 years old by the previous owner.

Maybe I need to start checking all the fuses and stuff?

Any ideas?

[Baileyrock]

Buy a cheap Digital volt meter and check the charging system and connections first. One of my VFR's did the same stalling sometimes when I pulled in the clutch, it turned out to be a weak battery.

BR

[VFRfix]

I have never used a volt meter, I saw people talking about that in another forum but I don't really understand the "How to" on that one. Is there a video or something showing how to do it?

To tell you the truth it has been happening since I bled my clutch fluid which makes me wonder if maybe there is air in the system and it isn't totally disengaging my clutch when i pull it even though it feels like it is... I dunno wild guess.

[Cogswell]

If the clutch were remaining sufficiently engaged to kill the engine, gear changes would not be smooth or would be difficult. This does sound electrical - maybe just coincidental to your clutch service. It would be a good idea to look for any loose connections - connectors, battery cables, grounds, etc.

[VFRfix]

Ok I'll go over the bike today... And if I can;t find anything I guess a volt meter and I'll have to figure out what to do with it and how to use it and where to check...

[VFRfix]

I took off the seat cowl and noticed that one of the wire harnesses that ran from the battery to the r/r was sorta half unclipped. One side was a bit out and the other in but the clip was still connected. So I just pushed it back together. Well see if that does anything. I also noticed that my clock was off again. There is a beached humpback whale near pacifica that I'm going to go take a look at so I'll see if it dies again... I hope that was all it was.

I'll stop by habor freight while I'm out and buy a voltmeter and check stuff tonight... If anyone has a picture of what to check with the volt meter I'd appreciate it... or some detailed instructions maybe...

[jeffyjeff]

I have had this problem happen on my bike as well. On mine, the idle screw was backed out all the way. I screwed it in until the idle speed just nudged a notch on the tachometer. Problem solved.

It's almost like when you close the throttle and the engine speed decelerates, the fuel injection can't react quickly enough to prevent a stall. Just a minute adjustment of the idle speed is enough (on mine) to keep that from happening. Good luck. Jeff J.

[VFRfix]

i realized i just needed to use the choke for first 5 minutes of operation while driving :P noob

[PawnBoy]

Well if it's not fuel injected it's probably not related to what happens on my sixth gen. But I have a very similar issue, where very rarely the engine will be running fine at a high idle after starting, I'll hop on, pull in the clutch and shift into first and it'll start choking, stumbling, something you can keep alive with some throttle, but it'll eventually stall if kept unchecked. Restarting immediately fixes the problem. Even more rarely it'll happen as I'm riding, slowing to a stop and pull in the clutch the bike will die. It's not as simple as too low an idle, my idle of 1400 rpm is plenty high enough to prevent a stall.