xs1100 motor cycle with sidecar.

[stewartdmartin]

Whilst travelling on the main highway at 80 kpm + for some reason I loose power. Drops down to 70- kph. One way to reboot is that I turn off the engine and restart it whilst still travelling.
Has anyone come across this problem.

[Stralya]

Just a welcome

G'day Stewart

Someone here will have your answer. Gawler eh? Who own the pub there now?

Dan.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Stewart,

First of all, welcome to the site from down under! Secondly, it would be helpful for us to know what year/style of machine you have.....there are specific differences in many components of these machines depending on what year/style you have, standard or special, and early model with 2 sets of "T's" on each carb body, vs. single "T"'s!?

Thirdly, more info is better than not enough! Don't worry about long posts...the more we know about what your machine is and isn't doing, the better we can "guess" what you should do to try to fix it!

SO....you're running down the hwy at 80kph, steady throttle hauling a sidecar, and your power drops and it slows to 70.....so assuming that you try to give it throttle and no response!? SO...you hit the kill switch while holding the clutch lever in, wait a few seconds, then turn it back on and it fires up and regains power!

What gear are you running in, what rpms? Did you try downshifting and raising the rpms, or would it not respond to throttle input? Here's where the model specific info would be helpful....a Special uses the Octopus vacuum controlled valve fuel supply system, the STD's use vacuum petcocks...but in both it could be a vacuum leak causing the valves to remain open at steady speed, and fuel levels drop, but killing the engine shouldn't help because the fuel shouldn't flow without vacuum??

SO...starts to sound more like the pickup coil wires syndrome, breaking contact..dropping cylinders/power...shut engine off allows timing plate and pu coil wires to flex, regaining conact and function and firing on all 4 again, until you reach that certain speed/rpm where the timing plate will rotate again, flexing and pulling the pu coil wires till they loose connection, again causing power loss with dropped cylinders!? There's info in the tech tips on how to check and repair this problem!

Write back with more info on symptoms, and any other things you've tried and whether they helped keep it running or not!?
T.C.

[stewartdmartin]

Thanking you for the info will forward more info next time I have a ride. Price of petrol is a bit high at moment.

[planedick]

I think

Could be lack of fuel. I had same problem once and found that the filter in the fuel line was plugged somewhat and shutting it down to an idle for a minute allowed enough fuel to get in the bowl to continue.