2014 tweet 125

[nutty_nick]

hi guys n girls.. in my bike collection I have one bike I class as "the modern"
But it has an annoying trick, every so often it will start to lose power, not completely, it will suddenly have a top speed of 40mph and be flat as a pancake getting there .
Sometimes a deft stomp on the footplate over where the battery sits will instantly restore the power, at other times it wont, sometimes it will go for days without playing up and on some days like tonight it will do it repeatedly.
my thoughts are (not being very knowledgable on this bike)
carburettor slide sticking (is it a CV type carb?)
vac fuel tap playing up
dodgy bit of wiring as the fuel gauge has a mind of its own too..

any suggestions gratefully recieved as using teh bsa ariel 3 for commuting takes a lot longer

[Robby]

I had one of those for a while. I think 2014 was the changeover year from carb to fuel injection, so it could have either.

The wiring and general quality of the electrics wasn't very good - mine had a problem with the ignition barrel where the key would over-rotate, which was fun to fix.

Stamping on the battery cover fixes it, so have a look at all of the connections in there. Fuel pump feed (if it has one, FI model certainly does) would be a place I would check.

In short, stamping on the box full of electrics fixes it, so it looks like an electrical problem.

[nutty_nick]

Hi Robby,
the bike has no choke of any sort so it could well be injection, I also had problems with the ignition, turned out to be a blackened terminal on the contacts block, cleaned that up and all was good... ill have the plastics off tomorrow and see if anything is adrift

[nutty_nick]

well, took advantage of sunshine this morning to check all the wiring in the batteyr box, nothing but two fuses and the cdi in it, wriggling the wires with it running made no difference at all.
Then proceeded to chase the umpteen screws holding the plastics on and exposed the gy6 to the open air for the first time in a while, immediately apparent was a mouse nibbled vac pipe leading to the Egr unit on the front of the cylinder head (also right where I would have been stamping) so I presuming in theory that...
at tickover with carb closed this thing would either be held closed or open by the vac created by the butterfliy being shut, with the vac leak (and it was a fair sized hole) it was only getting some of its vacumn and me stomping was "assisting" it in moving?
not road tested it yet as it started to piss it down and half the plastics are still off, either way ive cured a vac leak it shouldnt have had. build quality on the thing really is poop

[nutty_nick]

well what with one thing and another I never got out on the bike for a while.. took it out the other night though and the fault is very much still evident.. bloody bike

[Easy-X]

If you've sorted all the vacuum leaks the next thing to look at would be the earth connections.

Primary suspect would be the main strap to the engine. I'd suggest disconnecting it, clean the area on the engine it bolts to, examine the ring connector for corrosion/damage (replace/recrimp as needed.)
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Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter