Urgent: Bike died suddenly while driving

[Aeschere]

Thanks for that :) will start at the bottom.
Perhaps one more thing, the engine won't start in Neutral with the stand down. Only when I hild down the clutch will it start. It will idle when the clutch is released though. Can't remember if that's the way it is supposed to work.

[Sin_Tiger]

Does the neutral light show when it's cold?  Not uncommon.

[threepot]

Thanks for that :) will start at the bottom.
Perhaps one more thing, the engine won't start in Neutral with the stand down. Only when I hild down the clutch will it start. It will idle when the clutch is released though. Can't remember if that's the way it is supposed to work.

My bike will only start with clutch in. Think thats standard?

[Mustang]

My bike will only start with clutch in. Think thats standard?

it's not
bike should start clutch out in neutral sidestand down
and when bike is running and you have in gear with clutch out (normal riding )and push the sidestand down motor should immediately die
there is a huge hint there aeschere . a faulty intermittent side stand switch will kill the motor instantly
and as sin says does the light come on for neutral ? because guess where the relay for the safety circuit gets its signal from . *edit* I cant remember if the trigger for the safety relay is the light or the kick stand switch , too lazy to look for wiring diagram */edit*
but thats only for your issue of having to use clutch to start in neutral , the sidestand switch can and will kill it instantly sounds to me like you aeschere should be looking at that little switch on the kick stand . IIRC you can jump the wires to test .
*note if you leave the wires jumped it's on you ,literally with your first left turn if you forget the kick stand *note
if your problem goes away , well there ya go

fix that then look at the ignition pick up sender if it still has issues

[Sin_Tiger]

  Good point, I'd forgotten about that 

[Aeschere]

I will get myself a multimeter later today to check the wiring. Sure hope that is what is causing this as it seems to be the cheapest and easiest solution.

What do you mean with the neutral light? It turns on fine when I put it in neutral but I haven't seen it light up while driving...or I just didn't pay enough attention to it.

[Mustang]

your light is fine then check the switch , you dont need a meter just jump the wires

[ssevy]

On the bright side, you should carry a spare pick up coil (technically called "the little fucker" 😆 ) with you anyways, so if you don't need it this time, you'll have it for the future.

[Bixxer Bob]

On the bright side, you should carry a spare pick up coil (technically called "the little fucker" 😆 )....

You made I larf   

[Aeschere]

It has been horrible weather lately so I didn't have much time to work on the bike.

It seems like it is a fuel problem after all. The circuits seem fine.

I have drained the tank of it's fuel and removed the petcock. I was greeted with white gunk (see attachment). I have removed the internal fuel filters and placed an external filter. I checked the carb filter and that too was clogged again.
Before I give it another shot I want to clean the carbs since I am quite sure that the jets are clogged as well. When I drained the floater chambers it also contained some white residue so it did manage to pass the filters.

After struggling a bit with old screws I managed to remove the jets. Is it correct that the Mikuni carbs contain three parts per carb that can be cleaned with ultrasound? Just checking before I hand them off to take a bath.

While they are being cleaned I will just clean the carbs with some break cleaner and completely drain the tank to rinse it with water and let it dry over the weekend or do you have some other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[JayDub]

odd stuff 
did you get the tiny filter from the fuel inlet pipe t-piece too?

[Aeschere]

Welcome to another episode of Aeschere and the Tiger!

This weekend I cleaned the tank. I filled it with water, gave it a good shake all around and drained the water. Repeated that for a few times. I let the tank dry for a few days.
In the meantime I cleaned the carbs. I took the jets to the local bike shop to get them cleaned with ultrasound but the owner told me that that would be a waste of time and money since they were already clean. Back home I cleaned them out with the compressor. It was a little moist so it eventually began spraying water dust which was great to get everything shiny clean. I also cleaned out the rest of the carb parts without taking the carbs apart from each other.
While I was at it I also removed the airbox and planned on replacing the filter. It turned out the previous owner had already placed a K&N filter that just needed to be cleaned so I went to town again with the compressor.

Today I reassembled the whole thing, let the carbs fill a bit and started it in one go. Perfect! Or at least, so I thought.
I let the engine run a bit, revved it a few times, kept the engine on 6k revs for a moment and it all seemed fine.
I was ready to install the removed side farings when the bike just stopped. I didn't touch it at that moment.
I thought I heard it stall a little bit about 30 seconds to 1 minute before it stopped so I am still guessing it is the fuel.

For some reason the bike wouldn't start again and I drained the battery while trying. Tomorrow I will remove the external filter and just connect the petcock directly on the carbs so see what happens. If it starts up again and keeps running I think I will just leave the filters out and pour in a cleaner once in a while.

What do you think? Any other suggestions as to what I can look at?

[GavD]

Did it just die, as if the ignition had been turned off??? If so it still sounds like pick up coil.

[London_Phil]

Sounds electrical to me. I wouldn't expect it to die so suddenly with fuel starvation. I usually turn my fuel tap off a few hundred yards from home, and let it idle for a bit in order to drain the carbs before it goes to bed. Sometimes it gets a bit lumpy as it runs out of fuel, but its more of a gradual power loss till it stalls..

[JayDub]

  with Gav and Phil, I would change the pick-up coil,

On the bright side, you should carry a spare pick up coil (technically called "the little fucker" 😆 ) with you anyways, so if you don't need it this time, you'll have it for the future.

mine was failing in the higher rev range, i.e. when accelerating If it was fuel it is more likely to splutter and die... did you notice if the rev counter dropped off suddenly when it cut out?