Sporty Runs Dies

[niteman282]

98 Sporty 883 ran good until last year probably got water with gas. Changed gas,plugs and cleaned carb. Had some trash in the fuel bowl. Changed all gaskets related to carb due to bike setting up for several years,prior to having this problem. Now bike starts runs about 10 min. then dies. plugs black and wet. thinking coil do know that battery was not charged properly during winter storage.  Any suggestions.

thanks

[Blockhead80]

float needle sticking open, enrichner not closing all the way, float out of adjustment.

[calif phil]

Ignition modules will do that. They have been a problem on the late 90's sporty's.  Of course it could be carb problems as well. The best thing to do is carry a new spark plug with you and when the bikes dies, pull off a plug wire and hook it to the new plug, lay the new plug against the head to ground it and crank the bike over and see if you have spark. No spark. Module!  Spark then go back into the carb.

[Panzer]

My thinking is the carb. in general.
Sounds like the bowl is filling, runs like you said for ten minutes, then the bowl goes empty.
Starvation for fuel, of course then shuts down.
If you leave it sit for say 10-15 minutes she fills back up and runs for another ten minutes and dies.   If it does that, then it's in the carb.
Black plugs??  Means over fueled...........but.........are you cleaning the plugs before you test run it again, then seeing if they're black again, probably not.

If it was me, I'd remove the carb, (keep settings the same) and clean the whole cab, (with carb. cleaner, including the float pin ) replacing the inlet needle and seat.
Gum from stale gas will make the float sticky, don't count on fresh fuel to remove the gum, it won't.

One word of caution.......don't use carb. cleaner in the float.
It will remove the sealant on the float and make it porous, that is, if it's a cork float.
Do the simple & least expensive first.......up to you.

But that's just me...........hope it helps ya.
Lets us know with an update.

Panzer

[Hossamania]

May be a plugged vent line. Remove gas cap when it dies and listen for vacuum. Normally would cause lean condition but an easy check.

[Panzer]

Good point too, Hossamania 

[Hossamania]

Any updates yet?

[niteman282]

  Found that the battery died, replaced battery and plugs checked fire. found that the fire appears to be orange in color, next step to replace coil. Bike did run about 25 Min's this time.  Have been working lot lately. will update as I get to work on it..

[No Problem]

my sporty did the same thing it was a pluged gas cap try easy things first

[xydon89]

My 89' sporster would die at different times. I checked the voltage at the battery while rolling up the rpms, and it went up to 17 volts. r&r voltage regulator, problem fixed.