48 chief stall

[cscott]

been riding a 48 chief I just finished and it runs good still breaking in engine, but as I am riding along it will stall for no reason I can figure.I pull over give it a kick and it starts up no problem. I had another 48 that did the same thing ?? any ideas thanks chris

[1950Panhead]

?? any ideas thanks chris

Yes, it is lack of fuel or lack of compression or lack of ignition.
More info needed to guess wildly.
Does this always occur at 7.2 miles from home ?
Does engine stop instantly or spit and sputter ?
Does engine spit and sputter through air cleaner or exhaust ?
Are good looking women always observed when this happens ?

[cscott]

no spitting, no backfire just quits...the women are looking after when I am on the side of the road kicking

[tfburke3]

I would remove the float bowl,and reattach to fuel line.Hold a piece of gasket paper over the stem hole and turn on petcock.
This will show float level and fill rate.
Tom

[exeric]

A non vented gas cap, bad coil, or bad ground are also things to look at. All 3 of those things have stopped me dead in the past

[pisten-bully]

Last Wednesday I rode a couple hundred miles and two times my 1946 sputtered, stumbled, and almost stalled at 50mph. I got home and told my wife that it was an uneventful ride, except for those two near stalls at speed. Her reply: "Maybe you got some bad gas?" I think she was right!

[Skirted]

Normally with lack of fuel there will be a small sputter before it dies, though it would be brief. Dying like you turned the key off I'd look at ignition. Could be a persnickety condenser. Doesn't matter if its new. check points, cap, rotor, primary wiring for integrity.
The fact that it fixes itself after a short time does lead to thinking fuel is replenishing itself.....but if its a sudden die with zero sputter, that sounds more like ignition

[Tom Wilcock]

A friend had the same thing happen on his 1946 chief. He found a bad splice on the battery and brake switch wires in his new wiring harness. After he repaired that he had no more stalling.
Tom

[slamiste]

Years ago I had the same experience. In my case, the cause was a bad ignition switch. If after your bikes quits you turn off the switch and turn it back on to restart this may be something to investigate. If you don't turn off the switch and the bike restarts then the switch can probably be eliminated as the problem.

I often enough to be embossed about it, take off on a ride without turning on the gas and the bike will sputter and bulk for about 5 seconds letting me know it's a running out of gas. Just did it again this weekend on my 36 Chief. So I support the idea that your problem is ignition related. In the last 3 years I've had two condenser failures while riding and in these cases the bike would start to pop and crack in a way much different than a starving for fuel situation. In one case I made it home with the bike running worse and worse all the time, and in the most recent case, it popped and cracked for about 15 seconds and then my wife, grandson and I (side car rig) were pedestrians. I have not experience with a condenser failing the way you describe your situation.

Anyway good luck and let us know what the solution to the problem turns out to be.

Steve Slaminko

[exeric]

I had a condenser failure and the bike continued to run (poorly) but did get me home. I've had coil failures that caused the bike to quit, but after the coil cooled off, it would restart. Bad wiring was a real problem on my Indian, and bad grounds in particular. I've had switch issues with reproduction switches, but few problems with good genuine Indian ignition switches. Keep us posted on what you find cscott. This kind of information is very beneficial to people with similar problems.

[Paultrehberg]

Take apart the ignition switch and clean all the brass and contacts if you have not already.

[JoeK]

been riding a 48 chief I just finished and it runs good still breaking in engine, but as I am riding along it will stall for no reason I can figure.I pull over give it a kick and it starts up no problem. I had another 48 that did the same thing ?? any ideas thanks chris

I had this problem which I caused my self with a home made gas line on a 346. Part of the line was in contact with the head causing the gas to boil in the line. Fortunately found it and a simple bend fixed the problem. Everything else I can think of has already been addressed. Cotton, may have some ideas on manifold leaks doing this but usually you get bucking and backfiring with that problem. I do have an extra coil the saddle bag and have had to use it but there again I got warning.

Joe Keenan

[motor-officer]

I was having a similar problem on my 1947 Indian Chief. As I would ride down the road, the bike would suddenly shut-off. I would pull over and kick it and it would start right up. I re-built the ignition switch and re-placed all of the distributor ignition components. It continued to occasionally shut-off as I was riding it. One day as it sat idling, I moved the positive and negative wires coming off of the coil. It shut-off. I re-placed both wires and the problem went away. I assume one or both of the wires work-hardened and started to internally break-down from wind movement and/or advancing/retarding the distributor.

[cscott]

Thanks for all the responses , turned out wire on distributer

[mcarver]

Thanks for all the responses , turned out wire on distributer

A good rule of thumb I was taught years ago: 90% of ignition / electrical problems are fuel related and 90% of fuel problems are electrical / ignition related. Always makes me smile, even when I'm kicking over an old bike along the roadside. Glad you isolated the problem... or at least (in my experience) one of the problems as there are sometimes more than one contributing factor, especially on 70+ year old hardware.