• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Bike suddenly started running like garbage

djhurayt

djhurayt

Husqvarna
A Class
’08 SMR450, power-up kit, Arrows pipe

Bike suddenly started running like garbage. Currently the fuel light keeps coming on even though there is a fuel and plenty of it. I have already done the fuel pump retention mods. In the past I have had a broken fuel level sending unit wire, so the first thing is pull the tank and pump and take a look. But I would not expect that wire to effect the bike performance.

Here is what it is and isn’t doing. Maybe somebody has experience the same and/or may have ideas of other things to look at. In general the bike is bucking/cutting out/surging at anything other than about 6K plus or minus 300 revs. Below 5500 and above 6500 it is terrible. But as long as I kept it in a gear that had me in this 5700-6300 range it was much better but still not running right. The bike seem to idle fine with no obvious miss and you can blip the throttle and it seems crisp, but put a load on it and be outside of the range I was able to nurse the thing home in and you feel like you are on a rodeo horse.

Prior to the trouble starting the bike was and always has run great. I had just fueled up, but the poor running did not start until after a 15 mile hard run up and down a favorite mountain road. We shut down then upon restart is when the miss firing started.

Anybody experience anything like this or have any ideas/suggestions about areas to look at.

Thanks,
david
 
Last time I had anything like that happen, it turned out to be bad fuel issue. The ethonol clogged my jets and my machine would not run. High RPM was all it could do. Low RPM, not a chance. The tech, gave me this advice. Get a full tank of GOOd gas, put in 1 once of diesel and let it run. I did, and within about 20 miles, it cleaned it out. Ran really good. Not sayin it is the best thing to do, but it did work.
 
Just to eliminate it, clean the fuel injector supply side screen with a shot or 2 of carb cleaner. Your symptoms are a little different than mine, but a dirty injector needs to be ruled out.

next issue , in increasing difficulty, would be the intake manifold. Make sure it is not cracked or split open. The extra air will kill your running, and it will act different because heat and the exact nature of the damage will let in different amounts of air at different times.

HuskyIntake2.jpg


HuskyCrackedIntake_zps42db04ad.jpg


HuskyBadIntake1_zps2475399f.jpg
 
forgot all about that^ my 07 smr 450 had that exact issue but was able to get a union used off ebay.

Very very very very common. You wont know it is broken until you take it completely off. Will look fine and pass a carb cleaner test :)
 
eeew, that is ugly, where do you store your bike OHR, in a heattreat oven, I will do a quick carb spray while tugging things around
 
UPDATE: not fixed but learned new information

The day this initially happened, I was far from home and in limp it home mode. I found a spot that it seemed reasonably happy and I tried to keep it there.
This past weekend I was able to spend a little bit of time with it and here is what I learned.

When I first started the bike and warmed it up while I geared up it ran fine. Idled well, you could blip the throttle with good throttle response. And when I jumped on, it ran normal. I trashed on it for a few miles, maybe 5, then suddenly it started running like crap again.

However this time I was close to home so I tried some different things out. The bike would still idle good and you could still blip the throttle with good response. However once the revs got up around 5K this is when it started running bad. Now if I worked the throttle a little bit I could get it to catch and get the revs up above 7K. Once above 7 it would run like a scalded dog as long as I did not let the revs drop below 7. Otherwise it was the stumble, gurgle, burp until I could get it above 7, and then everything was good again. After getting whatever it is hot, the bike also exhibited the same behavior while sitting in neutral. Good idle, blip the throttle with good response, but steadily increasing the revs resulted in bad running once I got to about 5K and if I could get it past 7 it would rev out like crazy.

I realize the ranges I speak of are not as I originally posted. But I was not in the frame to experiment and only want to get the bike back to home base. I still plan to look at the pump as I believe if nothing else something is wrong with the fuel sending units as I am getting unusual on/off signaling of the fuel light and I know I am not that low. I have had the pump out before and did the pump tie down fixes, but who knows.

The problem seems to be heat related which makes evaluation of parts that seem to be failing at but are not up to temperature next to impossible.

With this new information any other suggestions???

david
 
UPDATE: latest knowledge, but still not fixed

Had a dry evening to get the bike out last night. Issue was happening almost from the get go.

Issue review: bike starts and idles fine, you can blip the throttle and it is responsive, but bike will not pull without chugging and stumbling until you can get it above 7K then it runs like a scalded dog. And just to clarify the condition somebody mentioned a lean crackle pop lean condition from maybe a lifted fuel pump. It is not really a lean crackle pop, I have had that when low on fuel. This is more of a wants to go but cuts out and stumbles then just as quickly it tries to go again, and this all happens multiple times a second or two.

Anyways decide to top of the tank to verify that it was not a lifting pump. Only took 0.9 gallons and still did it with a full tank. Now, I still need to take the pump back out as my low fuel light is acting funny and would occasionally light up. I have repaired a broken sending unit wire before, may be time for that again.

A battery going bad has been mentioned. I have a Ballistic EVO2 Lithium Ferrous Phosphate battery that spins like crazy without ever being on a tender. So, could be but sort of doubt it.

Temp sensor has been suggested, so I played with that a little. Unplugging didn’t cure it, but being unsure about what to expect I will tell you what I did and what I saw. First kill engine, unplugged temp sensor, tried to restart bike to no avail. ??? Plugged sensor back in, started bike, then unplugged sensor. Bike continued to run, got and went down the road, still doing same thing. Only this time my neutral light was flashing, I assume telling me that some sensor (my water temp) was not working. ??? Sound about right. ???

Someone else has mentioned intake system air leak via a cracked boot that they had. I have not done the ether/carb spray trick will pushing things around yet. But the bike is a relatively low mileage unit (7500miles) and is garage kept. So, not ruling it out but again sort of doubt it, but will look into it.
:banghead:
 
This split hose was connection between fuel pump, the end that fits to pump, worth checking if you are having issues with bike surging/backfiring or stops for no reason, pump was pumping and fuel would flow, but no pressure.
 

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How about that gas cap tube, i mean are that gas tank "breathe", to me that sound like some sensor problem, when that idle and run nice over 7k...Have you messure that TPS in stock ibeat system.
Or that carb spray trick??
 
You said it starts to run at 7K.
Just a thought as I have seen this, bad battery?
Meaning it has enough voltage to spin it over but not enough left in it to power FI properly, But at higher RPM charges at much higher voltage.
Later George
 
George, nice talking with you last week. Thanks for the thoughts on other items to check.

Those that guessed temperature sensor: nope, but you are welcome to play again, any other ideas
 
Seen only a couple over the years but bad ECU? try different one from like model.
Know it's a PIA but can pull throttle body, position it so can watch the spray pattern.
Didn't see posts if flywheel had been cleaned along with the pickup coil?
Leak down test?
Change spark plug, also check plug cap they break internally.
Later George
 
Coil related... Had a miserable issue with a coil wire to some dyna coils years ago that had crimp connectors and then were wrapped in electrical tape. Once the bike was warmed up and that tape got gooey the wire was somewhat loose in it's crimp connector so engine vibration would cause it to loose connectivity in an erratic fashion. Fine for a few miles but when I'd begin to ride more briskly and rev her out.... Bucking and erratic. I replaced with new coils but still the issue. Just by chance I was staring at the wiring and unraveled the electrical tape to find the loose connection. Replaced the connector and heat shrinked the wire and problem solved. So may be worth checking the wiring harness for the ignition wires and make sure there are no cuts, scrapes or loose or corroded connections.

A similar situation happened with an 87 Vanagon Synchro, bucked like a bronc every once in a while. Dealer could not find an issue. Was about to leave it on the railroad tracks for destruction when I decided to leave it running and open the rear hatch and see if I could see any issues. Noticed a plug wire sparking as was next to a wide woven ground strap. It had rubbed the wire raw and causing the shorting. replaced plug wires and problem solved. Why some dealers are useless.
 
my bike will run for 35 to 7 miles..... then flame out and die. will always start....wont pull its self. but will start.
 
The OP here, just figured I would update this issue:

Short story:
nothing has been resolved

Long version:
Took the bike to a 3 hr. drive away Husky dealership. Now, I want to make sure that everybody understand, I am in no way unhappy with what this dealer has done despite the short story version.

The bike has now been in the shop for 14 weeks come tomorrow. The shop has done everything they know to do with no resolve. The owner of the shop is good friend with what is supposed to be one of the best red Husky mechanics in the states. He has been in contact with Husky-USA in CA numerous times and the engineers in Austria. They have looked at the bikes diagnostics from the left coast via the WWW multiple times. The factory engineers do not see ANYTHING that says this bike should be doing what it is. At one point they even overnighted a laptop with additional factory diagnostic software. NOTHING.

They have done and/or swapped out or replaced:
• checked ignition timing
• cam timing
• valve clearances
• water temp sensor
• re-flashed the ECU
• fuel pump
• battery
• spark plug
• plug wire and boot
• numerous other things, about the only thing that has not been changed is the air in the tires

The only thing that has been accomplished is the range has shifted from 3500 – 7000 rpm to just between 5 & 5500 rpm. The problem is that no known change accomplished this, it just seemed to do it on its own. So, we theorized that maybe with all the un-plugging and re-plugging in connectors maybe there was a chaffed area of the harness that via all the swapping had now been shifted to a position that only at the new range is the short happening. Because it acts like an electrical problem of the bike just instantaneously being shut off and turned back on. It is like riding a buckling bronco. So the harness was removed from the bike and checked from end to end. No chaffed areas observed.

The latest moves to resolve was a care package of parts from the factory to swap out. Nothing. A second care package. Still nothing. Part of the problem is that even Husky/KTM do not even have at least one of each component on the bike in their possession.
The latest move is that Husky is sending out a National Technical Specialist from CA next week who has (and I have seen the e-mail from the NTS’s boss) been instructed to go and fix this bike!

We will see what happens next week
 
The good news here is that you're getting a lot of attention from the factory for an Italian bike. Hope it gets sorted for ya. Sucks that you don't have a bike for so long, but it seems the guys are taking it personal and are determined to find the problem.:thumbsup: Have any idea what all this attention is going to run ya?
 
Do they have an ECU they can swap in, to eliminate the possibility of a bad ECU George mentioned?

You mention they re-flashed it, but maybe it's just bad?
 
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