Ok, this is a weird one. Last Friday I'm heading 175 miles out of town on a short weekend trip on my ST1300. About 10 miles into this at 70 mph on I-10 the bike hiccups and jerks twice, maybe three times, then loses power and begins slowing down. I'm in traffic so I give it more throttle, lots more throttle to keep up. The loss of power was apparent but it held speed with more throttle and did not continue slowing down so I know the engine was continuing to run albeit with a huge loss of power. With the on and off jerking at first issue it felt like it was running out of gas or or the ignition was cutting in and out then it jerked once or twice again and ran normally again like nothing happened. The whole event was maybe 10 seconds.
I should have turned around right then and gone home but I really wanted to get to the destination on time and kept going. I thought maybe it was a bit of water in the fuel that passed through an injector or two ....About 40 miles into the trip it did this again but not as bad or as for as long. It jerked a couple of times then back to normal. Again I thought I should turn around but decided to press on and changed my route from small back roads to staying on more traveled roads so my road service could find me easier if I had to stop or broke down. I rode about 150 miles with no future appearance of the problem. The last 20 miles or so was down a long straight road through a swamp with both shoulders flooded and full of water. No place to really pull off the road and a narrow wet shoulder if you had to. I passed a sign indicating 9 miles to go and the issue reappeared. This time it did not clear for maybe a minute or so. I decided as long as the bike would run at this level of power I would ride it out. The bike slowed but kept running as if on 2 or 3 cylinders. Despite the speed of about 45-50 mph mph the exhaust smelt overly rich like raw fuel was dumping through a cylinder that wasn't firing. I had time to check a few things out. Because I've had electrical grounding problems before that stopped the fuel pump along with lights, horn, cooling fans, etc, I cycled electrical items on and off on and off with no fix-it. I down shifted and changed engine rpms with no fix-it. Dash lighting and temp remained normal. Then it hiccuped once or twice and all was normal again. I rode the last few miles to a gas station and filled the tank. I rode it 10 miles the next day and it was fine.
Yesterday I rode it home and it ran perfect for the entire 176 miles but obviously I want it diagnose and correct whatever went wrong. The right side catalytic converter has turned gold/ brown and has the appearance of running an unusual exhaust mixture or temperature. The left side one is the normal shiny polished chrome. I clean the cats and mufflers regularly so this one-sided change is very apparent. I just cleaned the pipes not too long ago so I know the change is, I believe, related. I keep them shiny chrome because I dislike the goldish brown discoloration they get.
What would cause the RH cat and muffler to change color so quickly....running overly hot exhaust gas temps from overworking because the problem loss of power was on the left side or was the right side exhaust running too rich/cool and this discolored it? On my bike the usual catalytic converter/muffler discoloration takes thousands of miles to occur.
Tonight I will pull the cowls and check the spark plugs for coloration changes. At this point intend to think I had a momentary ignition or fueling problem and the plugs and plug leads are a starting point.
I'll entertain any other thoughts.
I'll add I replaced the fuel pump about 16,000 miles ago when the bike passed 115,000 miles. It didn't have symptoms I just did it to prevent fuel pump problems.
I should have turned around right then and gone home but I really wanted to get to the destination on time and kept going. I thought maybe it was a bit of water in the fuel that passed through an injector or two ....About 40 miles into the trip it did this again but not as bad or as for as long. It jerked a couple of times then back to normal. Again I thought I should turn around but decided to press on and changed my route from small back roads to staying on more traveled roads so my road service could find me easier if I had to stop or broke down. I rode about 150 miles with no future appearance of the problem. The last 20 miles or so was down a long straight road through a swamp with both shoulders flooded and full of water. No place to really pull off the road and a narrow wet shoulder if you had to. I passed a sign indicating 9 miles to go and the issue reappeared. This time it did not clear for maybe a minute or so. I decided as long as the bike would run at this level of power I would ride it out. The bike slowed but kept running as if on 2 or 3 cylinders. Despite the speed of about 45-50 mph mph the exhaust smelt overly rich like raw fuel was dumping through a cylinder that wasn't firing. I had time to check a few things out. Because I've had electrical grounding problems before that stopped the fuel pump along with lights, horn, cooling fans, etc, I cycled electrical items on and off on and off with no fix-it. I down shifted and changed engine rpms with no fix-it. Dash lighting and temp remained normal. Then it hiccuped once or twice and all was normal again. I rode the last few miles to a gas station and filled the tank. I rode it 10 miles the next day and it was fine.
Yesterday I rode it home and it ran perfect for the entire 176 miles but obviously I want it diagnose and correct whatever went wrong. The right side catalytic converter has turned gold/ brown and has the appearance of running an unusual exhaust mixture or temperature. The left side one is the normal shiny polished chrome. I clean the cats and mufflers regularly so this one-sided change is very apparent. I just cleaned the pipes not too long ago so I know the change is, I believe, related. I keep them shiny chrome because I dislike the goldish brown discoloration they get.
What would cause the RH cat and muffler to change color so quickly....running overly hot exhaust gas temps from overworking because the problem loss of power was on the left side or was the right side exhaust running too rich/cool and this discolored it? On my bike the usual catalytic converter/muffler discoloration takes thousands of miles to occur.
Tonight I will pull the cowls and check the spark plugs for coloration changes. At this point intend to think I had a momentary ignition or fueling problem and the plugs and plug leads are a starting point.
I'll entertain any other thoughts.
I'll add I replaced the fuel pump about 16,000 miles ago when the bike passed 115,000 miles. It didn't have symptoms I just did it to prevent fuel pump problems.
