2006 XB12Ss; Starts, Idles, but then dies...

[luis_mty]

Hi to every Bueller fan in this site!

I have been reading this forum for a little while and has been such and enlighning experience, most of the issues that I had with my 2006 Xb12Ss have been answered in one way or another through all your posts and suggestions. This is my little way to say thanks to all of you... and also request for some direct help, since I am having some trouble with my bike.

I am riding and Xb12Ss with some minors tunes: It has the "front exhaust modification" so the bike has a big hole in the front of the muffler so has more roar sound (previous owner did that), and I put a K&N air filter, NGK Iridium sparks plugs and Royal Purple oil on it. Thats about it.

Now, this bike has been having some minor issues for a while that can be someway understandable, like some backpops when decelerating of a rough idling, like riding a small bull at low speed... As a simple solution I bought the ECM cable and did various TPS resets without having some real changes...

Recently the "check engine" light came on while riding and kept that way even tough i was riding without any issues... when I got back home, I connected the ECM cable and opened the EcmSpy to search for the error. It was the error 21, which has the Exhaust Valve Actuator, as suggested in previous posts, therefore, I activated the advance mode in the EcmSpy and just deactivate that function. Reset the bike and voila!! No more "check engine" light and back to enjoy the wild rides.

Recently, because of this long winter, the cold weather and some busy time, I wasn't able to use the bike, so it sat for a couple of month. Any given sunny day I decided to take a ride on it and try to turned on, which obviously didn't happen. The battery ran out. A quick solution as sometimes I do with some other bikes I have, take a small hill next to my house and started with the inertia. I started it by putting it in 2nd gear, release the clutch and give some throttle, but when I eased a little bit the gas, the bike when dead. I tried again a couple of times more by starting and giving the bike more gas (between 4k and 6k rpm) for some minutes, but with the same results (when decreasing at 3k rpm of lower the bike just died).

I obviously blamed the drained battery and just came back to the garage and park the bike. The next day I connected a home battery charger/maintainer which bought in a motorcycle store. Easy task, just connected the wires and the device started to charge the battery. Leave the thing pugged for a couple of days until the indicator went green, meaning that the battery was at 100% charged. I disconnected the device and give it a try on the bike. Instantaneously cranked up the bike without any hesitation. I promptly geared out to ride it... buuuut... when I tried to slowly accelerate the bike went dead... If i tried to give a quick/fast acceleration, the bike responded, by rising to 4k-6k rpm, but if I tried to have a normal start from idle, the bike just went dead. In idle the bike seams normal, no lights went on. I stopped the bike and started again with no cranking issues, immediate response to start signal and idles normal, just no normal acceleration.

Just a funny thing, when the key is in ON, commonly the Neutral and the Oil lights are on, the when the switch is ON, the engine light goes on and the fuel pump starts working until a few seconds the light goes away, and then when you start the bike the oil light also goes away, which is normal. The funny thing happens when the bike went dead, the oil light didn't came back as commonly happens. Turned the key OFF and then ON, and the oil light didn't light up. After a while just lighted up... weird for me... but the elephant in the room remains: why the Buell is going dead when starting to throttle? Apparently the battery is fully charged and no weird light in the dash. Any quick ideas?

Tomorrow I will connect the bike to see if there is some error codes, but I will like to use some Buellers Wisdom in solving this issue with the bike. Anyone?

PS: Sorry if this post seems like a novel, but I'm trying to give you guys as much info as possible.

[user_deleted]

so the bike has a big hole in the front of the muffler so has more roar sound (previous owner did that)

i'd resolve to ditch this "custom" PO mod.

things to check:
1- battery terminals and cable ends pristine and tight?
2-sounds like alot of starting and starting and revving and idling on your part. plugs fouled? the NGK iridium tips will foul contrary to popular opinion.
3. is the IAT switch connected? in all likelihood you would have disconnected it when removing air box base during plug install. check the wiring plug.
4. all these multiple tps resets you speak of totally unnecessary. did you perform it correctly and then take a gentle ride in "learn mode" for the system to adjust?
5. how old is this fuel you speak of?
6. though your battery came back to life as you mentioned they are never ever the same after being completely drained to infinity. fully charge it and have it load tested.
report back with results.

[Cooter]

I agree with above^^^
Especially #4. I don't think the bike has had any time to learn normal riding.

FYI. Buells HATE to be run-start, and you are risking smoking the stator/regulator as well. They were never designed to charge a battery from 0, They 'charging system" on any motorcycle is only meant to run the electrics and maintain a charge.