FireStorm Problems

[GeoffH]

Hi ive not had my firestorm long but have already had a few problems, Which luckly my brother and a few other forum members have sorted. my main problem now is that on occassions at a juction or when i pull up and come to a stop it just cuts out. I also still have a problem where the battery after a couple of days just wont turn her over, my brother put 1 of the batteries on his bike and it seems fine could this be the regulator/rectifier? Once it cuts out it start with no problem.

[kevg]

Hi there,

if you do a search for the cutting out problem there are quite a few posts about this, there are a couple of drain hoses from the carbs and if you re-route them this seems to help stop the problem, this comes up quite often so you should be able to find some posts on it with drawings explaining it.

do you have an alarm fitted, i have one on mine and it drains the battery within a week, i keep mine connected to an optimate to keep the battery topped up when i'm not using it.

if you don't have an alarm are there any other symptoms of the reg/rectifier going, i changed mine a couple of weeks ago and before i did when i was riding the bike the speedo and other electrics were switching on and off when i had the headlight on, or used the indicators as the load on the battery/ electrical system was changing all the time.

hopefully someone will come along who knows about electrics and can tell you where and how to use a meter to check, once again though if you look at old post you might find something that helps as the reg/ rectifier is the same as the cutting out, its a common fault.

[GeoffH]

Thanks Kevg, ive had a good look around and found a few things to checkout tonight, ive also been told about using Fuel Stabilizer which gives the carbs a good cleanout. When's shes runing it spot on no trouble at all until i come to a stop then it is just like ive hit the kill button, personally i think its not getting the proper charge from the battery which points me to the R/R, so tonight i will check it out with multimeter and see. Its just a bit frustrating because sometimes its not a problem.

[Stratman]

Set the idle to around 1200 as well. There is a whole thread on checking out the RR and I did it with a £5 multimeter no problem. TBH, I bought an aftermarket finned one for about £60 and fitted that. It will go at some stage, so might as well replace now!

My Meta alarm used to discharge the battery in a fortnight. I used an Optimate and that fixed that, until the alarm immobilised completely so I stripped it out

[sirch345]

Geoff,

There's been some good suggestions about you query and to be honest quite a lot of Firestorms have this problem of cutting out now and again when it feels like it, my bike being one of them. I found it got worse and did it more if the spark plugs and or air filter needed changing.

As already been said keeping the tick over up to around 1200 rpms helps.
Definitely worth putting a multi-meter across the battery terminals to see what you are getting with the bike running. Anything from 13.5 to 16 volts is normal,

Chris.

[GeoffH]

turned the idle up to 1200 but not had chance to try it yet carbs might need to be balanced but new to bike so would not do on my own. just been told R/R could be problem but will wait and see what idle does.

[Stratman]

turned the idle up to 1200 but not had chance to try it yet carbs might need to be balanced but new to bike so would not do on my own. just been told R/R could be problem but will wait and see what idle does.

No, that won't give rise to the symptoms you describe IMO. Get the carbs balanced, the air filter checked/replaced and the idle up to 1200 and I bet it will be OK

[sirch345]

turned the idle up to 1200 but not had chance to try it yet carbs might need to be balanced but new to bike so would not do on my own. just been told R/R could be problem but will wait and see what idle does.

No, that won't give rise to the symptoms you describe IMO. Get the carbs balanced, the air filter checked/replaced and the idle up to 1200 and I bet it will be OK

I 2nd that, the rectifier would not make your bike stall and you be able to restart it again as you state in your first post. If the rectifier has packed up the bike will not be charging the battery, so once the battery runs down that will cause the bike to cut out. If that happened you definitely won't be able to start it again on the button.

Chris.

[GeoffH]

Right i turned the idle up to 1200, but it still cut out going to change the air filter and balance the carbs next, Ive also put some carb stablizer in the fuel as ive been told that a varnish forms and it could be part of the problem. The bike runs perfect ive been all over on her and it only happens now and again. Again thanks for all the suggestions, learning more about the bike so its got to be a good thing.

[tony.mon]

Just a thought, but since I've changed both my intakes to long ones it doesn't do this hardly at all-

Anyone else found the same thing

[andy c]

I had this problem when I fitted my intakes the wrong way round Long in place of Short and Short instead of Long

[bikerpiker]

Mine must be the exception ,(touch wood),idle set at 1100rpm ,it never ever cuts out and never backfires , standard cans with the baffles removed and standard filter

I wouldnt mind a pop or a bang occasionally

[stormingjoe]

Mine must be the exception ,(touch wood),idle set at 1100rpm ,it never ever cuts out and never backfires , standard cans with the baffles removed and standard filter

I wouldnt mind a pop or a bang occasionally

'fraid your bike is in need of some serious surgery, not a normal storm

[GeoffH]

Just to let you all know ive sorted the problem with the cutting out, well my brother did as we were changing the air filter i noticed a crack in a vacum pipe so removed it cut it back and replaced. Went to the MCN show at Skegness yesterday and never cut out so fingers crossed thats it.

[sirch345]

Just to let you all know ive sorted the problem with the cutting out, well my brother as as we were changing the air filter i noticed a crack in a vacum pipe so removed it cut it back and replaced. Went to the MCN show at Skegness yesterday and never cut out so fingers crossed thats it.

That certainly wouldn't be helping matters. Well spotted

Chris.