I had a leaking reserve tank on my Honda. These bikes have 2 gas tanks. Why I do not know. It is a pain to remove this tank. I fixed the leak but after it started hard. I thought perhaps the carbs were dried out and it took a while because of that. Once I originally got it started it started fine. It would miss a little especially when cold. I had not taken it very far until the other day. After 10 miles it began to lose power and shut down completely. After 10 minutes I got it to run for 5 more miles. I stopped to do something and left there about another 5 miles till it shut down again. After another 10 min wait I got it to run after turning it over for a long time. After a few more times I got it home to storage. I thought after it cooled off it would start up easier, but no it started just as hard as it was warm.
What could I have screwed up by simply repairing the reserve fuel 2nd tank? Could I have gotten some dirt or something into the tank? Any suggestions?
If the engine is not getting the proper fuel flow it just won’t run. Yes you could have screwed up something working on the 2nd tank. Sounds like the fuel flow is choking off. Check the filter, maybe you stirred up some trash in this old bike, Rust in the tank? In the fuel filer? Now maybe there is rust in the carbs. You stir stuff up, it ends up in the worst possible place - Murphy’s Law.
Not that we wouldn’t welcome a new member, and we do, but you might have better success on a Honda motorcycle forum. I’ll bet there are plenty of guys there who know these bikes better than most of us.
For the record, I like Honda bikes. Always did. Even the little Honda 50s and Honda 90s of my youth, back in the days of the Beach Boys. But I’ve never taken one apart and put it back to together.
Your tank repair could be a red herring. I would buy an inexPensive spark checker at Harbor Freighth, put it betweem a plug wire and the plug and see if it lights up when you crank.
If it doesn’t, I suspect a failing coil. The failure pattern suggests a coil.
Pf the light flashes but the bike doesn’t start,then you may indeed have a fuel problem.
Pull a s[ark plug and see if it is wet with gas. If it is dryand the bike doesn’t start, you are not getting fuel.
No knowledge of your make/model of bike, but when my off-road bike would develop that symptom it was almost always the spark plug had fouled with carbon partially bridging the gap. Be sure to rule that out before continuing the diagnosis with anything more complicated.
My bike had two tanks too btw, the second one was to provide enough gas to make it to the next gas station when the first one ran out. No fuel gauge on off road bikes.
there is a valve for the reserve tank. but not really sure how it works. the main tank drains into the reserve tank. the reserve tank has a fuel line in the bottom that goes to the fuel filter and from there to the on off valve then to the fuel pump. then from the fuel pump to the carbs. without having the bike in front of me I could have the filter and valve in wrong order, but you get the drift.
I work on old Honda bikes from time to time, and what you are describing sounds to me like a restriction of some sort in the fuel flow from the tank to the carbs. On older bikes I’ll often just replace the fuel tubing completely. Lots of times bits of junk get stuck in fuel lines, or they deteriorate from the inside out, and fuel flows too slowly to keep the float bowls full, especially if you are running along at higher revs. Tubing is cheap enough that it’s not worth trying to fix it, but if you are stuck somewhere you can take off the fuel line and try to run a coat hanger wire through it, or blow it out with air pressure.
Not yet I ordered a fuel filter. I tested all 4 spark plugs, all had great spark.
It started great today. Took it for a ride up and down the road. Ran good for 2.5 miles till it stalled. Got it running for another half mile to get it home. I did notice one weird thing. When it was running great the horn was loud. After it started running like crap the horn would either not work or if it did work it was much quieter then before. Another weird thing was when I started it I let it idle for a while the coolant began to overflow after running for about 10 minutes in idle.
The horn thing is interesting. I’m starting to think you have a bad charging system and a battery that’s trying to keep things running, but runs out of charge and the engine stalls. When it sits it regains some charge, enough to get going again but not to keep going. Check for 13.5 plus volts at the battery when the engine is running well above idle. It could even go to 14. If it doesn’t there’s something going on in that charging system.