So I thought I'd set off on my RTW trip yesterday with my TT600RE, after months and months of preparing and completely putting my bike in order.

At the end of my first day, my bike died. When I looked, the gas tank was very low, which was already very strange: normally I have a range of about 370km without luggage. Now I had ridden 180km. Ok, fuel economy will decrease with a lot of luggage or a passenger, but half? That's way too much.
There should have been enough left to ride a bit still, but I still put some gas in from another bike and tried again, but it didn't start anymore.

I called a tow truck and came back home . Now I need to fix this ASAP so I can leave...

Long story short: my TT600RE doesn't start anymore, or if it does, it dies after a few meters of riding.
- inline fuel filter shows little or no pulsing, indicating the carburettor isn't really sucking the fuel in
- before the bike died, during riding, the engine was sputtering and lost power sometimes. The sputtering increased with high rpm, when giving full gas, and also when the choke was on when starting the bike and the first minutes of riding. The bike does not have any punch to accelerate.
(I rode most of the day like that - I found it strange already but thought it was maybe from the weight of the luggage, and was going to check it later, but now I think it's all connected of course)
- ridiculously low fuel economy (180 vs 370km range)

What could it be?

I will go to the Yamaha dealer when they open this afternoon, but I'm afraid they won't have space to fix this any time soon. I don't like the idea of waiting 2 or 3 weeks, or maybe more if new parts are needed after inspecting...
My visa can't wait too long of course.

I know it's a Hail Mary asking people here, who can't see/test the bike, but who knows :-). Thanks a lot in advance! Ask me anything you'd like to know if more info is needed to help...

I had similar symptoms on my small Suzuki recently that turned out to be the plug cap loose on the lead. The simple fix was to screw it back on a few more turns. Probably not your problem but might be worth a check anyway.

As a rule of thumb my loaded (vs unloaded) fuel consumption drops about 15-20%. So 60mpg becomes 50.

my list of firsts things to check


are you sure you topped it out?



1.pull the plug out, if it was running rich for some reason, it should be very blackish, post photo.

2.get a new plug (which you should have on a long trip...) and see you have good spark.

3.Check that the choke is not stuck in ON position. That could make the bike use a lot of gas and eventually foul the plug too.

4. Take out the carburetor float bowl draining screw, open the tap and collect the gas in a container, check if there is water collecting at the bottom, not good if there is.... then see that you get a good steady flow of fuel coming out. if not, you might have a clogged filter or maybe no air is coming into the gas tank through the cap, but in that case bike would not consume much.







check these and come back to us, well dig deeper

Hi there,

Thanks for the replies and the input.
I've checked all the things suggested, but to no avail...

It's not the spark plug or plug cap, and the plug does not look black. I did put in a new plug a month ago (NGK iridium).

It's also not the choke.

I didn't take out the float bowl screw right now, but just a few weeks ago, I had to completely drain my bike because some water got into the tank when washing the bike after an extremely dirty off-road ride, so I emptied the tank and float bowl at the time and refilled it. Since then I've had a couple of long rides without a problem, and the bike has not been in rain or washed anymore, so there can't be any water.

I have found another big Yamaha dealer at an hour driving who was able to try and work on the bike end of this week or beginning of next, so I brought my bike there this morning... Hoping they can fix it and next week I can finally leave...

I'll post an update when I know more about the issue!

Thanks for the help!

if you had water before it could be the same problem again


it could take a few rides for water to accumulate in the bowl again to cause the problem.


drain it again, it's a 2 mins job

Hi
These bikes are very sensitive to the engine idle speed being adjusted. Have you adjusted it lately.

My TT600RE gave me nothing but fueling/carb problems. Great bike. But that's why I sold it. I had the carbs about 100 times and couldn't sort it.

They are famous for terrible fuelling.

If I didn't turn off my fuel and run the carbs dry, it would never start again when cold.. Or if I stalled the bike when it was hot, it would never start...

Try turning off your fuel then draining your carbs from the drain screw at the bottom of the float bowls. Then start again.

If you're rapidly using fuel then perhaps your fuel floats aren't closing when the bowl is full and you're flooding the engine. It's not always apparent when you're riding flat out but quickly manifests itself when you stop.

Also, you want to check your fuel filter (or remove for testing purposes)... Check the carbs are venting properly too.
Check the fuel tank is venting (leave the cap off for testing).~

Good luck...

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.