V7II uneven fuelling?

[organfixsing]

The left hand muffler seems to exhibit excess fuelling compared to the right hand muffler. The left hand muffler puts out black crap whereas the right hand one doesn't. Does anyone have any ideas? One possible pointer is that the left hand muffler has a bad chrome area behind the muffler mount area. I thought that it might be a cat problem, but, I thought the cat was closer to the join to the header pipes. Any information / ideas welcome.

Cheers
Brian 

[elvisboy77]

The left hand muffler seems to exhibit excess fuelling compared to the right hand muffler. The left hand muffler puts out black crap whereas the right hand one doesn't. Does anyone have any ideas? One possible pointer is that the left hand muffler has a bad chrome area behind the muffler mount area. I thought that it might be a cat problem, but, I thought the cat was closer to the join to the header pipes. Any information / ideas welcome.

Cheers
Brian 

Pretty sure they share a single throttle body, so it should not be fuel.  Could be weak spark plug on one side, bad spark plug cap (search for that in other threads) or even an air leak.  Hopefully someone with direct V7ii experience will chime in!

[oldlegs]

One throttle body but of course two fuel injectors so could be fuel. Try swopping the connectors from the lambda sensors and see if the problems move to the other cylinder. Steve.

[SportsterDoc]

Pretty sure they share a single throttle body, so it should not be fuel.  Could be weak spark plug on one side, bad spark plug cap (search for that in other threads) or even an air leak.  Hopefully someone with direct V7ii experience will chime in!

Single throttle body, but individual fuel injector per cylinder, so it could be fuel, however, your ideas about plugs would be the next thing I'd check.   I can post injector diagnostics, but I think that is premature.

[rodekyll]

Before doing anything else, I'd adjust the valves.

[SportsterDoc]

Before doing anything else, I'd adjust the valves.

That is a possible issue.
Almost as prevalent on this forum as on ironhead Sportsters!

Wonder how many miles on the bike and how many since last valve clearance inspection.

[Dofin]

Is this the reappearance of bad Plug caps??  thats what mine did when I had misfireing plugs do to loose caps.  Also when I over filled the tank (dont do that) I soaked the charcoal canister with fuel and the fuel was sucked back through the airbox, seemed to first effect the left cylinder then finally fouled both plugs, very crappy running engine and extreme discoloring of the exhaust/Catalytic converter.

[SportsterDoc]

Is this the reappearance of bad Plug caps??  thats what mine did when I had misfireing plugs do to loose caps.  Also when I over filled the tank (dont do that) I soaked the charcoal canister with fuel and the fuel was sucked back through the airbox, seemed to first effect the left cylinder then finally fouled both plugs, very crappy running engine and extreme discoloring of the exhaust/Catalytic converter.

Good input!   Be interesting to see the spark plugs.

[organfixsing]

At this stage, I think it may be ignition. I have NGK plug connectors, but, I didn't trim the end of the wire before winding it into the plugs. It seems that it may be an improvement, but not the whole answer. I have also tightened the rubber manifold clamps.
The next step is to remove the tank (an operation I dread) and check the high voltage connection to the ignition coil. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for your replies. It does get my thinking processes going. Hopefully in the right direction.
For those who are unaware, the V7II has a single throttle body and a MAP sensor built into that single throttle body. I believe that the last iteration of the V7 (5 speed gearbox) has the single throttle body also. MIUG3  (Mechatronic integrated Unit).
I will let you know of the outcome .(If I have a resolution or not.)
Thanks
Brian

[SportsterDoc]

The next step is to remove the tank (an operation I dread) and check the high voltage connection to the ignition coil.

Before doing that, do the spark plugs look the same?

[organfixsing]

Thanks for all your replies fellas. It seems that it is plug cap or the other end of the lead.
I pulled the tank back without removing it (i.e. undoing the fuel "quick disconnect") and could get at the connector on the coil. "(The left hand spark coil is the one nearest the steering head.)
The connection there is a spring loaded type connector, so, no problem there. I had replaced the spark plug connectors with NGK ones and I now re-terminated the cable in the connector (twist on connection.) This appears to have done the trick but I will only know with quite a few more kilometers on the bike, but, it looks promising.
As part of my checking, I looked at the left hand manifold as possible source of air leakage but had to give up on tightening the manifold lower mounting bolt as the rubber manifold gets in the way. The rubber manifold is too stiff to be able to push back, so, the only way to do that would be to remove the MIUG3 first, then remove the whole rubber manifold, airbox etc..
What a job that would be.
Cheers 
Brian 

[SportsterDoc]

Thanks for all your replies fellas. It seems that it is plug cap or the other end of the lead.

Good, was there a difference between the plug that was firing and the one that was not firing/not firing well?

[organfixsing]

No appreciable diference between the spark plugs. I swapped the spark plugs, but the problem didn't switch sides. I bit the bullet and removed the tank (a bitch of a job with the 'quick connect' fuel connector. Removed the left ignition coil and cleaned everything meticulously. The HT connector to the coil was a crimp/pressure connection to the brass connection piece. Soldered the connection instead of the pressure connection. I was also very careful to make sure that the connector to the coil was centralized and did actually connect to the spigot of the coil.
Motor seems to fire quicker. Took it for an 80Km run with no evidence of sooting at the muffler outlet, but, it probably needs a longer run than that to prove anything.
It may be a little while before I can do a longer run as I have just had a cataract removal operation today. As an aside, it is incredible the difference in brightness of daylight, TV screens etc. You just don't realize the degradation because it happens so gradually.
Will report when I have a chance to do some more Kilometers to prove the 'Fix' or not.
Cheers

Brian 

[SportsterDoc]

It may be a little while before I can do a longer run as I have just had a cataract removal operation today...

Hope the surgery was 100% successful!

[organfixsing]

Yes surgery very successful. Next step, the right eye.
As far as the fuelling goes, I checked everything in the spark department as far as I could and now it has put out some minute black particles on the rear of the muffler.
I suspect now that these specs are due to crap that was in the muffler from previous bad ignition being blown out the back.
Next step is to clean the rear end of the muffler again and see what happens. The crap on the end of the muffler is quite minimal.
Thanks everyone for your insights.
Cheers
Brian 

[organfixsing]

Finally I have solved? the problem of soot on the end of the left hand muffler.
I replaced the fuel lines in the process of putting in a metal fuel disconnect. As  was doing that, I realized that the fuel line to the LH injector seem to be only the inner of the proper fuel line (RH was OK).
Now that I have replaced all fuel lines, the problem appears to have disapeared. A suggestion I was given by a local motorbike place was that the fuel pipe was heating up and fuel vapourizing.
This fuel line was fitted to the bike when I bought it brand new in 2015? Maybe Luigi had a hangover that day?