What's in your throttle body?

[Moose]

Riding the R1200RT '06 last Sunday it began to experience throttle control issues, ie. surging and would not idle at stop. I had to keep a constant high throttle setting at stop. During gear shifts the throttle had to be kept at high RPM. Made it home OK, and began to research the issues the next day. All the connections to the throttle were in place, ie. hoses and throttle body cable tension seemed good. But it sure ran like crap. Off to the dealership. Verdict: plastic bag ingested into air-box that caused the air filter to be sucked down into the air-box, thereby letting the plastic bag enter the throttle body. Two large clumps of burned plastic were found at the base of the throttle body which was stuck full open. It appears no part of the bag entered the cylinder via the intake valves, but the plastic clumps were right next to the intake valves. Throttle body and intake manifold cleaned, bike runs silky smooth now.
Never saw the plastic bag. Well, I've now identified them as a major threat.

[Donson]

FOD, Moose....:patch:

[DarthRider]

You sure it wasn't something made of latex?:028:

[Moose]

FOD for sure Donson. Latex, that explains a lot of things!!

[vintagemxr]

Heck, if you'd been on one of Donon's Harleys it would have just let out a big ol' BUUURRRRP. hocked up the plastic bag, and kept running fine. :biggrinbandit:

the other Doug

[Sir Limpsalot]

Interesting Moose. I've not come accross anything exactly like that before.

Once, at the dealership I worked for, a lad bought in a bike he said ran slowly and lost power. It ran fine in the shop, but out on road test test the faster you went the slower it got - if you follow me. Much headscratching later it transpired that, at speed, the "emergency" lightweight rain pants he carried under the seat were being sucked accross the air intake..

Years later I went to a car that ran like a turd. Turns out the shop rag/dipstick wiper that the owner tucked "safely" under the hood (how's my 'merican coming along?) had, yes, got sucked into the air filter intake. It was a bastard to find, because the damn thing had blocked the inlet tube but couldn't be seen from either inside or outside..

[Jaythro]

Once, at the dealership I worked for, a lad bought in a bike he said ran slowly and lost power. It ran fine in the shop, but out on road test test the faster you went the slower it got - if you follow me. Much headscratching later it transpired that, at speed, the "emergency" lightweight rain pants he carried under the seat were being sucked accross the air intake..

Yup I had that too Si a bloke I worked with had a MoonZipper and he whinged about it running like a bag of pooh till I got fed up and said right tell me everything

Transpired it ran crap all the time EXCEPT when it was raining Yup I lifted the saddle and there were the Rain pants and later I also found some eejit had also put the baffle in back to front!

[Arby]

Thanks for posting that, Moose. It's good information, it could happen to any of us.

Si and Jay, I appreciate your input, too. It's all good info.

RB

[Donson]

When I lived in Eagar, Az, I was working in Show Low, just a very few miles from Deans place. I left for work early one morning , to drive the 50 miles in to work.
It was snowing, as usual, and I was driving My 82 Ford Ranger, 4wd. As I drove, I began to lose power,gradually. Finally as I neared the highest point of My trip, I had to pull off the road.
I couldnt imagine what was wrong. I raised the hood and pulled the cover off the air cleaner. The filter was completly encased in ice! Carburetor ice. Not unusual on an airplane, but on a truck?
The fresh air snorkle was ingesting the fluffy snow as it fell, and gradually covering the whole filter. I tossed the filter in the bed of the truck and continued on to work.:patch:

[Deans BMW]

Moose, now I have heard everything................Almost.

[DarthRider]

Moose, I'm glad you got that sorted and I guess we've all added that to our mental check-list of engine problems/fixes. Who'da thunk it?

Here's one kinda-sorta related that almost had fatal consequences. It involved one of those damn plastic bags too.
This happened to a member of our Fort Worth/Dallas classic bike club, the NTNOA, on a Norton I believe.

If you take Loop 635 clockwise around Dallas, one of the exits in the NW part feeds a major artery, can't recall which one. It is very fast, narrow, tight merging traffic, outdated & dangerous.
You exit to the left into a blind concrete sided feeder that funnels 2 lanes down to one, then feeds the major artery. There is always very heavy traffic there.

As this guy entered the blind concrete channel, he was to the left, the other merging lane was coming from his right. Traffic was moving at about 60.
All at once the traffic-induced wind whipped a bag up and it immediately wrapped around & plastered itself to his helmet & face-shield. Full panic and virtually blind. He started pulling & tearing at it but it was stuck and he couldn't get it off. He could hear fast moving traffic sounds from his right, then a long blast from a car horn, then beneath the plastic saw a car 2 feet from him, he had drifted into the wrong lane.
This was all still the the blind, tight left curve part.
He instinctively swerved left to avoid the car then saw his wheels were 6 inches from the concrete curve, 2 ft. from the concrete wall. He had no idea what was ahead, behind or to his right and his feeder lane was about to dump out into an even faster multi-lane artery.
He really panicked and in one last desperate move, let go the bars, reached up with both hands and grabbed, pulled & shredded the bag partially away from his face shield. It all ended up down around his neck.
He said he'd never been so scared in his life. I guess not.

Anyway, just another hazard for us to be aware of, especially in the cities where those bags are everywhere.
And another reason to avoid cities, freeways, cars...and plastic bags!

[Moose]

Darth, that is one colorful rider tale! And I thought plastic bags were a threat only to marine life in the middle of the ocean. Didn't realize we riders have something in common with whales, dolphins and other ocean mammals. Who knew?

[DarthRider]

Darth, that is one colorful rider tale! And I thought plastic bags were a threat only to marine life in the middle of the ocean. Didn't realize we riders have something in common with whales, dolphins and other ocean mammals. Who knew?
I guess that happened 12-13 years ago. There have been very few stories that shook me like that one did at the time.
I think we have to believe down deep that all accidents are avoidable if we are careful-skillfull-aware-trained-experienced enough, if we are going to have any peace of mind. But even deeper down we know that this is virtually true but not absolutely true. Those are the ones that get my attention.
Just try ti imagine how this might have been avoidable, I can't. It seems it was only barely survivable.