engine dies

[fingram]

 Last year while on a road trip to ride the Dragon, my '99 valk's engine just died while tooling down the superslab. It acted as if I had ran out of gas. I pulled to she side of the road and checked everything I could think of to check and found nothing. After a few minutes the bike started and ran fine. This occured two more times on the return trip. Since then I have not had a problem until this past weekend when it occured again. Has this happened to anyone else; if not, does anybody have any ideas?
Thanks

[longrider]

Two things come to mind.  Most likely your vent hose has been kinked creating a vacuum in the tank. (happens when the tank is removed for air filter service). It takes awhile before it will show but occurs sooner when the fuel draw is faster as on the slab.     If you still have the OEM petcock the diaphragm or vac hose to it may have a leak causing the valve not to open fully when the vac drops off a bit.  Intake vac drops quite a bit at highway speed.

Warren

[Larry]

+1 on longrider's dx. Have you done anything with the tank in between when you first noticed it and the latest thing? Popping the fill valve will temporarily relieve the problem until fuel draw recreates enough suction to starve the motor again.  Sticking a plastic straw in the fill valve when you close it may help as a temporary fix as per Dan M. Good luck.

[Ken Tarver]

have you installed a fuel filter in the gas line? if so, and it is a metal housing filter, maybe it got hot enough to vapor lock

[Scott from FL, now in Maine]

Take something like a small wire tie and stick it under the cap and go riding. If it does not happen again it is confirmed you are getting vapor lock on your tank and need to fix the vent hose   

[fingram]

Thanks to all who offered help. No I have not added an inline filter and no I have not pulled the tank. I will, however, pull the tank and check the vac lines and petcock.
Thanks again.

[R J]

Thanks to all who offered help. No I have not added an inline filter and no I have not pulled the tank. I will, however, pull the tank and check the vac lines and petcock.
Thanks again.

There are some hoses that terminate on the bottom side of the engine.  1 of them has a cap, pull the cap and empty it, and run a wire tie up the one that has nothing on the bottom.    I had a little bee hive in mine once......  It stalled out also.  Don't remember how I found it now, was too long ago.

[Thunderbolt]

the main fuse under the right side cover.  If they get corroded from water etc. they will tend to lose connection and overheat.

[BudMan]

That was the problem with mine when she exhibited the same symptoms.  I had to rework the fuse holder to get a good contact and finally correct the problem for good. (So far at least!)