Hello interwebs. My name is Kevin, and I own an ’07 Yamaha V-Star (Virago… whatever). I have a couple problems with this motorcycle. It seems as though I am having fuel system issues. More than a couple times this bike will quit on me when I clearly have fuel remaining. When this happens it is drastically fast. So fast that I don’t get a chance to switch over to reserve and am forced to pull of in a neutral coast (unsafe feeling) and wait a second so that some fuel has a chance to trickle in to start her up again and quickly switch to reserve before it dies.
Issue two: during the end of this last riding season here in Northern Nevada, I had to drop the clutch to get the bike started a couple times. This is not a battery or starter problem from what I can tell. My conclusion at this point is to blame it all on a vacuum problem with the fuel system. My dad, mechanic, seems to think that fuel may be filling up in the cylinders while the bike is not in use making it too difficult for the starter to turn over the engine. When I drop the clutch the hypothesis is that the fuel clears from the cylinders and presto, motor on.
The vacuum problem may be the culprit in each of the infamous issues with my bike since fuel isn’t being used efficiently, it dies with even a quarter of a tank left, and there isn’t a strong enough vacuum to keep the fuel from leaking into the engine while not in use. Am I missing something? What are your thoughts?
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