Motorcycle Repair: honda vt1100 shadow spirit, honda vt1100 shadow, fuel petcock

Question
Hello Randy   i was riding 1999 1100 shadow today and bike was running great. I pulled up to stop light thought i smelled gasoline.  i pulled over to the station and topped off tank. i didnt see anything leaking bike then ran rough.  it was like it was on one cylinder.  i changed out the plugs didnt do any better just backfired more.  any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Jeff, It sounds like your crankcase has become fuel fouled. Drain your engine oil and replace it. One reason this might have happened is a faulty Fuel Petcock. If the petcock is vacuum operated it is designed to stop the flow of fuel when the engine is turned off. If the petcock fails, it will continue to flow fuel when the engine is off and fill the crankcase up with fuel. The fuel saturated oil will then blow up past the rings, wash out the cylinders and cause a loss of compression. I am speculating of course, your bike may not even have a petcock??. Still I would drain the oil and smell it..it is fuel fouled?? If so I would focus on diagnosing why the fuel is getting into my crankcase.

hope this was helpful

    randy