zx6r misbehaving

[kwakap]

Hi Guys, I am after some advice / reassurance.

My 98zx6RG1 is misbehaving, well, not running. Had a lovely 900 mile weekend down to the west country from kent to see some friends, got home, bike has not run since??????? farts and pops but will not run.

I am thinking it may be the plugs?

I have checked the fuel pump, pumps fine have not checked pressure but it seems to run ok and pump fuel, small cone filter on the carbs, all clear.

next stop the plugs, seems fair doesn't it??

Darren

[Mr.Pigdog]

Ello my friend--first you need to establish if its spark,compression or a fuelling issue.Try squirting something combustible down the inlets to see if it gets some life in it,or whip the plugs out and see they are giving a good spark on each?i'm not aware of any inherent problems with them--what were the circumstances it failed in?ie did it fart and splutter as you were riding it or after its been parked up a while?was it raining etc?

[kwakap]

Ello my friend--first you need to establish if its spark,compression or a fuelling issue.Try squirting something combustible down the inlets to see if it gets some life in it,or whip the plugs out and see they are giving a good spark on each?i'm not aware of any inherent problems with them--what were the circumstances it failed in?ie did it fart and splutter as you were riding it or after its been parked up a while?was it raining etc?

Hi and thanks for the reply, Not sure where to go now, but this is what has happened.

I managed to run it out of fuel on the way into Bristol (about 100 yards on the run uphill to the petrol station!!!), but i filled it up and it ran fine after that. i have changed the plugs, charged the battery and cleaned the air filter this weekend but to no joy. Next stop i guess is the coils, get out the manual and the multimeter and check them maybe pop on some spare carbs i have. hope it gets better MOT due 1st of next month!

[lorenzo]

First things first: check your fuses. It's easy and sometimes is the problem. Then the thing to do would be to see if you've actually got a spark there. Whip one of the plugs out, stick it back in the HT lead and hold it about 5mm away from the side of your engine, ideally in a fairly dark place. Then turn the bike over on the starter, see if you've got nice blue flashes there. Orange isn't ideal, but it at least shows you've got something.

The thing is though, with the bike having run out of fuel I'd have my money on an issue with something in the fuel system: it's too much of a coincidence to ignore. Make sure you've got fuel in the fuel filter (checking for a blocked strainer in the tank: unlikely), make sure you've got fuel coming out of the fuel filter (again, unlikely to have a fuel filter totally blocked, especially if it ran after running out), and then you're looking at blocked carbs. To eliminate all of these bits, see if it'll start on a can of easy start. This'll be like the engine's getting fuel for about 5 seconds, which is enough to work out if it's fuelling or spark related. If it, by some miracle, runs fine once it's started on the easy start and is being revved up, but doesn't tick over or like to do much up to about 2500 rpm then you've got blocked idle jets, which is sort of likely, given that you've run it right down to the bottom of the tank and the bottom of the floats in the carbs.

Finaly thing if it has a spark but doesn't seem to want to be putting much fuel out into the carbs, is the fuel pump relay is cream crackered. These are hellishly expensive for what they are, and are not unkn own for them to go wrong. They're the same on my ZX7R and that died when the bike had been sat for a little while. The easy way is to take bypass the relay which means the fuel pump is running at all times (the fuel pump is rigged so it only pumps each time there's a spark, which is a bummer if you run out of fuel and have to refill the carbs again). I suspect that you having run out and then had to refill the carbs may have proved a bit too much for your relay. I'll take a look at my bike as I've marked which two cables I need to bridge to get the pump running. I only did it by trial and error with a paper clip in the socket where the relay was, it's easy to suss it out as the fuel pump makes quite a buzzing sound, perhaps you should give it a go, it's easy enough.

[kwakap]

First things first: check your fuses. It's easy and sometimes is the problem. Then the thing to do would be to see if you've actually got a spark there. Whip one of the plugs out, stick it back in the HT lead and hold it about 5mm away from the side of your engine, ideally in a fairly dark place. Then turn the bike over on the starter, see if you've got nice blue flashes there. Orange isn't ideal, but it at least shows you've got something.

The thing is though, with the bike having run out of fuel I'd have my money on an issue with something in the fuel system: it's too much of a coincidence to ignore. Make sure you've got fuel in the fuel filter (checking for a blocked strainer in the tank: unlikely), make sure you've got fuel coming out of the fuel filter (again, unlikely to have a fuel filter totally blocked, especially if it ran after running out), and then you're looking at blocked carbs. To eliminate all of these bits, see if it'll start on a can of easy start. This'll be like the engine's getting fuel for about 5 seconds, which is enough to work out if it's fuelling or spark related. If it, by some miracle, runs fine once it's started on the easy start and is being revved up, but doesn't tick over or like to do much up to about 2500 rpm then you've got blocked idle jets, which is sort of likely, given that you've run it right down to the bottom of the tank and the bottom of the floats in the carbs.

Finaly thing if it has a spark but doesn't seem to want to be putting much fuel out into the carbs, is the fuel pump relay is cream crackered. These are hellishly expensive for what they are, and are not unkn own for them to go wrong. They're the same on my ZX7R and that died when the bike had been sat for a little while. The easy way is to take bypass the relay which means the fuel pump is running at all times (the fuel pump is rigged so it only pumps each time there's a spark, which is a bummer if you run out of fuel and have to refill the carbs again). I suspect that you having run out and then had to refill the carbs may have proved a bit too much for your relay. I'll take a look at my bike as I've marked which two cables I need to bridge to get the pump running. I only did it by trial and error with a paper clip in the socket where the relay was, it's easy to suss it out as the fuel pump makes quite a buzzing sound, perhaps you should give it a go, it's easy enough.

didn't intend to quote but ho hum........................

thanks for the help.. the pump only running when it sparks caused a headache to begin with but its sorted now. during the general checking and facking about, i noticed a leak from one of the carbs (the cooling connection) so had to swap the carbs over to the spare set, filled them with fuel, hey presto started and has been fine since. so thnks for the help. off to rag it...

[Mr.Pigdog]

It's very common for the inline coolant filter to get blocked on these restricting the flow and not helping the old carb icing issues.Follow that small coolant line to a opaque filter and pull the inner mesh out-make sure its freeflowing.I doubt if this would cause a misfire though-so maybe time to whip off the float bowls and check it out