ER-5 back on the road

I've just had an email from the bloke I sold the ER-5 to.

It turns out that the problem was the fuel tap. It was open fully all
the time so it was running rich, flooding at low rpm and filling the
carbs and eventually the engine with fuel when stopped.

He replaced the tap assembly, made up a 'new' set of clocks from the
original broken ones and the shite old set I bought off of ebay,
changed the oil and filter, new rear tyre, proper front indicator and
it's working perfectly.

I've asked him why he thinks the air box filled with coolant and
engine had no oil in it but haven't had a reply yet. I'm glad he's
happy with his purchase!

 

Sounds like he is a touch short of clue as well, then. That bike was
*not* displaying the classic symptoms of "rich running" at Dover.

I was unaware that ER5s had "variable-flow" fuel taps. They're either
on, or off, ityf.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..80389../..21885.../..31432.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR'06 Points: 85 Miles: 413

 

SD wrote

and prime. Maybe it was turned to prime.

 

Ywbbut, what're the float valves for, then?
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..80389../..21885.../..31432.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR'06 Points: 85 Miles: 413

 

This is bollocks, I'm afraid. And if the carbs were over-filled, then
that's what their overflow pipes are for. You'd have fuel pissing out
onto the ground.

For the moment.

Same here. I think he'll find there are more problems to be overcome....

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

Not always - the fuel tap on my NS500 leaked whilst I was in the UK in
March.

The fuel managed to find it's way through the carbs, into the cylinders and
out into the lower expansion chambers.

There was none on the ground and no stains to show that any had escaped in
any other way.

That said, I think there's more to the story than just the fuel tap - my
problem was exacerbated by old floats/seals not doing their jobs properly
and I'd wager that the ER had a similar problem - after all if the
floats/seals were working they'd stop any more fuel entering the carbs once
full and so no 'surplus' fuel could trickle into the
carbs/inlets/cylinders....

Dave

 

That's a two-stroke, though, and fuel flows into the crankcase because
that's the way a two-stroke works. Fuel is really unlikely to do the
same on a four-stroke.

If you get a leaky tap the very worst that can happen is that it fills
up one or more cylinders. And on the rare occasions when that has
happened (The original CBX comes to mind here) what you get is a
hydraulic lock and then the engine *really* doesn't work.

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

Not into the crankcase, no, but ISTR Nick mentioning a hydraulic lock style
episode and I took his use of the word "engine" to mean "cylinder(s)". In
both cases the fuel is flowing through the carbs and then into whatever the
inlet for fuel to the engine is.

Like that.

See above.

Dave

 

Ah yes, right. OK then.

 

He just emailed me back and said that he filled it with petrol when he
first got it home, it works, and he's had no coolant problems.

I'm going to email him back with the following photos:

http://hayn.gotadsl.co.uk/bike/wee/1.jpg <-- That's oil, not petrol.

http://hayn.gotadsl.co.uk/bike/wee/2.jpg <-- Which was coming from
under the air box and was
mixed with coolant.

http://hayn.gotadsl.co.uk/bike/wee/5.jpg <-- And the breather was
full of lovely blue
coolant.

From reading this thread it seems that while it might be possible to
get fuel in the airbox it doesn't explain why it pissed out the
coolant into it (there's nothing else that blue in the bike) it
doesn't explain why it burned a hell of a lot of oil on the way to
Dover (11 miles.)

Those that were at Dover can probably clarify - that was oily looking
smoke coming out of the exhaust, wasn't it?

Whinging Courier and Prawn can probably clarify (as they came down and
assisted in un-seizing the engine) that a hell of a lot of shit came
out of the 'spark plug hole' when it was taken out.

If I'm following you right then I can confirm the fuel tap on the ER-5
has three settings: On, Prime, Reserve. There is no "off" setting.

The bike is never left on Prime.

 

Maybe someone mistook the ER-5 for a chemical toilet.

 

Piss in the carbs.

 

Interesting. In the interests of insanity, I'll go for a 'way out
there' diagnosis. The leaking fuel tap dumped petrol into the
cylinders, which leaked down past the rings, diluting the oil. This
thinned the oil enough to defeat the rings & valve seals, resulting in
the smoke & loss of oil.

Meanwhile, some numpty had got their pipes confused in the past &
connected the coolant tank overflow pipe to the airbox drain. When the
engine got very hot (a sunny day in traffic?), some coolant went out
the overflow pipe into the airbox, & then down the crank breather pipe.

Well I did say it was 'out there'...

Option B - the fuel in the cylinders generated enough pressure to break
the head gasket seal, which then re-sealed itself after the engine
cooled down. This is far less 'out there', as it's not unknown for head
gaskets to spring a leak then recover all by themselves.

--
Krusty.

http://www.muddystuff.co.uk
http://www.muddystuff.us
Off-road classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger (FOYRNB) '96 Tiger '79 Fantic 250

 

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT - EVENING

A NAKED LIGHTBULB SPARKS TO LIFE. It dangles from the ceiling of a
basement.

LIGHT, QUICK FOOTSTEPS AS ANNA moves down the stairs.

Anna is the rare combination of beauty and innocence. She stands in
the chilly basement in an elegant summer dress that outlines her
slender body. Her gentle eyes move across the empty room and come to
rest on a rack of wine bottles covering one entire wall.

She walks to the bottles. Her fingertips slide over the labels. She
stops when she finds just the right one. A tiny smile as she slides
it out.

Anna turns to leave. Stops. She stares at the shadowy basement. It's
an unsettling place. She stands very still and watches her breath
form a TINY CLOUD IN THE COLD AIR. She's visibly uncomfortable.

Anna moves for the staircase in a hurry. Each step faster than the
next. She climbs out of the basement in another burst of LIGHT, QUICK
FOOTSTEPS.

WE HEAR HER HIT THE LIGHT SWITCH.

THE LIGHTBULB DIES. DRIPPING BLACK DEVOURS THE ROOM.

CUT TO:

INT. DINING ROOM - EVENING

In which case he's got a bargain but I wanted to be rid of the bike
anyway so oh dear, what a shame, never mind.

 

He's replied back and has done 100 miles since her fixed it without
issue, it pulls 100mph+ and no leaks of any kind. He says it started
first time when he got it home and parked it up for half an hour, when
hte tried again the ending was locked up solid and there was a pool of
fuel under it. He took the left plug out and turned it over to find
the cylinder was full of fuel (Déjà vu...) The airbox had loads of
fuel in it too and was leaking on the floow. He says that's how he
knows the fuel tap was duff. He admits that he can't explain my
coolant loss other than the engine may have overheated due to
incorrect fueling and chucked it out. He's not lost any yet.

 

Displaying an interest in something isn't always a bad thing. He
bought it as a non runner and one can't buy something worse than that.