Sick KLR650

Ok so I got rid of the blade and bought a KLR on the rebound. 1997 5000
miles not so bad nick (except previous owner attacked it with spray paint)

Until today I had only ridden it a couple of times with a max of around 10
miles.

I took it into work this morning which is approx 40 miles and on the way in
it spluttered a few times, just like running out of fuel, only with a full
tank.

On the way home things wee much worse; it was farting from the exhaust under
load and lurching about all over the place. Things seemed to improve on a
neutral throttle, but the symptoms were still there.

Once it cut out with the clutch in, but it restarted ok and continued to
struggle onward.

Anybody any idea what could be the problem? Even with these symptoms it
would still accelerate albeit erratically.

Oh well, so much for *bargain bikes*

 

Sidestand or clutch ignition cut-out? Notorious for giving grief,
especially on Kawasakis.

 

What's the state of the battery? The battery requires a minimum charge
to make the bike run properly so it's worth looking at that first.

Of course, if it is the battery you then have to determine has it just
failed through age, or was there another reason that caused it's demise?

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

Blocked breather in the petrol filler cap?

 

I thought of that, tried opening the cap and riding off, no improvement.

I thought it may be overheating, seems a little better when left to cool a
little.

Just doesn't *seem* like a dodgy connection, although Ill bypass the
switches and see how I get on.

I thought something to do with the fuelling or maybe dodgy spark plug (nice
and easy to sort).
Strange thing is it didn't do it last night at all, only after this longer
ride today

Well I have plenty to be looking at, thanks guys.

 

Are you sure about this ???

As long as the alternator is working then that should be enough to run
the engine without a problem
The battery is only used for starting the engine and running lights
etc when the engine is not running

 

Yes, thanks.

I had a GPX600R fail on me purely to the fact that the battery was
unable to hold a decent enough charge.

I also 'rescued' a broken down Kawasaki owner not so long after with
the same problem I had experienced, took him to the bike shop to buy a
new battery and off he went.

Unless you have a couple of cells that have failed, and the battery is
unable to hold the required charge to make the bike run?

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

If the regulator has a heatsink )

<looks sternly at a CBR600 rectifier>

Alternatively, touch the battery and go <ow, ow> as it is a bit hot ;o)

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

If you have totally failed cells, then the battery doesn't actually make
any electrical connection across the terminals and then nothing will
make it go.

Only time I've known duff batteries bring bikes to a complete halt is if
there isn't enough juice to power a fuel injection system. Sometimes a
jump-start is necessary to get bikes running, but once running they
usually keep doing so.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, rda amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

1) Shit in the tank
2) Shit in the carbs.

I had exactly the same symptoms as those on a bike I bought recently. A
good carb clean and a fuel filter has sorted it.

 

The side stand cut out on the Zephyr is very different to the CB500. On
that, if you were in gear and dropped the stand it cut out. On the Zephyr,
it sort of stalls if you try to pull away with the stand down. When I got
the Zephyr I thiught the cut out had been disconnected as it didn't
immediately kill the engine.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

That's odd - the TS250 was running quite happily while the battery was
on the bench charging.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SE-V/CBR1100XX-X/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..75939.../...19198.../..30340.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 PM#5 WG*
'^' RBR Clues: 24 Pts: 400 Miles: 1589

 

That's what I thought, except that when the TS50 lunched it's reg / rec,
once the (newly charged) battery had shot it's load, the bike just stopped,
refusing to restart until the battery was recharged.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

Bloody odd

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

rda fumbled, fiddled and fingered:

My F650 did that a few months back, as soon as I removed the noddy metal
shrouded spark plug caps all was normal again.

--
Steve Parry
K100RS SE & F650
and a 520i SE Touring for comfort [temporarily scarred]

(not forgetting the SK90PY)

http://www.gwynfryn.co.uk

 

This bit could be caused by a very dirty air filter - has it been overfilled
with oil? If so it will have breathed the extra into the airbox.

John

 

Differences in design. The TS might have a separate stator coil for
ignition only or it might simply have a PM alternator and reg/rec which
will tolerate batteryless running.

 

This would make me wary.

 

AOL, anything with a non-standard paint job shouts binned to me and a
home brew pint job shouts binned and bodged.

 

mups fumbled, fiddled and fingered:

Aye some of those "home brew pints" are like rats piss

--
Steve Parry
K100RS SE & F650
and a 520i SE Touring for comfort [temporarily scarred]

(not forgetting the SK90PY)

http://www.gwynfryn.co.uk