wobblygong
Street Tracker
My recent 3 day ride to Wollongong and subsequent ride home on the last day in 40+degree temps took a toll on more than just the poor old rider.
The Bonnie has been running like a hairy old goat since returning home.
It's got to the point over the weekend just past that she's been coughing and farting and has completely died a few times. These engine cut-outs have occurred at the most inopportune times....in the middle of an intersection & in bumper to bumper traffic. The engine will start again using the starter but is usually accompanied by a loud backfire.
As my old pop used to say, "If an internal combustion engine cuts out, it'll be fuel or spark, son, fuel or spark."
With his advice lingering in my brain, I trawled thru past posts using the NBR Search facility and came up with a dozen or so old posts relating to backfires, engine cutting out, etc...you guessed it, the majority opinion, "fuel or spark (plug & coil)
Next step..into the garage, bike up on the jack, seat off, disconnect battery & remove tank.
Drain tank & remove petcock. A small amount of crap around the base of petcock top seal but both gauze filters, one on top of stem and one for reserve inlet, were clear. Clean petcock with compressed air and refit to tank. Disregard fuel supply as problem.
With tank off the bike, remove both sparkplugs, which I had only renewed 1000 kms ago, and, as one poster said in his post, "remove plugs and read". By this I assume he meant examine plug for any irregularity. The port side plug was found to be wet, not dull grey like the starboard side plug. I took this to mean that this plug was not sparking as it should. I also assumed that the "normal" plug meant the coil was OK.
2 spark plugs are a hell of a lot cheaper than one coil so shoot down the the bike shop and pick up 2 new NGK plugs. 10 bucks, no worries.
Install the new plugs, replace tank, reconnect battery and replace seat.
Refuel and give the old girl a kick in the guts.
Starts and runs fine. A short ride should be a more accurate test.
A 30 km ride with a few fast bursts and it's running like a top.
That plug must have cooked itself in the extreme heat.
A minor "troubleshooting" exercise you might say but the point of my little rant is to highlight the wealth of knowledge that is on tap amongst the members of the NBR forum. A quick search of past posts using the Search facility and it could mean the difference between finding a solution to a problem yourself or forking out hard earned bucks to a mechanic.
It might not always turnout the way I found it to, but it's worth a go.
Good hunting!
wobbly
The Bonnie has been running like a hairy old goat since returning home.
It's got to the point over the weekend just past that she's been coughing and farting and has completely died a few times. These engine cut-outs have occurred at the most inopportune times....in the middle of an intersection & in bumper to bumper traffic. The engine will start again using the starter but is usually accompanied by a loud backfire.
As my old pop used to say, "If an internal combustion engine cuts out, it'll be fuel or spark, son, fuel or spark."
With his advice lingering in my brain, I trawled thru past posts using the NBR Search facility and came up with a dozen or so old posts relating to backfires, engine cutting out, etc...you guessed it, the majority opinion, "fuel or spark (plug & coil)
Next step..into the garage, bike up on the jack, seat off, disconnect battery & remove tank.
Drain tank & remove petcock. A small amount of crap around the base of petcock top seal but both gauze filters, one on top of stem and one for reserve inlet, were clear. Clean petcock with compressed air and refit to tank. Disregard fuel supply as problem.
With tank off the bike, remove both sparkplugs, which I had only renewed 1000 kms ago, and, as one poster said in his post, "remove plugs and read". By this I assume he meant examine plug for any irregularity. The port side plug was found to be wet, not dull grey like the starboard side plug. I took this to mean that this plug was not sparking as it should. I also assumed that the "normal" plug meant the coil was OK.
2 spark plugs are a hell of a lot cheaper than one coil so shoot down the the bike shop and pick up 2 new NGK plugs. 10 bucks, no worries.
Install the new plugs, replace tank, reconnect battery and replace seat.
Refuel and give the old girl a kick in the guts.
Starts and runs fine. A short ride should be a more accurate test.
A 30 km ride with a few fast bursts and it's running like a top.
That plug must have cooked itself in the extreme heat.
A minor "troubleshooting" exercise you might say but the point of my little rant is to highlight the wealth of knowledge that is on tap amongst the members of the NBR forum. A quick search of past posts using the Search facility and it could mean the difference between finding a solution to a problem yourself or forking out hard earned bucks to a mechanic.
It might not always turnout the way I found it to, but it's worth a go.
Good hunting!
wobbly
