[fabio]

Right guys I've been on to a few people about this already but thought I'd put an auld post up anyway but thanks in advance to Larry and Andy Gaw who were good enough to be of assistance over the phone yesterday while I was stuck.

I took the Bandit for a spin yesterday up to the Burren seeing as it was a nice day and I'd never seen the place before. Nice warm and dry day too so all in all an excellent day was being had. On my way home I stopped in Ennis to fill up the tank so I could do a non-stopper back to Cork. After paying for the fuel I went out to the bike and it wouldn't start for me.

When I turned the key to "on" the neutral and oil pressure lights would come on as normal but when I hit the starter button there would be one single click heard from around the battery (starter relay?) and the oil and neutral lights would then go off (or fade really quickly). They would also fade off if I tried to turn on the lights without touching the starter button.

At this stage I knew I was pretty stuck so I asked another motorcyclist for a push and we tried that in first gear which didn't work so I retired for an ice-cream as he had to head away to work. After advice from Larry and Andy Gaw I pushed the Bandit up a hill near the petrol station, took a break up there, tried to bump start it on the flat in 2nd gear and it almost worked. Tried again as the hill declined more, got more speed and had it in 3rd gear this time and it fired up.

So I got it back to Cork but tried a few things out on the way home - the lights all worked fine, although I kept the revs up big time at traffic lights as I was afraid of it cutting out again. The right side indicator was flashing faster than usual at high revs, when I flashed the hi-beams the revs would drop by about 500rpm really quickly but then go back to normal again. And when coming through the Lee Tunnel I gave it a bit of a rev and it sounded like a semi-backfire coupled with a fair drop in revs. Strange.

Any takers on this one?

[andy gaw]

something I've never come across before, but you live an' learn.All down to a flahed battery no matter how the relay is performing....of course effin' genius here had to pull in a few hundred yards up the road , bike just spluttered and died....after 5 minutes of head scratching and "mental diagnostics" I copped that the petrol tap was turned off after I removed the seat to jump start Fabios bike.......theres a langer born every day

[EatinGTarmaC]

fabio, on 14 July 2011 - 02:11 PM, said:

Plus the battery only read 11.4 volts when I took it off the Optimate charger earlier on despite reading 13.4 volts yesterday. So a new battery is needed.

I said it already...

EatinGTarmaC, on 13 July 2011 - 10:11 PM, said:

When you're checking the voltage of the battery after charging, make sure you leave it to settle for a while before using your multimeter. It may have read 13.4 immediately after you took it off charging, but it will go down to around 12.5 (if the battery is good).

fabio, on 14 July 2011 - 02:11 PM, said:

Here's what we think is the culprit...marked in red...sidestand relay?

It's the sidestand/ignition-interlock relay. Using a 12v battery, apply +ve to pin 3 and -ve to pin 4 and check the continuity between 1 and 2. If there is no continuity then the relay is fupped.

[fabio]

True Eating...should have changed that battery immediately. Relay seems ok as the bike was running fine, electrically at least, earlier on.

However there is another issue now. I took it for a test ride and after a couple of miles the engine began to splutter as if running out of fuel. However it had plenty of fuel in the tank so it wasn't this and the engine never actually stopped but it did lose a good deal of power. In the higher RPM range it seemed fine but very low in the rev range it sounded very rough (like a vtwin in a way) and I could hear these pops in the exhaust, like mini-backfires. I could actually feel these with my left knee because that is where the airbox sits on the Bandit. As this was happening low down in the rev range acceleration wasn't great.

I stopped the bike, suspicious that it wasn't firing on all cylinders, and felt the downpipes. It seemed to me that cylinder 1's downpipe was not as hot as the rest of the downpipes so that would seem to confirm that that cylinder wasn't firing well but the mini-backfires would say it was still receiving fuel/air.

I checked to see if the spark-plug and lead to cylinder one was tight. It was a bit loose so I tightened up the plug, put the lead back on but I was still getting the mini-backfiring between 1000rpm and 2000rpm and a lack of power.

Must take the tank off tomorrow to check the HT leads and coils. Gonna check the spark too and all that...

[EatinGTarmaC]

fabio, on 14 July 2011 - 11:23 PM, said:

Must take the tank off tomorrow to check the HT leads and coils. Gonna check the spark too and all that...

Swap in one of the spark plugs from one of the other cylinders and see does the downpipe heat up. If it does, then the plug is the problem.

[petecourtney]

Pete's tip of the day:- treat one problem at a time.

If you're sure the battery's knackered, change that and try/test everything else afterwards. I've had a spluttery engine caused by a flat battery.

[EatinGTarmaC]

petecourtney, on 15 July 2011 - 08:25 PM, said:

Pete's tip of the day:- treat one problem at a time.

If you're sure the battery's knackered, change that and try/test everything else afterwards. I've had a spluttery engine caused by a flat battery.

Good point. A charging system should always be tested with a (known to be good) battery.

But now there's a new thread, Petey...

Linky.

[fabio]

The drama continues overleaf eh?! Thanks EatinGTarmaC for your advice on here by the way and everyone else and a big thanks to JamesOBrady as well for his advice!

[petecourtney]

EatinGTarmaC, on 15 July 2011 - 08:29 PM, said:

But now there's a new thread, Petey...

Linky.

Sheesh, I can't keep up with you guys!