Help! What happening to my bike?

[chunk166]

For some reason my bike (02 Foxeye) has developed a stutter/misfire below 3,000 rpm   but its an intermittent so i'm not sure if its the coils playing up or a plug that might be on its way out? I did have a similar problem 10 days ago when we had heavy rain but surly if it was water it would have dried out by now unless there's water in my tank???? I am going to order a set of plugs just to be on the safe side,what do you guys reckon?


Cheers in advance for any replies 


Ray

[AdieR]

If its started with heavy rain / wet weather, it's probably worth going through electrical / ignition systems looking for signs of water ingress and drying them out as required. Also worth checking for poor earths (rust) while you're at it.

As for water in the tank, has it had fuel in the last 10 days?

[chunk166]

Cheers AideR,filled it up twice! could the water be sitting in the float bowls! I will have a look at the connectors etc.. Just seems strange that it happens below 3.000rpm??

[His Dudeness]

could be water getting into the spark plug caps. that effect low revs but goes away at higher revs. pull them off and take the rubber boot off and see if theres any water in them

[chunk166]

will check that too,cheers 

[caretaker]

one thing i always do if i have a misfire/splutter is to fire up the bike/car in pitch darkness. its amazing how you can see a short sparking away which you would never spot in daylight.

[AdieR]

Have you an inline fuel filter fitted?

If it's happening below 3krpm, it may also be worth checking the pilot jets in your carbs.

You say its intermittent; is it truly intermittent, or is there any pattern at all (eg., cold / hot etc)?
Does it start / run ok from cold? Has it had any recent work (is it possible something has been disturbed during an unrelated job)?

[chunk166]

i think there is an inline filter,not checked that,funny you should say! it does seem to get worse the hotter the bike gets also struggles to start when the weather is quite warm too,the fan cut in for the first time the other day? Stupid question to ask? but would it happen if there's not enough water in the cooling system??, no work has been done on it since i've had it only ridden & cleaned??

[AdieR]

Does it happen only under load (ie when riding), or does it splutter when being revved while standing?

Can't see why a lack of water / coolant would cause it to be honest.

[chunk166]

under load, accelerating in all gears except 1st, possibly because i'm going straight up the rev range!,what i might do tomorrow is drain the float bowls to see if any crap comes out of them???

[bikemad62]

Sounds like something i had a while ago. I called it tractor mode. Basically it would drop a cylinder at low revs not pull and sound like a massey fergusson at idle. It turned out to be no 2 plug cap the insulative qualities of the outer coating had failed. What gave it away was i made the bike wet pushed it in the garage started the bike up. lo and behold tractor mode. I touched the cap got zapped after recovering i turned off the lights. only to see a pretty light show coming out of the side of the cap. got a new cap (NGK) not original never done it since. For reference genuine cap are around £ 40 per cap NGK are between £6 And £10 depending on where you shop. Hope this helps.

[chunk166]

i did have a problem a little while ago,i got caught in a downpour & she started to run bad then,but after a day it was good again so it could be the caps???

[limax2]

If you need it the NGK cap part number is SD05F and it is a straight one. There is an NGK angled cap but according to somewhere on this site it is to short for the FZS600.
I would have a look to make sure the cold start plunger things on the carbs are all sliding in freely. By that I mean the things that move at the carb end when you operate the so called choke lever.
The fan on these doesn't usually cut in unless you are stationery for quite a while so I would check the coolant level anyway. Both at the thermostat housing and the plastic tank.

[chunk166]

Thanks for the part number,i was looking to see which one would fit  . would i need to fit the rubber boot of the old plug caps!!!!

[limax2]

Not fitted them myself, but I don't think you use the rubber boot from the original cap. Probably be obvious when you get the NGK cap.

[red98]

yes thats right...its the straight one you need the angled one is indeed too short...the new caps come with the rubber boots top and bottom 

[chunk166]

Thanks for all your replies,I changed the plug caps this morning & just on starting & tick over is seems to idle more steady now  . Gonna take her for a gentle leading to a bit of a caning ride    & will let you know how things went.

[chunk166]

Wow  , what a difference changing the plug caps have made! My bike feels smoother,more responsive & something i've never been able to do is to accelerate in 6th gear from 1500rpm with no hesitation or complaint   


Thank you  [size=78%] [/size]

[limax2]

Good result then  . Maybe it's time I fitted some myself  .