Continuing - So what did you do to your bike today...?

[Hooli]

All I remember was he was/is in SW froggyland.

[Will14]

Well another possible twist this evening, came home from work and tried the bike, turned over fired then died instantly  before trying again I thought to disconnect the PC3, that done tried to start again and she fired up instantly

The norm has been if she didn't run at the first push of the button it was pretty much always the fourth attempt before she would run, disconnecting the PC3 has changed that possibly, will leave it disconnected and try again from cold tomorrow and see what happens  the big question then will be is the PC3 is on its way out, or is it the map that I had done last summer is to blame, if she starts and runs without the PC3 for a few days I will try a generic map and go from there, fingers crossed   

Cheers

Well day three with the PC3 disconnected & all three days she has fired and run first push of the button, cold start operating as it should and bike seemingly idling better without the PC, or maybe that's just me telling myself it is 

@gsxbarmy thanks Dave, I decided to email Dynojet UK to see what they thought, fair play they emailed straight back & wanted me to send them a copy of the custom map to interrogate, did that last night and they were back in touch today & said they can't find a problem with the map but have asked for more info out of the PC3, which I have sent them tonight. Pretty good customer service considering the PC is a good few years old and well out of warranty

I think the next thing will be asking me to send in the unit to be tested as you say, I'm sure someone else has told me about this & they ended up buying a new PC with a bit of a trade in deal, hopefully it doesn't come to that but I will be happy to just get things sorted

I have also added a new earth from the battery to chassis last year, so have that angle covered thanks

@Hooli were you referring to the main earth lead or the PC3 earth? Depending on what Dynojet come back with, I guess I could try and add a second earth to the PC3 and see if that improves things?

Thank you for you input, it's much appreciated

Pete

[gsxbarmy]

Lets hope that one or a combination of things sorts your problem out Pete. Dynojet provide a cracking service if you need it and it does sound like you are underway in determining the fix / solution.

[Hooli]

Yeah I was referring to the earth lead from the PC3 rather than the bike's earth. But if you're connecting to the PC3 to get info from it, then it probably isn't that.

[Hooli]

I fitted the new TPS this morning, balanced the throttles and set the TPS. Then as it's such lovely weather out there I took it for a short test run 

Well it's so smooth it's almost boring again, so I think it's fixed. No more stutter at slight throttle, over a small range of throttle movement. I'll find out about MPG when it's a nicer day. That's the second TPS I've worn out & the second one that's passed the tests in the manual when faulty...

[mlivkovich]

@Hooli how did you find out it's faulty when manual test says its ok?

[Hooli]

I could cause the stuttering by moving the throttle to exactly the same position everytime. About 5mm off closed I think it was, didn't matter what speed I was doing, or what gear, but as soon as I gave it that much throttle it stuttered. It did the same accelerating or slowing, the only thing that was always the same when the fault occurred was the throttle position.

To prove a point I moved the TPS & that meant that the stuttering occurred at a slightly different throttle position, but at the same position of the TPS.

I hope that's clear, it's much easier to do than describe.

[KiwiCol]

Yep, I understand what you did, very good diagnosis and problem solving mate!

[Hooli]

Helps I'd done it once before about 80k miles ago Col!

Of course it took it a while to remember that...

[grog]

Great result, well thought out.

[Hooli]

I had to play bike Tetris today to get a fourth bike in the garage. A mate dropped hers off as I'd offered to sort it's running problem. It was fun to do without scratching anything and I somehow still got past it to shut the door afterwards.

Her Z750 had a horrible misfire at low speed, trying to pull away meant it always dropped onto two cylinders & stalled if you weren't ready for it. It was a right bugger to get apart, I'm sure the tank had never been off since new 11 years ago so the 'easy realise' clips on the fuel line weren't, then the damn bike is designed to annoy you. Who puts the thermostat in it's own housing between the frame tubes blocking all access to the inner plugs? Lots of swearing, levering pipes & looms to the side gives just enough room to get extensions and flexi joints in to get to the plugs. The same was needed to get the coils that sit on the plugs out & back in.

There's a pic of how to get to no3 plug..

Anyway, plugs with a gap of about 1.6mm that should be half that, water in the inner plug wells & corrosion on the plug tops along with the inside of the coils explains the issues. Put it all back together, took it out & it runs lovely now, it's gone from a bike that misfired at 65mph in 5th to one that'll go down to 22mph in 5th and pull smoothly back up to speed.

It's now staying for a month or so, she's off to Oz for three weeks on Tues & I didn't expect it to nearly as easy to fix.

[Mick_J]

I understand your frustration Hooli.
The lad that used to live opposite had his bike blown over last year and the stealer wanted £2k to make it roadworthy or £3.5k to make it look new so he asked me to do it.  Who ever works in the Kawasaki design team needs to visit one of the other manufacturers.  His bike is a 650 ninja and when it fell it trashed the left side of the fairing, bent the handlebar and put a tiny dent in the tank.  I also found the top of the fairing was cracked and a lug broken off (which the stealer had not noticed so the bill would have been about £600 more) but I was able to weld that in place.
The fairing was a pain to remove and Kawasaki  had wired the built in indicator to a captive cable attached to the fairing inner (and here's the daft bit) the plug from the indicator went to the captive socket which was wired to the bikes harness.  So to remove it I had to remove the captive part of the socket from the fairing before I could unplug the indicator before I could remove the fairing, why not have the plug within the loom and the captive socket as part of the fairing and indicator, nuts.  Then I had to replace a part of the 3 piece handlebar but first I had to remove the bar-end weight.  Everyone else welds a washer into the end of the bar and screws the bar end into it, not Kawasaki.  The bar-end is screwed into a long steel rod with rubber rings at both ends, these rubber rings create an interference fit withing the bar and are retained by two hooks which hook into two holes drilled through the bar, it was a real bastard to line up straight.  While I was fixing a few other bits and pieces I noticed his side stand was a little still so I removed it to clean and re grease it and found another daft bit of design.  On the 14 the side stand just presses a switch when it's retracted, not Kawasaki, they have a peg that sticks out of the back of the side stand, this peg located into a sliding slot that rocks the switch on or off, again over complicated.  Also to remove and replace the stand the fuckin switch has to be removed to gain access to the retaining nut on the back of the stand bolt.  I just hope he doesn't break it again.

[Hooli]

The worst bit of it was the coil for No3, I had to force it more than i was comfy with to get it out & worse to put it back. Due to the frame tubes it was impossible to put in straight. They appear to be designed by someone who's never worked on a bike before. Still with the mileage she tends to do the plugs will last years now they're cleaned & gapped so not my issue for a while.

[Hooli]

I had a day off work today and it was dry!  Drafty but dry so off I went on the 14 to test it properly after fitting the new TPS. It, along with all the other stuff lately, appears to have fixed the damn thing finally! The best I've had from full to two bars remaining for years is 117miles when ridden carefully, today I got 135miles before it started to flicker between 2 & 3 bars. That should mean near 170 miles before reserve, which is right back to how good it was 150k ago fresh from Grumpy's dyno.

I'm happy with that & she's riding damn sweet again too. Of course they always want more & I've noticed today the front tyre is borderline but I was planning a new pair on it in a month or so anyway. Another 260miles & she's due her 164k service too.

Anyone want to buy a Triumph Sprint GT? I'm seriously considering selling it as it's just not me, I don't need it now my 14 is back to full health either.

[VladTepes]

Anyone want to buy a Triumph Sprint GT?

for GBP500 and free shipping to Australia?
Still no.