I have just got my bike out after winter, did an oil change and pumped the tyres up, usual stuff. Took it out for a ride and it was running fine, but after 15-20 mins I noticed it wasn't as smooth and when I slowed for a roundabout it feel very rough and was sounding more like a twin. Believe its misfiring but not sure why. I didn't get an FI light or anything. Topped up with fresh fuel but no change still seems rough, idling in the garage earlier seems to keep coughing so intermittently misfiring. I have started to strip it down to check the plugs but wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions? had problems like this before? I have gotten to this state with the view to check the plugs and coils but have gotten stuck. I have removed the airbox but cant seem to get the inlet past the throttle cables, am I going about this the right way?
Stale fuel has probably fouled one of the plugs!Fuel just isnt as good as it use to be as four guys I know have had this problem this year already.I thankfully dont have this problem as I ride year round.
I started putting in the 97 Ron fuel in mine reasons being fuel has gone down in price plus although the bike drinks it ,it's perhaps only the cost of a crappy same as bike mag divided into four runs out.
Im down near Fareham I'll take the plugs out and clean them up. Any ideas on how to get to them? not sure how to take the airbox intake piece out.
You kind off roll the airbox up towards the front tyre if I remember correctly I think if you pull the radiator to one side you may be able to get to the plugs that way too (through front)
Yeah just seen the workshop manual (in another thread) and that's the way it goes so will look at moving the rad this morning.
I never bother cleaning plugs as most of the time you just contaminate the electrode, also you will find its such a mission to replace them the last thing you want is to do it all over again, my advice would be just buy a new set and replace them, Id say 90% that it will resolve the problem, had one only last month with much the same, new plugs, sorted. Depending on how you store fuel the shelf life is over a year, winter lay up is nothing to worry about unless you have a damp and wet garage with risk of condensation in the tank etc.
I was planning to just replace them if I'm honest as its just such a nightmare to get to them. I may replace the coils to but that's a fair expense. The bike spent most of winter outside under a cover and was actually blown over during a storm which was a nightmare, only recently got a garage to store it in. What's the best way to drain the tank? Might be worth doing that as well to rule out as much as possible.
In that case Id remove the fuel cell while your at it, you could remove the pump etc and check it out, also with the pump out its easy to see in the tank.
Top Tip* ( well maybe not a TOP tip but one worth thinking about!) Rough running, misfires are really tuff to sort out however I find that if you compare the temp of each exhaust header to each other it often points you to the cylinder that's running rough, the little hand held lazer temp tools are cheap as chips and worth their weight in gold.
I've heard a good way to see which cylinder is running rough is to spray each header with WD40 and that will show good signs. I've put rough running down to charging system failing before.
Well it probably wasn't the cheapest way to fix it but it appears to have worked. Replaced all the spark plugs and stick coils, then siphoned out as much fuel as I could and added fresh, short test run went well so hopefully that's the last of the issues.
