stuartcj

THAT's why I didnt recognise the name !!... yes, here they are all just "Fireblades" (same as here they are all just "VFR's" - we just say 750-800 and VTEC ( or we use the year to tell the difference) ) . Lots of good options coming in here guys.... thanks again. My rear locking problem could of course be down to my tyre choice (BT020 which I always choose ). could be that harder compound in the centre doesn't quite suit my (relative) light weight. Yeah, you guys got it. 1st gen Fireblade was a 900, 2nd gen was a 929 and the 3rd gen was the 954. Over there, you call them all Fireblades, over here, it's the (cbr) 900RR, 929 and 954. Then the 1000RR after that, of course. And if you're a YamaKawaZuki fan, you call it the Honda Fireplace. :fing02:

yes, thanks ...i checked that out...$273 per disc !!! (Galfer.... at todays rate )...owwwwwchhh !!......

ignore that...I googled "954" and it's a fireblade that I dont think we saw here. :ohmy:

Great....that's a few things for me to start looking into and collecting. (quickly fill me in on what a "954" is though - maybe a different name over here perhaps )?

Thanks.... that's item 1 added to the list which I will order and try asap.

Apologies if this has been done before but I did search and couldn't find what I was looking for. Anyway.......... 9 years have passed since I bought my VFR and 32 years since I took up motorcycling (!) now, with a beautiful young daughter in the house I'm not quite so carefree as i once was...hey, I even considered selling the bike finally but... The thing is, I really like my bike - but I've never really been impressed with it's stopping ability. I'm sure the front could be better and for my liking the rear is just too easy to lock-up. I have rotors in decent (within wear rate) condition and the pads still have meat left on them. I swapped to SS braided disks years ago ( I always do) and the fluid is reasonably new too. In addition the front forks were custom re-valved and re-sprung a few years back so should be prone to dive less. I'm still not happy though. I guess that after lots of discussions here there must by now be some consensus on what works and what doesn't ? for this year I may well just buy some decent quality pads and flush the fluid though, but how can I "improve" for the long-term ? I'm sure that there must be some better calipers out there at a reasonable cost for my bike ('94 - 4th gen) and long-term would even consider swapping the whole front-end ( I understand that some years of VTR's fit)? Not really sure about what I can do with the rear though as in many respects that works just too well. I'm open to options without spending 1000's Thanks :laugh:

absolutely right there. It could have been a whole lot worse !

hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahhahah.............................. that's me laughing like an idiot as for the first time in about a year and a half there is a wonderful noise coming from my garage !! But of course, I am entitled to laugh like an idiot....because I AM one it seems (let me explain ) : My first job of the day was to dismantle the switchgear and look for anything untoward. Nothing there so it all went back together. That left only 1 test that I could try namely shorting the connections of the solenoid to send current directly to the starter and bypass everything else. Well, for some reason I really didn't fancy that idea. The sparks it creates are HUGE so I wanted an an alternative. My "cunning plan" was to connect the live crocodile clip of my booster pack to the terminal on the starter motor and carefully touch the frame somewhere with the other one. That way I would bypass absolutely EVERYTHING and prove once and for all that the starter motor was in fact working. So I did just that and................same. The engine would struggle to turn. That meant it definitely wasn't the battery, the solenoid, the switch, the wiring, the earth points or the starter cable. It didnt however prove anything with the starter motor. So... cunning plan number 2. I DO have another engine sitting there so I took the starter motor off, installed it onto the "spare" engine.and whhhheeeeee.....it spun like crazy ! So Definitely not the starter either it HAD to be the engine. Now...here is the idiot part. While watching the starter spin on the spare engine, because there is no engine cases on it the pivot/peg that the main starter gear sits on had no other pivot point on the other end so it twisted slightly, broke of a lump of metal on the crankcase and flew off. I was really rather annoyed by that as there went my last alternative (swapping that engine into my bike), but it DID get me thinking : So, I drained the oil and unbolted the engine case. While I was doing this something dropped into my oil bowl so I fished around with my fingers and found a thick washer/ shim that I recognised from picking up the pieces of the other engine as belonging to the pin that the starter gear sits on. At that moment, a scene replayed in my head of over a year ago when I took the engine case off to re-paint it. I remembered and noticed again that while this pivot/pin was in place on the spare engine when I tool my casing off of was firmly attached to the case. I then realised the whole problem. As this pin had come off with the case the washer/shim had nothing supporting it so had slipped out and into the bottom of the engine without me noticing. When I then hit the starter button, the gear moved sideways (more than it should have done and promptly jammed...hence not matter what I tried, I got a slight turn of the engine and then effectively seizure. Excited by this discovery I extracted the pin (with difficulty) from the engine case and assembled it again through the gear. I nervously hit the starter button...and it spun !!..I then rebolted the engine case, filled it up with oil, took a deep breath and..... STARTED IT !!!!!!!!!!!....................... I really didnt care that my whole garage was full of smoke.........it was alive and soundiing great !!!!!!!!! (maybe not according to my neighbours ) Incidentally, the "0.6" of a volt thing was it seems misleading as even now when I key the starter button it WILL momentarily show that on the meter as I guess that while the starter is drawing so much current it would show that as we are effectively opening the circuit. Even now when it starts immediately the meter still will drop to that value. I think that we would perhaps not notice it when the engine starts quickly. (Either that or it's a foible of this meter maybe ). So, that's what it was all along. 2 new starter motors, 2 new batteries, 1 wiring loom, 1 solenoid, and a spare engine later and all is well. It was simply down to a missing washer. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help, they were all valid and I tried them all. This one it seems was down to carelessness and bad luck. Still, I HAVE learned a lot and hopefully this tale will help others even if they don't have exactly the same cause. So case-closed......and I have a load of perfectly good spare parts in the garage. Thanks again. Stu (new photo's will follow...I promise )

Thanks...I also hope I find it soon !! Hope you aren't getting bored with this one but it has been a strange journey. There aren't many things left to try as pretty much all of the "usual suspects" have now been covered. lets just hope I get a resolution soon and the lessons learned are helpful to someone else in the future. :lurk:

yes....I lay in bed last night thinking that that would be where I would try next.

OK guys...now I am completely and utterly stumped with no idea where to try next. For an update :The "new" starter (ebay ) arrived this morning. I looks in great condition and I am assured that it works OK (my feeling is to trust that ). Straight after work I headed into the garage, installed the starter and bolted it all back together....now for the moment of truth................................. the same. 0.6 of a volt on the meter, engine hardly moves. while the starter was off I did take the opportunity to meter from the connection (which was hanging free ) to the engine - 12v so no apparent problem there. I really cant understand why I should be getting what appears to be pretty much an "open circuit" just when the starter is in place. The insulating washers all appear OK (on both starters ). The cable is in good order with no breaks (see previous posts ).I'm prepared to believe that the engine itself may be very very stiff after such a long period of running...and I DO have another on stand-by just in case.... but it still doesn't explain the "0.6" of a volt question. Suggestions of course will be gratefully received ! My wife is getting jumpy about me spending so much time in the garage of late ( I think she thinks I have another woman living in there )! Thanks

yes....checked again and I get pretty much an open circuit when I hit the button. I took the lead off the starter and metered the end to earth when the start button is pressed and still 13v so it appears to be within the starter. I also stripped the starter again ands checked all of the insulating washers and all seems good. I guess I'll just have to wait to see what happens with the replacement. Even if it works I'd be interested to find the fault with this one (at least that way I'll have a working spare ).

yes....the LED says drops from 13v to 0.6..... sounds too strange to be true? I'll check it again first thing in the morning and take a pic. ...got me thinking now about why that should be. I'll put my meter on it too as a second check.

OK...next installment : I have ordered from e-bay a clean looking starter off an FL (I believe that is will fit ok on an FR ) for £10 + £10 postage. I've also ordered parts from CMS in Holland to service the original starter. I have recently fitted a voltmeter to the fairing and noticed today that when I thumb the starter the voltage drops from 13 to 0.6 of a volt. is this significant ? What figure is anyone else showing ? Thanks