bdouvill

@zupatun I had difficulties to start the bike for 3 weeks now. But it started. I described those symptoms in the first post. And by searching for the problem, I accidentally let the petcock fully open on Sunday night (Nov 11th). I asked for help on Monday during the day (the 12th). Symptoms were only difficult start and weird behavior of my charger connector. On Monday night, I noticed the gas smell and found I let the petcock opened and closed it. I also saw gas contaminated the oil but did not think some could have stayed in the cylinders... At that point, it was not possible to start the bike (only click on the relay) nor jump start it. That would be normal if there's plenty of fuel still in the cylinders. On Tuesday afternoon (the 13th), so approximately 20 hours after I closed the petcock, I changed the oil for new oil and put a brand new battery. Same (new) symptoms: relay clicks (this is when I made the video )and no jump start possible. At this point, we might expect all fuel to have gone into the oil and no more in the cylinders but there might be still some gas inside the cylinders. Let's hope that did not contaminate the fresh oil. Today (14th), I believe I killed the relay (RIP) but I have another one that I will bring tomorrow and saw that starter is running when disconnected from the engine (when bypassing the relay). Tomorrow, I'll remove the spark plugs and see if with a new relay (or by pushing the bike) we can see gas getting out of the cylinders through the spark plug holes.

So I had an electrical issue to start with. And that might end in broken engine because I forgot to close this f... petcock...

OMG... that make perfect sense. I hope I did not break anything like bending the valves... At lunch time today, I removed the starter and checked it was freely turning. In the end, with the help of a fellow rider and colleague, we saw the starter working by bypassing the relay but I believe the relay might be fried now after all our attempts. Will bring my spark removal tool tomorrow and see. Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's the battery. I just installed a brand new one (put the acid inside around noon, installed it in the bike at 03:00PM). I just don't understand why I cannot push start the bike. I will remove the starter today and see if the output axle can rotate freely.

Some news from today and they are not good. I took my day off but went to work. I changed the battery and the oil. Then no more chance than yesterday night. And I noticed I did not describe properly how I ended. Starter relay is clicking but engine is not cranking. (note that the background noise is the building ventilation, not my bike). More strange, it's impossible to jump start the bike because as soon as I release the clutch, the bike stops violently (like something mechanical preventing the bike from moving). I googled/youtube'd "motorcycle relay clicking" and found the following possibilities (which I believe does not explain my originally RED LED flashing but nevermind) : - bad starter relay - bad connections between battery / starter relay / starter / ground - bad starter Can starter be blocked and that prevents the bike to be jump started? Thanks for your help.

Welcome here, I am restoring a 1993 3rd gen that is fortunately in a better condition. I am also a daily driver of a Suzuki Bandit 400 from 1992 so I've searched greybike forums quite often. Let see what you can do with this bike 😉

Hi @GreginDenver, So happy to see you here 😉 I see you are still enjoying both the your Bandit 400 and your VFR. I did not enjoyed my VFR too much (only 250 km until now) but that will change soon. What you said is making sense (as well as @airwalk). Thanks a lot. Some news. Bike gods were either against me today or they prevented me from going to something really bad, who knows... Anyway, when I got back to my bike today, I smelt gas and found that I let my petcock on PRI for the last 24h so obviously some leaked into the engine and contaminated the oil. If I was not completely stupid, I should have stopped there and called my wife to pick me. But I tried to play my chance and come home gently (understand without revving the engine too much). And then... bam impossible to start the engine, like a real short circuit in the battery. That was it. I intercepted a colleague (and very good friend of mine) to pick me home and tomorrow, I'll go with a brand new battery and enough tools to make an impromptu oil change at work (not sure security will appreciate). Then next on my (Bandit) maintenance list is: new spark plugs + new spark plugs covers (OEM) + new coil wires. I don't remember how old are my NGK Irridium spark plugs because I started my maintenance Excel sheet long enough after I installed them but they have a least around 24 000 km on the clock (maybe close to 30 000 km) which might be like (way) too much. I keep you posted.

Hi guys, Problem is happening on my 1992 Bandit 400, not on my VFR 750 but I cannot find out what is wrong so I am asking for help to all tech gurus spending some of their time here 😉 Bike is 26 year old, 101 000 km on the odometer. In the 8 years of ownership, I synch'ed the carbs many time (improving my technique each time), I have rebuilt the gear box (faulty output shaft bearing) and more. Work(ed) like a charm until it spent one night outside more than 2 weeks ago (so late October): bike was under an external shelter, outside temperature at night was probably around 10 deg C, some humidity in the air. I live on French Riviera so temperature had nothing to look like Alaska nor humidity like Borneo or Java. It should not have been an issue. Here are the symptom: 1/ most obvious: instead of requiring to press the starter only once, it now needs to press it 4 (long) times until it fires. Then it fires shyly to warm almost normally. So once started, everything seemed fine. 2/ since that happened (almost 3 weeks now), I noticed it does not fire 100% correctly so I can ride it gently as usual but it does not rev correctly when I rev it hard (which I never do). 3/ Now the super weird symptom: I have a C-Tek battery charger and a comfort connect indicator like this: https://smartercharger.com/accessories/#CTEK Comfort Connect Indicator Eyelet I noticed that once the bike is started, the Green LED is flashing (hopefully since the Reg is directly connected to the battery and is sending up to 15.0V to it's doing its duty) but at the same time, the RED LED is lightly lighting with intensity increasing with REVs (see the picture)... that is making me crazy. Battery is almost 2 years old and is cheap Chinese battery (less than 40€). Super funny: it is super hard to start with the starter but when I push start the bike, it fires within one second... So I am leaving with it since 2 weeks and a half now. #1 made me think about an air leak but that would rather happen when hot, not when cold. Furthermore, the bike does not die when warm. #2 made me think about fueling issue like enough to start but not the rev it properly but this is not really the case, I have probably ridden it for 200km since that. Poor fuel flow should have been more obvious (I think). #3 made me think about a current leak. That happened to me once and was more obvious: some sparks were going out of the spark wire to the engine case and I had the bike that rattled. I saw it (I mean I physically saw the sparks going to the engine case), replaced the wire and that was it. I spent 3 hours on Sunday to find such a current leak but did not find. I exchanged/swapped all 4 spark plugs, the spark caps and the wire but nothing changed. The RED light is still ligthly lightening when the bike is running. I tested with the stator disconnected but then only the RED light is fully on because I am draining the battery to run the bike. What I have not done is replacing the battery. I have no idea how I could spot some battery internal part that should have been damaged. I have an old battery that have been replaced because it did not hold the charge anymore but I believe the internals were not damaged (no shortcut or something similar). I am charging it fully today and will try tomorrow to determine whether the battery might be the cause or this should be something else. What do you think about my situation? Any clue about what could be the root cause? Other options are: - replacing the harness because I have another one in better conditions - buy brand new spark plugs caps because those are old. I also bought some NGK but they are too short, the angle is too close from the engine so they does not fit 100%. - buy new coils? I have no spare. - finish restoring my VFR (this is on-going) - buy another bike Thanks a lot in advance for your answer(s).

I found what I was looking for. It's the item #19 on this page. Should be direct swap for 3rd gen.

I only rode my 3rd gen for about 250km and I have reopened the engine so won't be riding it for a few weeks. I have no clear view of which dash I 'd like to use but I noticed the speed indicated in the original 3rd gen dash is for from being accurate (at least on my bike). Seems like when I am riding at something that feels like 20kph, dash tells me something like 40kph. Not the best since I want it to be my daily ride to go to work and beyond. I need to put it back on the streets and do a basic speed comparison with any mobile phone app so I have a clearer ideas. I really like what @douglasthecook did with his 4th gen because I really like the CBR 1000 dash (from 2008 to 2012). Also seems like @SoCal97VFR option to use 600 CBR dash is pretty smart since you can keep the fuel gauge. Will probably go for one of this two options. In all cases, I'd like to use Honda parts if they are direct swaps. So far, I quickly browsed the microfiche. Of course, sprocket covers have different references between 3rd gen and 4th gen like almost all engine parts but it does not 100% mean they are not interchangeables. My problem is that I don't see where the you'd connect a wire on the 4th gen sprocket cover to get the speed signal. Most obvious reason might be that I am not looking at the right place 😉 Any idea where this sensor might be?

So I guess there's a difference in the engine accessories. Do you know if that specific part of 4th gen engine would make is way on 3rg gen engine as a direct swap? I haven't look at the microfiches yet.

The story continues... So today was my 2nd ride. I went to work back and forth 2 times (I went back home for lunch) for an incredible total of 48km, yeehah!!!! It went smoothly, fires really quick at startup, no weird things, that was really cool... except for the temperature... This thing is so hot, I feel like she's trying to rost me Good thing is that white smoke really dropped even if still there, but that is less dramatic than during my first ride. I'll check the oil level tomorrow but I think I will barely notice the difference in terms of oil level. I quickly bleeded the front brake last week-end (I know this should not be done quickly...). But they need a rebuild. Since I did exactly that last week on my Bandit (I have a track day planned in 10 days), I figured this is not rocket science and seals are cheap. Original brake lines will be replaced by braided ones. I see later for new pads (I like red Brembos). Also, I need to address the front fork. I think the stem nut is not tighten enough so I feel (what I believe is) movements on bumps. Also, there might be some preload missing. I'll address that during the weekend. Here are 2 pictures from work. Note about the white smoke: I bought from the bay a valve seal kit from a seller in Sweden (39€ vs 160€ at Honda) and received it yesterday. This seems good quality but I wonder why all 16 look identical when Honda has 2 references (1 for intake, the other for exhaust). The sellers told me his records says they should be the same. Anyone who know if they are supposed to be identical or not?

Sounds like I did all of those things including praying 😉

And this is finally time for my first ride report, like for real folks!!!! Date: 01 July 2018 - not far from 3 years after I collected her. Seemed like an eternity. Conditions: Fu$%ing way too hot in full (summer) gears. It was 02:00PM and like 30 degrees C (86 deg F apparently), no wind. General idea: Go to the gas station, put some gas and put tyres to correct pressure, and ride it in the neighborhood so if it stalls for any reason, I can push it back to home (neighborhood is more or less flat, rather more than less if I have to push the bike). Rationale: My baby Bandit (she still has no name) failed for various reason in various locations, lots of memories I'd like to avoid repeating. That includes no more gas (classical), forgot to open the reserve (also classical), broken throttle cable (that is scary when someone might be right behind you), fuel tap closing for no reason... on the highway (super scary), bike stalling when hot (ring on one of the 4 spark plugs got crooked between the plug and the engine so air gap when hot),... Previously in this thread: Current state is that engine is smoking some oil. My friend (the ex-mechanic) told me to ride it so we can assess whether this phenomenon drops with use or not. Then we assess what to do next (probably open the engine again and change the valve seats). I rode only 1 km to the gas station, waited long in the sun to access the tyre air pump. Then I rode it for only 5 km and that was enough for the day. Here are my thoughts on this first ride: - It starts well, even if not started for something like 10 days. Idle is good considering I never synched it with an angled screwdriver (remember I burnt my hand back in September last year). Overall, this is not bad. - The Koso voltmeter in the cockpit is nice to have. For now, voltage stays in the 14.1V range when operating. I think I did a good job with the harness to adapt the Shindengen RR. - The engine character is different from my 1992 Bandit 400 which is an inline 4. This is the only machine I have a decent experience with. I have it since 2010 and made almost 33 000 km with it (the odometer is currently around 99500 km). Next is 100 km I made with my friend 2008 Triumph Street Triple 675. I only rode Vivian for 6 kilometers this day and really slow (I only reached 60 km/h, in city), I don't think I went over 6000 rpm even once, more in the 2000 to 4000 rpm range and all l can tell for now is that is different. More vibey. I am pretty sure you might tell me this is Vivian's soul but I need to reset my mind because this is something else compared to the Bandit. Especially since I really like the smoothness of the inline 4 engine. - Brakes: this is a problem. Rear is ok but front is nowhere near decent. Was ok when moving the bike inside the garage or at very low speed when I tested her but now that's a real issue. To be honest, I did not even flushed them (neither from nor rear) because as always, I am torn between doing everything at once (new braided lines, new fluids, new pads maybe, new seals surely) and doing things step by step. But since I want more experience with it, I will flush the front at the end of the week so I can ride it again and longer (and faster maybe). - Now the real issue: the oil smoke. As long as you ride it, it's ok because you don't notice but when you stop, it's smoking like crazy. You can clearly see white smoke coming out of the exhaust and it stinks. It's worse than any scooter from any pizza delivery guy around here (for US reader: in France at least, those guys are still running 50cc 2 strokes scooter). This is why I stopped after only 5 km because you never know the oil level before the oil pressure indicator pops out. I thought that was enough in terms of emotions so I put it back in the garage. I checked the oil level the following day and it was still to the maximum. Next is new fluid for the front brake then I try to ride it to work (10 km in the morning, 10 in the evening) and will check the oil level to see how it goes. To finish, a few pictures. She looks like I got it from a demolition derby. The 2 bikes together, I am officially suffering from multiple bike disorder 😉 I only have the 2 main parts of the top front fairing, in very bad shape (but I paid only 35 euros for them). The mirrors are the original and both broken. The previous owner gave me 2 brand new mirrors which are not OEM but are officially crap (they don't stay in place). Screen is I think an Ermax - touring version in dark green. I don't like it but it's ok for now. I do prefer the kind of screen John (@750 ) has on his VFR. I believe it's a Skidmark double bubble screen. Shape is more modern and I like it when transparent of lightly tainted. To be continued (again)...

@JZH I figured how they connect to the lever as we see on your pic, but I don't understand the route around the coil that is managing the left rear cylinder. I would appreciate if you could share some pictures [emoji16] Envoyé de mon SM-A510F en utilisant Tapatalk