FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

Alright guys so I'm not new to diagnostics or electrical but this bike has me stumped. Obviously its my first bike, its a 1995 and I bought it to save some cash on fuel and have some fun this summer but now its just a giant headache . Anyway it all starts on the way to work. The bike dies after speeding up from a light. I pull the seat only to find the positive terminal jumped off the battery and maybe shorted itself to the frame? Regardless I replaced 2 fuses that blew and the bike idled but did not want to rev. So after a few minutes of it idling eventually it died and will not fire back up. I haul it home and through my thought process I decide it needs a stator and pickup. Replacing these did not help. I did some basic diagnostic work to verify a few things. First pulled the plugs and cleaned them; of course they're fine and somewhat new. I pulled the line on the fuel pump and its spraying while cranking. I hooked a spark tester in line to the plugs and I have spark although it seems like a weak signal. I'm not sure if the spike of voltage took out the ignitor. If anyone has any input it is much appreciated I have been searching online for hours.

Did you check voltage at the coils,low voltage=weak spark?
My 98 had bad connections(dirty,corroded)all over the harness,ignitor should be good I think if you are getting spark.

well I even jumped a coil straight to 12v and it still didn't even try to start. I noticed that with starting fluid I will get random backfires and it seems like it wants to but somethings off.

Are both coils showing the same amount of spark at all 4 plugs?

It sounds like one of the coils is not getting sufficient signal from the TCI unit..

I do know the TCI units are susceptible to reverse polarity damage but all you say you did was earth out the positive lead on the main harness.

If anything it would be the RR that would sustain damage in that case.
I would hope the 2 fuses would have prevented that though, especially as you say both were blown.

willandrip wrote:Are both coils showing the same amount of spark at all 4 plugs?

It sounds like one of the coils is not getting sufficient signal from the TCI unit..

I do know the TCI units are susceptible to reverse polarity damage but all you say you did was earth out the positive lead on the main harness.

If anything it would be the RR that would sustain damage in that case.
I would hope the 2 fuses would have prevented that though, especially as you say both were blown.

What is an RR?

Is this the rectifier? Converts alternating current to direct current?

I also just realized the battery has been boiling over. This will be the second time I had to put distilled water in it. So besides the VRR what else could I have damaged? All my lights blew out too

You've blown the VRR, and it's killing the rest of your electrical system. Do NOT operate the bike with the charging system connected until the VRR is replaced. You can run the bike with the VRR unplugged using a charged battery, or a boost battery, for testing and diagnostics.

thatvwtech wrote:I also just realized the battery has been boiling over. This will be the second time I had to put distilled water in it. So besides the VRR what else could I have damaged? All my lights blew out too

The most important information is volunteered at the end of the thread !

The bike will not start. Is it because the VRR is blown?

Check each cyl for spark. Does the fuel pump chatter when you turn the kill switch on?

I have a very slight spark signal and the fuel pump has been verified to be working