FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

So I am a bit of rookie but I am intelligent enough to do some of this stuff with a little hand holding.

97 fzr 600. The bike previously fired up just fine. I had an oil leak, replaced the oil pan gasket and now no leak for now. I dropped the bike on its riders right side not once but twice...I know I am awesome. When I go to start it, it might turn over once or twice but then will either end up making the cranking sound every time after or the little black box outside the frame next to your left Asss cheek starts clicking until you turn the ignition off. The battery keeps coming in at 11.5-12 volts approximately when the bike is off. Does that mean its a weak charge?

Click this link and you can hear what the bike does. The file is about 10 mb so might take a minute to download http://www.2shared.com/video/YQvLA8sg/MOV01734.html

Thanks for everyone's help in advice. I really appreciate it.

Just a note there.....most bikes need a good strong 12.5 or better charged batt. To see if your charging system is working ok, start bike....using a volt meter, check to see what the volt is while running. Now rev bike upto 3500 or so and see what the reading is on volt meeter...should be up around 14.5 or 15 on some. Meeter reads 12 or so and doesn't run up with revs. your charging sys is at fault.

brcree wrote:Just a note there.....most bikes need a good strong 12.5 or better charged batt. To see if your charging system is working ok, start bike....using a volt meter, check to see what the volt is while running. Now rev bike upto 3500 or so and see what the reading is on volt meeter...should be up around 14.5 or 15 on some. Meeter reads 12 or so and doesn't run up with revs. your charging sys is at fault.

Which might be helpful advise once he can get the bike started, but the whole post is about his bike not starting.


Did you try changing the plugs or cleaning them at least? You could have fouled them during the tips. The black box clicking is usually from a weak battery. Not enough juice to actually crank over.

ISSUE RESOLVED: It was in fact the battery. I was able to jump it from my car successfully several times, however I will need a new battery because mine just wont hold a good enough charge. I jumped it by leaving the car off turning on the radio and the headlights so it would draw some amperage off the battery and it worked great...First time I road it tonight and holy hell is that fun....I am a pretty new rider as is. Never owned one just decided to buy a project bike. I have had a lot of fun at this ripe old age of 28 but hell that was fun. Woo Woo. Thanks for the help all

Don't worry about drawing down the car battery, so long as the car is off - it's the car alternator that will kill your bike VRR!

The car's active field voltage regulator controls the output voltage directly, while your bike's shunt regulator dumps the excess voltage (produced by the permanent magnet alternator) to ground. If the car's VRR is set higher (say 14.5v) than the bike's VRR (say, 14.4), the car's alternator will produce 14.5 vdc and the bike VRR will start dumping this excess to ground. The car VRR will detect this, treat it as a power draw, and go WFO chasing its set-point. When a 1000W alternator chases a 300W VRR, bad things happen - just not for long.