The 'Babe is back...with problems!

[Fizzerbabe2]

Anyone remember Fizzerbabe? Yeah, well the 'ol board didn;t recognize any info of mine so I had to re-register!

I sold my Fizz after I went into the AF back in 2008, 6 months ago, I re-bought it...actually from the guy I sold it to, LOL! She's all mine again...but had gotten new fork seals, new tires, new plugs/wires and a couple other things I can't quite remember-he had a list for me when I picked it up!

WELL, shortly after buying it, I discovered the battery was bad-wouldn't start very well and would slowly die after trying to start her. Then it just got to the point where she just didn't even try to light up. (The battery was the one I had put in it like 6 years ago!) Finances were close to non existant and I needed my cage fixed first, so it got put off. Sorry guys, yes, she sat from about January until now in the garage!) I went out and got a new battery, filled it, installed it, let it charge for about an hour and a half.....

NO START. (FP is priming, she is turning over, just no start)

No biggie, the fuel was ancient-so I replaced 90% of the fuel with fresh fuel.

After a few strong attempts with the choke partially open, she fired up, BUT, sounds like she is running off only 2 cylinders! After about 5 minutes of super crappy idling at 1k RPM(idle screw did nothing BTW) I put her in gear, she immediately shut off-no lights, no nothing. Turned the key off then back on and the neutral light & headlights very weakly illuminated, but no juice to start.

The plan is to leave the new battery charging off of the cage overnight, then in the morning putting some Seafoam in the tank, and trying to start and run her again.....any suggestions of what else may be going on?? If it starts still sounding like a twin cylinder, I will make note to feel each header to confirm the lack of cylinders-which if I'm missing then at least I know it's probably plugs which could have been fouled out by starting her with yucky fuel!) Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I FEAR my poor bikes electrical system as I HATE HATE HATE electrical problems...my fear was established when I had to weed through ALL of it several years ago before discovering my VR was bad-so I did the conversion and all was good after lots of dollars, time, and confusion.....

[willandrip]

Hi,welcome back to the forum,sometimes buying back a motor is a disappointment but by the sound of things the P.O has put a bit time and money into yours.
Leaving it standing for so long has not done it any favours though.
Right onto things;
Was it running on all four when you got it back or did the P.O have problems with it running ?
A new battery requires a good charge, you can get away with just putting acid in it and taking the bike for a good run on a machine that starts and runs fine.As yours does neither you are putting a lot of load on it.If you have jumper leads, use the car battery (engine not running) to boost the bike battery.
I know its a faff;but clean the plugs before you try to restart.
It sounds like the carbs will be gummed up. seafoam may clear them (we do not have this in the UK so no experience of it).
Good petrol through the carbs does a lot by itself to break down deposits in the jets if you can get it to run.
It will have stalled straight away when you put it in gear if it was only running on two cylinders.
Hopefully the clutch plates will not be stuck; you can rock it back and forth in gear to confirm.
It may be that one of the safety circuits cut the ignition when you put it in gear; but get it running properly before trying to diagnose that.
How are you charging the new battery with the car ?,you said "charging off the cage overnight".
Surely you are not running the car engine for a few hours to do this.
If you are simply linking the two batteries together; there is not enough voltage to charge the bike battery;all it is doing is to regain its natural voltage by resting.The battery needs circa 13.5 v to effectively charge.At least it is a convertional lead acid battery,they are much more forgiving than sealed acid or gel batteries.
As always; post up your findings, it aids others in diagnostics.
Some of the regulars will be around presently to add info no doubt.
You will know how to post pics; we always require pics. !

[Fizzerbabe2]

Thanks for the reply...

Yes, she was running perfectly when I bought her back...other than the battery gradually getting weaker. I connected the car to the bike overnight (Of course without the car running, !).


I haven't gotten out there this morning yet since I have a toddler that occupies 99% of my time & attention...but I'll be back after I do some things.

[Fizzerbabe2]

Ok, so absolutely nothing this morning. I pulled the battery out, and found a cell completely empty!? After a minute of WTF...I decided to take it back to O'rielys. They are getting another new one brought to the store here in town (I live in the middle of no where-with low inventory). In the meantime, I wait. Also, Seafoam is sitting in the new tank of gas as well.

Power first. Then ignition with idle-even if it is crappy-THEN find what the problem really is.....this might be a long day for a woman with little motorcycle mechanical experience!

[willandrip]

Hi,the static charge in the car battery is insufficient to charge another battery.
Example;
A fully charged battery will hold about 12.60 volts up to a maximum of 12.85v.
To get this voltage the battery has to be charged in excess of 13.5v for a period of time.
The higher the charging rate up to a maximum of circa 14.5v the less time it will take.
Low amperage charging over a long period is far superior.
Fast charging will goose a battery in no time.

Can you ask the store to charge the battery prior to you collecting it; I take it you have no charger.
You can charge it from the car when it is running with jumper leads but only for about 20 minutes at just above idle.
Overcharging a new battery very fast will shorten its life considerably.
I was hoping an electrical guru could explain this better;hint,hint.

If you filled the new battery and now one cell is dry,the only way for the electrolyte to have escaped is by boiling off from that one cell or it is cracked.
Make sure any spilled/boiled off electrolyte is washed off, it is acid as you know and very corrosive to motorcycles.
Most battery makers do not tell you to fill initially and THEN top up 30 mins. later (the cells absorb a large quantity when first filled) which they should.
Ideally it should be topped up again after its initial charge before being put into service.
Dont expect this one to last 6 years like the last ;battery quality seems to diminish every time I buy one.

[Fizzerbabe2]

Yeah, after I thought about it, I realized that you can jump start the bike's battery, but not charge it (with a car's battery)....that was definately a blonde moment on my part!

I actually filled the new replacement battery at the store, and left it at the store, so they could plug it into the charger for a positively good charge. I'll top it off before installing it, too-thanks for that tip!

It will be there for 3 hours, then they will call when it tests fully charged.

[Fizzerbabe2]

Alrighty! Battery is 100%, and I have the right V's everywhere that I need it....BUT she's still a Twin-cylinder. #1 and #3 are good, #2 and #4 are cold. Now what? Oh yeah, when I went to O'reilys, they do not carry the Autolite 4330's.....only NGK's but I do not want to spend $8 a plug when the plugs are actually less than a year old with very little use on them!

Next step? Spark plug check?

[DonTZ125]

Assuming the leads are in the right order, the TCI and coils are working. Check the caps for security and condition, then the plugs for fouling.

[reelrazor]

Alrighty! Battery is 100%, and I have the right V's everywhere that I need it....BUT she's still a Twin-cylinder. #1 and #3 are good, #2 and #4 are cold. Now what? Oh yeah, when I went to O'reilys, they do not carry the Autolite 4330's.....only NGK's but I do not want to spend $8 a plug when the plugs are actually less than a year old with very little use on them!

Next step? Spark plug check?

go to pretty much any other auto parts store and get the autolites.

it's pretty much a given -to me- that you have fouled plugs and that new ones will go far to getting you back on all four.

should try a hopped up two stroke sometime....sometimes five minute old plugs are junk

[willandrip]

If cash is tight;clean up the old plugs with a wire brush,mark the plugs to differentiate from each other and replace them
See if the fault follows the cylinder or the plug.
If you can hang the plugs from the leads and earth them against the engine, even one at a time, whilst pressing the starter then you can usually see a difference in the spark of a faulty plug.It saves reinstalling them. A darkened place makes this much easier than in bright sunlight.
Plugs do seem to be an item that all on here recommend replacing at the first instance. In the UK, cheap Autolite plugs are not available hence one has to re-use rather than replace willy nilly.
I keep a set of good, known, clean and gapped plugs in the garage for diagnostics.Like batteries, it is not uncommon for new to be faulty.

[Fizzerbabe2]

I returned to the bike yesterday and took out every SP, checked gap (30), none were burnt, white, or wet. I still ran a wire brush over each one just to do it and re-installed them. The only thing I could find with any of the ignition was #3's plug wire boot was missing a small chunk (no plug was exposed though). I'll be replacing those soon I guess.

The carb was the next step, so I started to take the tank cover off, and then just thought maybe, just maybe...I'll try to get it running again.

I started her up and at first, she sounded like she was running really well, then shortly after started sounding like a twin again. I waited for several minutes with the choke slightly open....it took several minutes after cylinder #1 and #3 were hot for #2 and #4 to get hot-but all cylinders were then HOT, she didn't sound like a twin anymore, she was up to temperature, so I turned the choke off and adjusted the idle back to about 1,300 RPM since I had jacked it all up trying to get it to stay running the day before.

SO, I put the tank cover back on, sprayed wax on the chain, and took her out for a short ride to get the tire pressure where I wanted it (I don't have a nifty little shop anymore with a compressor), and just to test drive her. Everything sounds good except she slightly dogs out when I use the throttle in the lower RPM's. Enough to make turning a bit scary and where she just doesn't pick up the speed when "getting into it" in 1st gear.

I'm hoping the Seafoam will clear that up, since it's probably the little bit of old gas running through her...if not then I'll be draining the tank (which BTW there was no sediment in it when I looked into it) and putting all fresh in, but like I mentioned before, I can't just jump into stuff like that with a toddler to keep an eye on (I'm not trying to scoop something out of my curious toddler's mouth when I have fuel all over my hands!), so i will hope for the best and see if it clears up on it's own!

[willandrip]

Well that wasn't a long drawn out repair then,which is good.
Good ,consise , legible reports on progress (so tired of childish drivel on forums at present) made this a pleasure to contribute to.
Just run it up to temp say fortnightly, and ride it when you get the chance.
The fresh fuel running through it will clean up most of the carb detritus.
I always semi slip the clutch on any of the sportsbikes when manoevering; you have not the speed or leverage with clip ons for stability and I dislike trailing feet as the back brake should be used in preference to the front if you dont want to make an arse of yourself.
Good luck.
Put up a pic of what it looks like when you get time.



Ten days and £300 later.



Only had time to take it out once this summer;so many bikes/so little time.

[Fizzerbabe2]

Pics will be up after she has her bath today! Thanks for your pics, I love the way the wheel conversion looks, I just have never had the time or money to do it....between all other repairs LOL!

[willandrip]

Them's just the stock wheels ( original 1989 3.5" rear as opposed to the later 4") masked and sprayed up with anthracite 2 pack.
I had planned on a 4" rear swap ( still in 18") this year to put a bit wider rubber on it but after a run out, it matched the SP 2TK for nimbleness due to it being so narrow.I ride on mostly moorland roads that are a bitumen base with a surface dressing of grit;very abrasive, so grip is not usually a limiting factor.Fuel costs do that here;circa £7/Uk gallon = about 11 dollars; shocking.
The tyres on it at present will probably last me out; I only get out 2/3 times weekly max through the summer and have a few bikes to rotate,two in the house have never been ridden since refurb 2 years ago.Most expensive "clothes horses" in UK.
The forks must have been swapped by a P.O as they are 100mm spacing for calipers not 89mm as std on the 89 models; not complaining like;the blue spots set off the colourscheme.

This is the 2TK for comparison;


Them's very early Vance/Hines re-enforced engine covers on there;hope I never get to test them.

[Fizzerbabe2]

Whoops, I thought you had done the conversion...I must already be used to seeing the goofy, extremely tall tire the PO put on mine...