'97 CBR600F3 fuel issues ?

[njsrikar]

Hi guys,

Yesterday, my bike turned off on the interstate while I was doing ~50mph. I changed the fuel knob from ON to RESERVE, no luck. It was as if there was no fuel. Had to call AMA and get fuel from them. But am very sure it had fuel in it.

I rode 10miles to home with about 2 gallons of fuel in it. Today morning, the bike started doing the same, just about a mile or 2 from home. Luckily there was a fuel station nearby, I put it on choke and went to the gas station, filled it up to the brim, now the bike seems to be fine.

Is the fuel pump failing ? if not, any idea what may be the problem ? Or was it just running out of fuel ?

Bike is a 1997 Honda CBR600F3, bought it Sept 2009 and have had no issues so far.
Thank you.

-Srikar

[TTD]

Pretty sure that is a carb bike with no fuel pump.

You're jumping around a lot in your problem solving... narrow it down.

For instance, one time you have to fill the bike with fuel but another time putting the choke on gets it working?

Be methodical and this will be an easy fix.

It's going to be either a petcock or vacuum issue in my opinion.

[sdog30]

I ran out of fuel on my 98 once. I turned the reserve on, but it didn't help. Not sure why, but never trusted reserve after that. I always reset my trip odometer after a fill up. My carb would get mucked up real easily, too from the ethanol in the gas, but this sounds like you just ran out of gas to me.

[DuncanMoto]

bad diaphram in fuel petcock? probably not....
Disconnected vacume line?
pinched hose?
blocked fuel filter?
water in fuel?
Sticking floats?

Too many variables to diagnose online.

[njsrikar]

You're jumping around a lot in your problem solving... narrow it down.

For instance, one time you have to fill the bike with fuel but another time putting the choke on gets it working?

I wasnt clear I guess. Using the choke helped run the bike only for a few meters,
it would turn off again. Thats the reason I feel its a fuel issue. I know for sure that there was enough fuel in the tank for atleast 20 more miles.

Even today morning, I had atleast 1.5 gallons in the tank and it was turning off.

I hope it just ran out of fuel. Will wait a couple more days and see if it happens again with good amount of fuel in it.

[Degsy]

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Fuel cap vent clogged.

[drop]

ran into the same exact issue with a friends 97 F3 last month. bike sputtered out at idle (sounded exactly like a no-fuel condition) while pulling up to a gas station and could not be restarted until switched to reserve. after going to reserve the bike started back up but the problem reoccured after a couple minutes. filled the bike up with fuel and it started again, but when we got back i took the airbox off and right away i could see excess fuel sitting on the throttle plate of #3. pulled the float and bowl to check for issues but everything seemed normal. the only thing i can think of that caused it was a carb sync issue leading to too much vacuum (and as a result, fuel) in #3 under certain riding conditions. i think switching to reserve / filling the bike only appeared to fix the issue because sitting for a few minutes allowed the fuel to drain back out of the flooded carb and pulling the tank/airbox/carbs may have freed up a clogged/kinked hose. bike has since been sync'd and runs perfectly.

the fuel pump had been replaced with a new one <300 miles prior to this occurrence. the 97 F3 has an auxiliary fuel pump located on a rubber slotted gasket on the left side of the frame below the seat.

[Degsy]

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I have the same exact bike. A couple years ago I had the same issue...driving down the road and just shut down...ended up being the clutch adjustment was off.....

Clutch adjustment shut the bike down?

[Jim]

i'm not buying that one. think you lucked out, or cleared something that was clogging up a vaccuum line

[The Snowman]

Personally, I'd blame it on the guy who sold the bike to you.

Wait . . . what?

Seriously, all good places to start above. I'd check the easier ones first. Vacuum lines, vent cap. If that doesn't solve it, give TLRMan a shout. He's the fuel system wizard on here. He'll straighten you out for short money, or maybe if it's simple enough, coffee and lunch.

[sdog30]

I had gas spitting out of my carbs once, I cleaned the carbs (including the air/fuel screws) and it solved it. All the other times I cleaned the carbs, I didn't bother pulling the air/fuel and kept having problems.

[flyer_kaz]

F3s are know to have fuel pump problems pretty regularly.. alot of guys actually remove the fuel pump and just run a manual, gravity-fed petcock like on the F2s to get around the problem...

heres a ton of info and how-tos to fix the issue...
http://cbrforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102151

Kaz

[TTD]

yes it did....I adjusted the free play in the lever and I havent had the problem again..

I would chalk this up to coincidence.

[njsrikar]

hmm ..I rode about 20miles after posting here. Did not have this problem yet, so I am starting to think it just ran out of gas. However, I plan to clean the fuel cap vent next weekend.
BTW ..Jim ...am moving to Quincy, Water Street. My new place has some space now to work on my motorcycle

Here is a good article I came across for cleaning the fuel cap vent --- http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41061.0

@flyer_kaz ..thank you for the link, that post seems to very detailed. This will be my next step to do after cleaning the gas cap. but i`ll need some help for soldering, I tried it before in India but did not get the hang of it.

As Chuck pointed out, I`ll start with the basic/easy stuff and then dig deeper if the problem persists.
Thanks guys.

[njsrikar]

I have another problem now, not sure if they both are related.

On tuesday, bike turned-off suddenly at a traffic signal, could not start it again. this time, it was as if the battery was dead, the electric starter did not run when I pressed the start button. It had a full tank of fuel in it.

I could start the bike by pushing it but it died again in less than a mile....and thats it, now pushing also did not help.

I had to push it home and that evening I charged the battery for the whole night. Bike started right away the next morning, but it wasnt 100% ok all the way to my work. It died again right infront of my house in the evening, same thing, battery seems to have lost its charge.

whats happening to my bike ? are these both issues related ??

any ideas ??

[Degsy]

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Doubt they are related. Could be water in electrics somewhere or a bad regulator/rectifier that has damaged the battery also.

[TTD]

Get a known, good battery in the bike.

Start her up and put a meter on the battery... is it being charged?

If so, it might have just been a bad battery. If not, you have to troubleshoot the charging system.

I would imagine that a completely dead battery/no charging system could give some of your earlier symptoms?

[njsrikar]

Today, after 4 days of not using it at all, I tried starting the bike and it fired up with a lil choke, but shut-off after about 5mins. Did not start again, the battery has no charge.

Here are the images of the regulator of my bike. It seems to have cracked and some metal oozed out of that gap.

Is that it ? Do you think this was causing the problem ?

I read on other cbr forums that the OEM regulators get hot and burn during the summer days with high rpm riding.

[flyer_kaz]

ahh.. yes.. again... other than the OEM cct going bad, fuel pump, and petcock leaking... the reg/rect frying is another common problem with the F series.

the solution is to get a GSXR model and wire it on there.. bigger with cooling fins so it can handle the heat.

unplug it and you should see some melted plastic in the plug... you'll have to cut off the burnt plug and when you get the gixxer one, use some female crimp connectors and they should plug right into the unit without cutting off the gixxer plug.

heres a blurry pic of when I did mine during my streetfighter build...



for more info check here..
http://cbrforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27739

[njsrikar]

thank you flyer_kaz for that link.

I ordered the OEM regulator/rectifier and got it today. i want to install it tonight after work.

Just FYI ...the new OEM part from Honda has heatsink/fins for cooling, the old part was flat and easier to get hot. I got it for ~$150 over the $170 price because of the AMA membership.

Before I go ahead and install it, wanted to ask you guys, do you think any other parts might hv got screwed up because of the toasted regulator/rectifier ? Is it safe to connect the new one ?

The battery seems to be fine, I charged it to full and checked after 2-3 days, got readings of 12V to 12.4V.

unplug it and you should see some melted plastic in the plug... you'll have to cut off the burnt plug and when you get the gixxer one, use some female crimp connectors and they should plug right into the unit without cutting off the gixxer plug.

I did not yet unplug it. will do that tonight and see if its burnt. I did not go for any aftermarket or suzuki one because 1)I heard the new Honda OEM has cooling fins 2)I did not want to mess around with the wiring and stuff, trying to avoid it as much as possible.

[Kurlon]

Check the wiring from the stator to the bike, normally that connector likes to fry over time and will cause rapid repeated failures if not dealt with.

[Degsy]

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The battery is probably junk I'm afraid.

[sdog30]

I had the same issue, put another rectifer in and it solved it. I put a new battery in but can't remember if that was before or after the rectifier. I want to say before. I think I bought it at Walmart pretty cheap.

[flyer_kaz]

thank you flyer_kaz for that link.

Just FYI ...the new OEM part from Honda has heatsink/fins for cooling, the old part was flat and easier to get hot. I got it for ~$150 over the $170 price because of the AMA membership.

ouch!... you can get aGSXR unit for like $40-$60.. hey.. its your money..

Before I go ahead and install it, wanted to ask you guys, do you think any other parts might hv got screwed up because of the toasted regulator/rectifier ? Is it safe to connect the new one ?

if you run it too long without the reg/rect... you can fry your CDI... the reg/rect does as it says... regulates spikes in voltage and smooths it even for the fragile electrical system.. that being said.. I've had mine go bad too and even jump started my bike off a running car (before I knew better) and everything is fine.. so I think you should be fine as well.

I did not yet unplug it. will do that tonight and see if its burnt. I did not go for any aftermarket or suzuki one because 1)I heard the new Honda OEM has cooling fins 2)I did not want to mess around with the wiring and stuff, trying to avoid it as much as possible.

honestly its not that bad... I could walk you through it like 5 min over the phone if you need.. or I could take some pics for a mini how-to and post it up.

You should be good for awhile now that you got the new one but if it burns out again, pm me and I'll help you out.

Best,

Kaz

[njsrikar]

so...I rode like 250miles since i installed the new reg/rectifier. Bike did not stop and drain out battery like before. It has been running, but....not perfect.

I am not getting 100% from the bike. Its fine till 5k or 6k rpm ..but after that it gets stuck...as in i dont get the power, it slows down, as if its out of fuel.

I checked the battery just now, I am getting 12-12.5v when the bike is off and 14-14.5v @ 3000rpm.

I thought i`ll clean the fuel cap vent.... tried to follow this ...but...i found no screws under the fuel cap, like its shown in that post.. ...I looked around for any screws, nothing...so i bolted it back to the tank.

Heard from Degsy that he's opening a store next week, planning to take it to him as I wanted to get the bike checked anyway. too sad am gonna miss riding this weekend...weather seems to be very very good.

Thanks for all the help flyer_kaz.