5th Gen Issues??

First off, sorry for posting these sorts of questions without a proper intoduction, but I feel I should get the new toy somewhere pretty to take pix for you all like any good intro should include... Here lies my problem.

I bought a stacked 2000 model and stripped it down. I started it and ran it in the garage with no issues so went ahead and built it back up with some chinese ebay fairings (pain in the ass!!!). I got it looking resplendant chucked some plates on and took her out for our maiden voyage.

First off it spluttered a bit when I gave it some throttle and was not making power, this kind of stopped for a while so I thought it was just blowing out the cob webs.
Not long after the problem started up again, and when I stopped at a roundabout it started idling at 4000 RPM???
Obviously I headed straight for home. On my way I noticed the temp steadily rising beyond the comfort zone until it started flashing (120 deg +).
When I got home I turned it straight off and waited a while before I tried firing it again, when I did it was straining to crank and then gave up. I tested the battery and it read 13 volts???
I got it to start again by jumping it and noticed that the temp was still up around 100 deg but the fan was not on??? Come to think of it I didn't hear the fan at all.

The bike has a staintune slip on and a K&N replacement airfilter.

I am currently drinking beer in frustration whilst the battery charges.

Please feel free to put fourth your professional opinions.

Cheers, Ben.

 

First thing you need to check is your charging system, these bikes are notorious for charging system failure. Check for somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 volts when the bike is running. If not, the rectifier/regulator is probably toast. Go to wiremybike.com and get the ricks motorsport piece and the VFRness main harness upgrade while your at it. I've had that setup on my 99 for almost ten thousand miles with no issues.

 

Thanks for your response Davis,

I'm not too worried about that at the moment its more the whole blowing it's stack thing that scares me. RR problems wouldn't cause skyrocketing engine temps would it???
From what i've read here the 2000 model RR is slightly more reliable than the unit you ditched but i'll check the running voltage tomorrow to make sure.

I was wondering if it could be a faulty o2 sensor or some other trickery that you gurus might be able to shed some light on.

How do you test for a faulty o2 sensor?

Why the dicey acceleration? it idled fine even if it was at 4000 rpm and it seemed to rev okay in neutral. Faulty auto choke? how to test?

Even if the fan was running would it really have made that much of a difference?
Vapor lock in the cooling system? anyone had this before?

Tomorrow will involve fresh fuel and testing the fan... any other suggestions?

Apologies for my ramblings and thanks in advance for your responses that instantly fix my problems... I wish.

 

Sorry to hear. I'll throw my comments in, but others on this site are far better with a wrench than I am.

If there's air pockets in your cooling system, that could be an issue. If the bike is new to you, unless you know when it was last done, I'd consider doing it. Flush and burp the system accordingly.

When you say 120 degrees, assume you mean Celsius for us rednecks here in the US. That's not too far above average for some of these bikes. They do run hot. At 120 Celsius, you're wayyy to hot. The fan should come on at about 105 Celsius, and will usually run until it brings the temp back to about 100C. Sitting still in traffic it'll stay close to that 105 degree mark, even if the ambient temp is reasonable outside. I usually don't see any noticeable changes in my temp unless I am doing over 40mph.

You should definitely be able to hear your fan. Easiest thing to check is obviously the fuse. If the fuse is good, see if you can manually spin the fan blades. Sounds dumb, but my fan actually got stuck once, presumably from dirt and debris. Since it couldn't spin, it would blow the fuse. Once I freed it manually, no issues since then.

If everything seems OK with the cooling system and none of this works, then I guess it would be a thermostat. But that's a whole lot more involved then what I just mentioned.

How's the condition of your K&N? I had the FI light come on at random times on my 5th gen. Maybe coincidence, but after cleaning and recharging the K&N, didn't see the light come back (until a completely new problem 8 months later).

Fresh gas is probably a good idea, unless you know the history on the bike. Has it been sitting for any period of time?

I don't have the 02 sensors since my header is from a pre-cat 5th Gen model.

That's about all I can offer. Good luck

 

UPTHEDATE

Pulled the bloody fairings off and looked in the radiator to discover next to nothing. I went ahead and filled and bled the system again and tested the running voltage (15 Volts, sounds about right yea?) then put the cap on and got her up to temp. Sure enough it got up to 105C then magically the fan came on and it dropped to 103C
I noticed that the exhaust was blowing a little while I was down there rooting around so I got a socket on the stud bolts to discover they were loose as. After pulling them in and torquing up all was good in the shed again.
So the voltage was pretty good, the cooling system was operational and the blowing exhaust could have been the cause of the funny acceleration, that about covers it.
I put some heat wrap on the headers and cut a bit out of the chin scoop as the Chinese fairings ended up pretty close to the exhaust.

After buttoning it all up I donned my gear and took her out for a spin...:wink::tongue::wink::tongue:
YAHOOOO!!! She hammers!!!

So now all the fun stuffs done all I have to do is convince the local governing body that it's roadworthy and boom boom!

Cheers for your input guys.

 

Glad it all worked out.