Looking for help, 6th gen grinding noise

Hello All, long time no see. I finally bought myself a shiny 2002 blue 6th gen to replace my old 4th gen (cruelly stolen a year and a bit ago).

Rode off into the sun (well drizzle but it is as close as we get in the uk this time of year. Got her home....

...and then the troubles started. First thing is minor, neutral light flickers while the bike is sitting in neutral and if the stand is down the engine cuts out. Not a big problem i thought, I can live with that for a while.

Second thing happened when I shut off the engine, leaving lights on while I reset the clock to the right time, by the time I finished (3-4 minutes maybe?) battery was totally dead and I needed to bump start the bike (flat battery also the reset the clock..GAH!!). As long as the bike is not left with the lights on but engine off, all seems well. Maybe a dying battery or the reg/rec i thinks? never mind I says, its fine if i just turn it off promptly, will hold for a bit (Spent all my cash on the bike ).

little bit later I notice a strange noise that appears in 2nd and 3rd gears but not first. Go into either of those gears and apply any throttle and a fairly quiet slightly metallic swshshhhh (like really smooth metal sliding against really smooth metal) noise comes from the left of the bike. 1st gear no sound, 2/3rd sound appears...odd. Any one have any ideas?

Few days later I start to notice a massive flat spot around 5000, lumpy low speed throttle and odd surges and snatches..."ah ha! I say, this one I know" so I fish under the seat for the toolkit... he didn't include it in the sale, bugger. quick trip to ebay for chain tensioner tool and five minutes on the bike, I realise the chain is not loose, its dead. Nother trip to ebay, Did chain, sprockets and a couple of tools. few more hours on the bike (forgot to hold secondary clutch cylinder together... messy)....problems fixed!! . . .

... wait, no. Now that I can actually ride it a bit more excitedly, I find that something goes crrggcrunch! if I take off with high rpm or shift gears while the revs are high... Now this is not a noise I have ever heard before and frankly it frightens me but I am too poor to go to a garage. (chain ate all the money the bike did not).

I play around a bit and isolate exact events that cause the noise.

1) At standstill pull in clutch lever, put bike into gear. all smooth so far.
2) Rev bike to about 5500/6000 rpm, smoothly let out clutch, bike starts to pull away fast but smoothly. all good so far
3) Add any more throttle before clutch is fully out and CRRRRGGGCRUNCH!! Might be a sensation of clutch slipping or power loss but it might be my imagination.
4) Clutch is fully out, bike rides perfectly smoothly, full power comes on smooth right to the redline (except the vtec bump lol), at low/middle revs, clutch works a charm, smooth as silk.

So what could cause that sound, definite grinding crunching noise. Clutch plates, pushrod, transmission? what can I do to check?(I know what these things are but have never looked at them, totally self taught mechanic, something goes wrong, i find out how to fix it and do so but most complicated things I have done are changing the chain and replacing the exhaust collector box on the last vfr. (oh and rebuilding the fairings after a tumble on the motorway but thats kinda different).

and finally, finally I find that when the bikes hits the vtec there is a point when the engine seems to die for maybe a quarter of a second before the vtec kicks in and she launches off into hyperspeed, is that normal?


So yeah, less than a week after I bought it, I have two electrical faults, a swishing noise, a crunching noise and a big lag on the vtec... I'm starting to miss the 4th gen! never had any issues on that one in 15 thousand miles!

Anybody got any ideas about what could be causing some or all of my problems? pretty please?

Ed

 

How many miles are on this bike? Did any of these problems surface on test ride? My first thought is your clutch isfried. Who did you buy the bike from? With that many problems that soon I would be looking for my money back. The good side is that the sixth gen like the other vfrs are very reliable bikes. So if you decide to keep it and fix someone else's problems after that you will have a very good bike. But if it were me I would be calling the previous owner or shop and asking for all my money back or at least a portion to help with repairs. Good luck either way

 

34000 miles, should be barely broken in for a vfr. Looks well cared for too.

Previous owner warned me about the neutral light and on the test ride everything seemed OK. I was listening for problems all the 100mile run home after I bought it and nothing.

I should say I have put about 800 miles on it in the couple weeks I have had the bike.

I think if the issues won't turn out to be too expensive I would like to keep it (I did get it for a good price).

Anything I can do to test if its the clutch? I tried slamming on the power while it was in gear to see if anything would slip or make a noise but it just leapt for the horizon very promptly.