Bogging Down!

[Stiggy-xx-]

Hi peeps, well this bike of mine, a 1998 carbed cbr1100xx superblackbird aint being quite so much as a super, blackbird at the moment, three times this has happened to me since I have had the bike and it has only been about a month or so. The first time this happened I was overtaking on the outside lane, in top gear, accelerated and after about 30 seconds, the bike would not rev any higher, thus the bike would not pick up speed, then the red oil light came on, so I pulled the clutch in, let off the throttle and indicated to a layby (luckily) The bike had died, so I checked everything, as you do, and the only thing I could assume was there wasn't enough oil in it. After a few minutes I was able to start up and limped to halfords for 2.5L of oil, which all went in, the bike was fine after that. A few weeks later, out on some country twisties, accelerated to GLF and the same thing happened but without the red light and without dieing, this time I had pulled the clutch in and revved and it seemed to clear whatever it was and I was able to carry on, then it was ok again for a while. This time, today, I was travelling at normal plodding speed on a motorway, all going good and sweet, then decided to overtake, in top gear still, after 30 seconds or so, the same thing again, lack of power/revvs, pulled in the clutch and red oil light came on and engine dies, whilst still coasting, I was able to start the bike with the button, revved it a few times and all ok. I checked everything that I could when I got home, there was even plenty of oil. Now I am dubious of accelerating in case the bike dies and causes a problem.

This has seriously hampered my enjoyment of riding at the moment, so any ideas would be welcomed. I can not even find anything in the manuals remotely related! :bang:

 

[57grant]

Difficult one!

So its cutting out when hot and runs again later??

I would start by replacing the sidestand cut out swithc just in case, they can get crapped up and cut out intermittantly, if its not that you will have a useful spare. Or you could wire it out completely to see if it cuts out again

In the olden days this would happen when a capacitor was failing when cold everything OK, tested all good, then it would break down when hot and cause cutting out, same problem can happen with coils and leads. They are dead easy to swap. I have a known good set of spares if you wish to borrow them to exclude this. If they fix it can sell them to you cheaply, if not just post them back

last the black box CDI unit in the tail, very reliable as far as I know but worth swapping out with a known good one as yours (like mine!) is an old lady now and starting menopause. Swap things one at a time obviously as then you are sure what the problem is.

I am sure that Jaws will be along soon with other ideas!

Grant 07876251906

Good luck

 

[Dickiebird]

Loom Fix . Has it been done ?

 

[Boggymarsh]

Loom fix? This is a 98 carb'd bike so isn't going to be affected by this.

The signs and symptoms sound very similar to those experienced by me two years back. This was nothing to do with low oil but turned out to be the regulator/rectifier. Have you had any lights or dials on the dash acting strangely?

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

Hi again, thanks for the offer of parts to borrow to rule out, I am hedging on coils because an old Kawasaki KZ 750 Ltd I had once, had an issue where both coils went, the symptom was no response to the throttle whatsoever, but if you shut the throttle off it would die or if you started to brake, the revs would drop and wouldn't pick back up again till it stalled. I had to get the bike recovered from Gloucester after a trip, not good, needless to say oem coils were ?70 each at the time and pattern ones were only ?20. It sorted it.

So, I am thinking either electrical or oil pressure, or petrol flow or something not flowing correctly, so my first step is some reddex, see if that clears anything, then I will check the carbs and filter.

As for lights flickering or going on or off, nope, nadda, I changed the battery the other week as the last one wouldn't hold it's charge.

Battery is staying charged, on it's own, lights are not changing, so I'm baffled as to what it is. :dunno:

 

[Jaws]

Simple one this

You have been thrown a red herring somewhat with the oil issue which is not related

The petcock is controlled by a vacuum pipe on the thing, that comes off of the inlet manifold part of the head, just below the carbs

Three possibles

1) At some time the bike had a scottoiler which has been removed but the t piece in the vacuum pipe has been left open, so not enough vacuum to open the petcock properly

2) Said bit of pipe is leaking having the same effect

3) The most common, the petcock diaphragm has split and is causing a poor petrol delivery


As to the oil
That is far more worrying
Bird simply do not use oil.. End of

If you need to stick over half the amount used to completely fill her up then either some muppet short changed the oil when they did an oil change, or it has a leak.. To burn THAT much oil you would be leaving a smoke screen behind you !!

 

[andyBeaker]

Simple one this

You have been thrown a red herring somewhat with the oil issue which is not related

The petcock is controlled by a vacuum pipe on the thing, that comes off of the inlet manifold part of the head, just below the carbs

Three possibles

1) At some time the bike had a scottoiler which has been removed but the t piece in the vacuum pipe has been left open, so not enough vacuum to open the petcock properly

2) Said bit of pipe is leaking having the same effect

3) The most common, the petcock diaphragm has split and is causing a poor petrol delivery


As to the oil
That is far more worrying
Bird simply do not use oil.. End of

If you need to stick over half the amount used to completely fill her up then either some muppet short changed the oil when they did an oil change, or it has a leak.. To burn THAT much oil you would be leaving a smoke screen behind you !!

You got there before me - personally I would replace the vacuum hose as it is entitled
To be flaky after years I. A pretty hostile environment and make it longer at the same time so it is easier to move the tank about without disconnecting anything. Any tube that fits will do - the clear stuff in a scottoiler kit fits a treat otherwise Pop into b&q.

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

Do any of you guys have a photo/diagram or picture of some sort so that I can see what I am looking for, otherwise it's just gonna be a mass of black rubber tubing to me :dunno:

 

[Jaws]

Its a pipe !!
It is a thin pipe that goes from the petrol tap to the engine ( under the carbs usually to number one cylinder but occasionally to number 2 )
it is the only pipe thin pipe that is attached to the petrol tap
It should be attached to the back of the tap assembly ( well, the side opposite to the actual tap
If someone ha recently had the tank off make sure it is attached to the back of the tap and not the bottom ( which is just a blank spigot )

You really cannot get it muddled up !

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

Simple one this

You have been thrown a red herring somewhat with the oil issue which is not related

As to the oil
That is far more worrying
Bird simply do not use oil.. End of

If you need to stick over half the amount used to completely fill her up then either some muppet short changed the oil when they did an oil change, or it has a leak.. To burn THAT much oil you would be leaving a smoke screen behind you !!

I think the time I had to put oil in, was the day I got the bike, so I put it down to not enough oil, so in the last incident, why would the red oil light come on?

 

[Jaws]

Weeeelll. have you checked the oil level again ?


The ECU on the carb bird is extremely basic. It would not worry if the oil light was on or not..

I would say it might be an electrical issue but when it happens you say the engine still runs, just very poorly ?

 

[Jaws]

Ahh, reread the OP and see you did check the oil

In that case I am a bit baffled !!

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

well I had a butchers under the tank and everything looks attached and without splits, so the next dry day I will be taking the tank off to have a look at the air filter and whatever is in there.

 

[Jaws]

The chances are it will be the ruddy diaphragm .. A lot of the carby birds are reaching an age where they just fail..

 

[noobie]

The T piece which some leave in and forget to seal it is the white t piece in this guide on picture 5 and where it ends up in pic 7 but mostly with the tank off you will see where the installer has fitted one

http://www.thisstupidurl.com/ScottOiler/index.html

This is another

http://www.scottoiler.es/docs/vSyst...lation_Honda_EN_CBR1100XX_Super_Blackbird.pdf

 

[Centaur]

Ahh, reread the OP and see you did check the oil

In that case I am a bit baffled !!

Could the oil warning light be coming on because the engine has stopped? He did say he pulled the clutch in; so the engine dies and the oil warning light comes on as it should. :-0)

 

[Jaws]

Indeed. If the engine is dying completely the oil light will come on..

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

AHA I think I may have been looking in the wrong place, thanks for that, now I know exactly what kind of bodgedry I'm looking for, let's hope it's that then :yo:

 

[Stiggy-xx-]

these seem to be all attached correctly, the hose from the back of this tank tap, goes to the second carb in from the left. The pictures you guys showed me, show it going somewhere else and a thicker tube! fl4g71

 

[noobie]

The pictures I showed were not the pet cock but the usual place where scott oilers are connected with the t piece

Process of elimination is frustrating but John's suggestions are normally right, you'll get there.