Brief history on bike.
Bought 89 NC30 about 5-6 years ago for my girlfriend at the time. She loved it but after a week or so of riding it, had dramas getting it started. Looking back on it, it was probably just poor starting technique and some bad plugs but at that time i was more interested playing with my own bikes so looking at hers took a back seat. I eventually stripped it down to check the carbs and clean them out and inspect plugs which were all ok suprisingly. Buuuut no go. I persisted though and eventually managed to get it running well enough for a short 10 minute ride before it started coughing and spluttering. I got it home and then had issues getting it restarted so the carbs came off again. This roundabout circus went on for a few weeks and I gave up. My gf took the bike back and said she'd take it to a garage to get fixed but that never happened and it stayed in her garage for a few years...we broke up and i thought nothing else of it.
I spoke to her recently though and the bike was still in her posession so with my race season underway (race an Sv650) and it running perfectly I was in need of something to tinker with.
I picked up the NC30 and got right into it.
Carbs stripped and cleaned. Jets etc checked, float checked and set to specs.
New float bowl gaskets
New inlet boots and clamps
New plugs
New Fuel (checked fuel tap)
New Battery
tried to start and although it would turn over...no run time.
Can of 'Start-ya-Bastard' and got it to go :)
It idled for a short time and then died.
Carbs off...checked over...reinstallted.....tried again
(did this a few times)
Bike would then idle ok at 1200rpm but die as soon as throttle applied after warm up.
Suspected poor fittment of carbs and sure enough spraying above mentioned start ya bastard on inlet boots found that the front left cylinder must have a small leak as revs increased when sprayed. Figured just a lean problem so carbs off again, swapped boots around, rechecked to make sure in right spot, put carbs back on....SAME problem. (I also checked to make sure there was spark from each plug and all ok)
All sounds pretty standard so far huh?! here's the kicker.
Last night I try and start it up...have to use trusty starting fluid and idles away ok...I'm not sure why but i thought I'd touch the headers to see if all cylinders were firing and guess what?! BUH Boowwwwwww!! front right not firing!..checked the others and found that rear right was also not firing so my little VFR400 was now a VFR200 and not loving life!
Being that its not front or rear cylinders firing I knew that it wasnt the limp mode issue (have since performed mods to ensure this isnt an issue in the future) so I suspected the coils. Haynes manual at the ready the coils are in spec. Reg/Rec is also in spec so I moved on to the pulse generator pickups/triggers and the resistance is lower than suggested in the manual 412ohms compared to 450-500ohms @ 20degrees as listed in manual. Butttt my garage is cold'ish and both pickups have same resistance so maybe its just my mutimeter? Im going to test another one tomorrow.
I have a spare motor to take parts from and I performed the same test as above and found the resistance to be ~420ohms on each pickup so either I have two sets of pickups that are screwed (possible) or a dodge mutimeter (also possible)
Question is....would this likely explain the bike not running on all four cylinders or could it still be me doing something screwy with carb settings (should mention I now have three sets of carbs which I've tried and all have same issue/s)...yes we know 1 cylinder is a bit lean due to leak but that wouldnt stop other cylinders firing would it?
Arghh....love the VFR but thank god I race the SV...soooo much simpler!!!
Ideas people...throw em at me! PLEEEEEEEEASE!
