Hi,

My 92 CB400 Super Four, after running without a hiccup since I bought it a couple of months ago, wouldn't start this morning.

I rode it home from work last night and all seemed fine. The only thing different from normal is it was a bloomin hot evening, but even then the temperature gauge never reached half way as I was always moving.

I did a tiny amount of work on the bike in the evening, but nothing I can conceive affected it - I was just rubbing down the luggage rails prior to respraying them.

This morning, the ignition lights come on, & headlight is on. Press the Start button and I can hear the starter motor spinning. Seems like plenty of battery power, its spinning fast and strong. However their is not a cough or splutter from the engine at all. It's not even trying to fire. There is plenty of petrol in it and the petrol tap is on (untouched from last night).

I'm sure there are some simple things I should do to check the obvious likely causes, but I'm new to old bike so not practised at diagnosing faults.

Any suggestions as to what I should check first, given those symptoms?

I suspect that like the CB-1, the CDI is located by the luggage rails, so check that you haven't dislodged the multi connector to it or caught the wiring causing a short.
You haven't done the old classic of knocking the kill switch to the off position?

ooooooh, I didn't check the kill switch. Oh please lord let it be that. I was on the last minute going out to work, & it was like an oven in my garage, so I wasn't too methodical about it

Look I don't take myself too seriously, I'm not going to be embarrassed if it turns out to be that. Whats the point of a forum if people don't post their bike related woes on it, however stupid they may be.

I replaced the CDI a few weeks ago actually, to fix the rev counter not working, so I know it's just under the back edge of the petrol tank on the Super Four, so shouldn't be possible to be knocked, but if its not the kill switch I will whip the tank off as the next step and check the CDI connection for sure.

Thanks

Allrover wrote:ooooooh, I didn't check the kill switch. Oh please lord let it be that. I was on the last minute going out to work, & it was like an oven in my garage, so I wasn't too methodical about it

Look I don't take myself too seriously, I'm not going to be embarrassed if it turns out to be that. Whats the point of a forum if people don't post their bike related woes on it, however stupid they may be.

I replaced the CDI a few weeks ago actually, to fix the rev counter not working, so I know it's just under the back edge of the petrol tank on the Super Four, so shouldn't be possible to be knocked, but if its not the kill switch I will whip the tank off as the next step and check the CDI connection for sure.

Thanks

Lets know how you get on.

I'm not going to lie....



Can't believe I didn't check it at the time. I was on the last minute going out to work, and the fact that the starter motor was spinning up threw me off. Bloody kill switch, the classic.

Thank you for your responses yesterday, hopefully I raised a smile with my stupidity!

Don't worry we have all been there.....
the fact that the kill switch only cuts the power to the coils and the starter motor will still spin does cause confusion.

the good news is, it was a cheap fix

All's well that ends well, haha. Makes you feel daft, but at least it's free.

I did something similar, cursing my bike for not starting one morning, realised I was trying to start it in 1st. In fairness most of my previous bikes would have started in first, but not my CB for some reason.