my first serious breakdown, engine died at speed!

[Neosophist]

woah there, slow down a bit

Test the basics before you start looking at ECU / Pickups.

The bike does have pick-up's. There inside the clutch cover, there are two of them.

The ECU / Pickups are fairly bullet proof.

The ECU shold be a black box under the passanger seat with an OKI sticker on.

You can test the spark plugs by removing them, reconnecting the plug-lead and having the plug rest agsinst the engine casing to earth it and crank the bike over.

Since the bike has 4 coils it might be worth checking all the plugs.

Have you fully recharged the battery yet and tried to start it with no throttle / full choke? The bike will still crank with a battery too low to provide spark power

[suzbug]

hi neo.
no, i havent had chance to look at it since the other day, i dont have a garage so means stripping donw on the roadside, which is naf.

The last time i was cranking i had it on the battery and jump leads to my old fiesta with its engine running so it had a good power supply..

i know i can get ahead of myself sometimes.. i have time to think about it while at work, but dont have time nor daylight on an evening to do much fault finding, so think i contemplate every possability.. dont know if this a good thing or bad thing?!? (im an electronics engineer, so it normal for me to suspect potted balck boxes of electronics!)

will take tank off and check for spark. that should answer a few questions.

what would you then think if:
A) there is a spark but still not running? (fuel?)
B) there isnt a spark??

Thanks
Chris

[suzbug]

ps, whats the sensor i found in the middle of the engine? is this oil pressure??

[CMSMJ1]

With the dodgy tacho stuff it seems like an earth rather than something as heavy as pickups etc.

[suzbug]

ahh, well, this might have some bearing on things..
the tacho has ALWAYS since ive owned the bike displayed about double the actual rpm. Thought this was odd but have never stopped it running sweet.
I posted up last year but didnt resolve it, so have just lived with it..

I tested the earths from coils to chasis and it is <0.1 ohm so thats not bad.

The earth at the front coils is maent to be for the tacho too?? because thats a good connection..

[CMSMJ1]

ah...

I remember..and did we get pics of said tacho?

[suzbug]

no, i dont think i posted them up.
i was only ridding the bike for 14 days, (although i did reserect the bike during summer and got MOT) i had it taxed from sept 1st, and on 15th i went for surgary on my knee so was on crutches for a few months non weight bearing.
my forum account has my works email registered to it and i forgot my password, but i wasnt at work to check my emails to get my new password! doh..
so i just let it be, by time i was back ridding weather was too crap and dark to work on it, so it was a case of, if it aint causing a problem, dont worry about it.

[Neosophist]

Something isn't right anyway, i remember now.

It seems like a bit of a bitsa tbh.

Some good pictures of the bike, tacho and engine would help. doubling the tacho speed is odd, its either the wrong tacho or you possibly have a 30 engine in there instead.

Ignore that for now though, just check for a spark first and we can go from there.

Jumping a bike that has possible electrical faults is a bad idea, the car battery can supply a lot more power than the motorcycle battery and if you have dodgy electrics its an easy way to fry things.

Test the plugs anyhow and get back, one of the rear plugs should be easy to remove, hold it by the plug-lead so its touching one of the rocker box bolts and crank it over.

[amaechizzle]

Jumping a bike that has possible electrical faults is a bad idea, the car battery can supply a lot more power than the motorcycle battery and if you have dodgy electrics its an easy way to fry things.

Sorry, but I don't understand how a car battery can hurt?
They're both 12 volts. And I was under the belief that current flow is determined by whatever is drawing it.
e.g. Starter motor. You may have a 600amp battery, but your only going to be using 200amps if that's all your starter requires.

Correct me if I'm wrong

[suzbug]

@ amaechizzle
You are correct, a componant will only draw the current it requires.
What Neo is meaning that if there is a fault on my loom or componant, a componant or dead short can draw more current than the wires are designed to. The limiting factor would be the amount that the small bike battery can supply (or the fuse, whichever is smaller).. by putting a larger battery on it could result in wirring loom melting from too much current draw through cables..
In my case it admitedly wasnt a great idea becuase i have an undiagnosed fault.

Generally though, if your battery is just dead, in my opinion jumping it from an external pack wouldnt itself cause damage.

Correct me if im wrong guys..