So apparently the bike gods are punishing me again for some unknown infraction...
I decided to go to the local bike night last night, as it might be the last one of the year. As the 650 is a big question mark, and the 360's carbs are about 900 miles away from me now getting some love (thanks PJ!
) I was left with the 900.
Which wouldn't start. I just rode the damn thing, wtf?
After some poking, I discovered that the fuel pump was not running. I took the cover off the back of it and found points. Points!?!?!? In 1993!??!!? Badly burnt points to be specific. The bike has a diaphragm style fuel pump, similar to those installed on little British cars.
I cleaned up the points with a points file (oh the tools I have collected), and hooked it up to power again. It worked, but man those points were sparking. Yes, let me install the spark generator under the fuel tank and fill it with gasoline
Some Googling revealed that many folks just remove the fuel pump when it fails, and use gravity feed for fueling the carbs, so I decided to try that. I hooked the line from the fuel filter to the tank and then directly to the carbs and removed the fuel pump control relay. A couple seconds of cranking, and voila, the bike fired up! I geared up and headed out for a test run.
About 10 seconds after I gave the bike some throttle, it sputtered to a stop and I couldn't restart it. On a major 5 lane road. In the dark. Shit.
I pushed the bike into a Denny's parking lot (I'm sure stranger things have happened in that parking lot), and after some poking, still couldn't get it to fire. Built not bought, eh Rich? ;D
Some thinking through the DTT "what the shit is wrong with my junk?" checklist brought me to "plugged fuel tank vent," so I popped the cap on the tank. Hiissssssss. Huh, that's not good. But, breaking the vacuum was enough to get the bike started and running ok enough on choke to get me home.
After waking away from the bike for a little bit, I pulled the fuel tank again to inspect the vent and overflow tubes detailed in my factory service manual. There was no overflow tube, because it's much more exciting to let overflow gas go right onto a hot engine, and the vent tube was plugged with a small bolt. Previous owners man, previous owners. I pulled the vent tube to remove the bolt and the tank made another audible hisssssss as air flowed into the tank. I think I may have found the issue. I put the bike back together and put it on the charger, as it was too late for a ride on a bike with a Kerker pipe.
Some more research this morning led to me discovering that repair points kits are available for the fuel pump. Here's the repair walkthrough:
http://cbrforum.com/forum/stickies-91/how-repair-your-f3-fuel-pump-102151/
And here's the part:
http://davidsilverspares.com/CBR900RRP-FIREBLADE-1993/part_141068/
I still want to see if the pump is really needed, but I'll probably repair it and reinstall it for easier starting.
I tell ya, these damn bikes...if I wanted electrical problems, I would have bought another Italian bike!