Hello again to all our fellow enthusiasts of the forum, just wanted to follow up on the test ride and results of this thread last. I just want to reiterate to all of the younger riders out there that maintenance of a motorcycle is serious business and your life can literally depend on the condition in which your machine is kept. Keeping a 20 year old or more motorcycle in top condition is no easy task especially a model such as ours which was really not produced in any staggering numbers compared to the 600 class bikes or other high production number models. Parts for the entire series of CBR1000's are dwindling fast and if you have ever visited BikeBandit or other parts sites you are used to seeing the words "not available" on the schematics more and more and it seems like the only new parts that may be available soon are nuts and bolts. Getting new body panels is impossible, since due to the low production numbers the demand for bodywork was not profitable enough to put into production. Back to the subject, after doing any major work on your bike, always give it a general all over function check just to see if any bugs remain. I got into the habit of doing this like any experienced pilot of a plane does, and it has saved me problems more than once. Anyways right after the carb cleaning was completed, I did a general check of everything and found to my surprise that the rear brake light was staying on while the bike was running. After using both front and rear brakes turning on and off several times the light still remained lit. Suspecting the more vulnerable rear brake switch, I tried to manipulate the wire connecting hook and adjuster nut on the brake switch body. A bit of dirt was found on the switch which I cleaned off with some WD-40 and Simple Green. I removed the right side panel, lower kick panel, and unbolted the right rear set and brake piston holder bolts. I then tried to engage the switch again and it seemed to go on and off normally so it seemed to be just an adjustment problem rather than a bad switch. I put everything back together, adjusted the threaded holder for the cable and everything was working good again. Of course later when you think about it, this could have caused anything from a small accident to a major one with this type of malfunction. The bike is now running like a champ.

 

Great write-up! Thanks for sharing.

 

The last owner of my bike was a n00b - I don't fault him for that, but I agree - if you are going to own an older bike (or vehicle of any kind) it behooves you to learn how to perform some wrenching on it. Over Thanksgiving, whilst performing some more significant maintenance items, I too adjusted my rear brake light switch as it wasn't turning on with a slight tap of the brake. This, among other things (like finding the open vacuum port under cyl #3) were helpful in ensuring greater safety and reliability of my ride.

Raz

 

WOW! I bet she runs better now.

 

The difference was noticeable; bike runs smoother now and low rpm response is not as irregular. Can’t wait to pull the carbs and make sure everything is clean. Well, can’t wait to be done with it - there are a lot more hoses, etc. in the way compared to my old CB900...

 

While we're on the subject of carbs, I pulled mine on New Year's Eve and went through them - they turned out to be immaculate, so a prior owner (probably not the last one) had them cleaned and most likely sync'd so I think I'm good for a while. I do want to tackle the valve adjustment at some point (later this spring??) so I'll sync the carbs at that time, but I think for now i'm good - especially after what I got done earlier this week.

Since the carbs were fine, I noticed that many of the vacuum tubes were old and dry-rotted. I replaced the ones on the carb (and near it) but there are still more running up front that I can replace - but they looked to be in better shape so I left them alone for now.

I also installed a new air filter, and cleaned out the coolant reservoir. It had a layer of silt in the bottom one could have planted a garden in! I flushed it recently but that wasn't enough - after seeing coolant spurt out of the front of my bike on Monday I decided to investigate, and the hose going to the reservoir was dry and cracked - definitely needed to be replaced. I'm somewhat glad it wasn't connected or it might have pulled in some of that gunk into my nice, clean cooling system.

Anyway, it's clean and filled with fresh coolant, and along with the new vac lines and air filter I'm getting 5 mpg better than before - up to 44.5 mpg! That's a significant increase; I wonder what helped more, the vac lines or the filter (leaning towards filter). Still, makes me want to go replace more lines the next time I 'pop the hood open' on it. AND I found the cylinder #2 vacuum port cap was dry and cracked, so after fixing that it runs even smoother than when I discovered the port under #3 was wide open! Miracles never cease...

Ride safe out there!

Raz