hey fellas! 87 600f wont stay running. was fine. 2 weeks ago i changed out the petcock to a working one. ran it after that and it idled fine for at least 20 minutes.

the other night i hooked up a new headlight, took apart the left handle to see about the bright/dim wiring. put it all back together and now it only wants to run for 3 seconds tops.

battery is DEAD. it runs for 3 seconds when jump started from my trucks battery (battery looks old so i figured i wasnt worried about battery damage if it happened)

or the other possibility is i flooded it with the new petcock, as i dont think i had it set properly. up-on, rear-off, down- reserve.

any help would be appreciated. thanks for your time.

 

Did you have to jump start it before working on the petcock & wiring/headlight, or did this start happening after? Also, how long have you had the bike & did it run well before this stuff was worked on & for how long? This will help with narrowing down the cause of the problems you're having.

The first thing I would look at is the battery itself & the connections to it. Either charge & test the battery or replace it, and make sure it has solid connections to both power and ground. If the battery is no good there isn't a reliable way to test the rest of the system.

 

no i never had to jump start it before, it ran great the few times i have rode it.

i took the battery to work and trickle charged and load tested it and it checked out.

this bike is a street fighter setup from the previous owner so all the wiring is tucked under the gas tank. so i will be doing some inspecting today now that i have some free time.

 

and i might add that after the petcock it ran fine too, i only idled it but it ran for 20 minutes.

after the headlight is the only time i noticed it wouldnt run.

 

now it wont even try to turn over. dont hear a relay clicking or anything

 

these bikes are mechanically simple. powers and grounds sound like your best friend right now, i'd be making sure those are good and proper first before moving to anything else

 

will do, thank you sir

 

Sounds like there might be a parasitic draw and/or a shorted wire somewhere too, check the battery voltage and see if it has been discharged while sitting. Definitely a good idea to check all the wiring for shorts, bad connections, etc. If you have a multimeter I would be curious to see what the amperage draw from the battery is with the bike shut off (parasitic draw test).

Since it ran fine before I would first look at the handlebar switch & wiring, all the main harness wiring, or anything that was in the general area being worked on. I'm not suggesting you did something wrong, but if the previous owner did a crappy job with the wiring all it could take is moving a wiring harness slightly to short a wire. Also make sure to check all your fuses! Including the main 30A fuse that's separate from the fuse block.

 

so i took the handles back apart. i think my choke cable was somehow causing it. the bike will run now, but once i turn the choke all the way off it idles kind of rough. and then if i try to throttle up it dies.

 

Do you have a fuel filter installed? Maybe it got some debris in it, or in the carbs, when you changed out the petcock. What you are describing now sounds like a lack of fuel from dirty carbs.. running lean.