Hi all

In need of a little help from someone with a bit of knowledge.

I have put this thread on other forums before I discovered a CBR Forum so apologies if you're members of the other forums too and have read and replied to this post.

I have a 1998 Honda CBR 600F and recently it has started cutting out. The engine will idle poorly but the moment I rev it up or put it into gear to pull away it cuts out on me.

It was doing this last year and the guy who came out to rescue me thought it may be due to paint flaking away inside the fuel tank and blocking the fuel filter. He suggested it may be because the tank was nearly empty and that keeping it topped up it may help.

Then it wouldn't start at all and it turned out to be a burnt out fuel pump. I had this replaced and, after taking it for a decent run as it hadn't been used all winter, the problems seemed to be completely cured. It ran beautifully without a hiccup.

Until 2 weeks ago. It suddenly died on me when I was coming home from work. No prior warning, no spluttering beforehand, it just cut out just like it would if it had ran out of fuel. I could start it again, the engine would idle but as soon as I tried to move away in gear it cut out. Another trip out for the breakdown guys. This bloke suggested it may be water in the fuel or bits of paint from the inside of the tank blocking the fuel filter.

So, I pulled out the service manual, took a deep breath, rolled up my sleeves and got to work taking the tank off and draining the fuel. Turns out there was a whole load of water sitting in the tank probably caused by a blocked drainage pipe. 'Great!' I thought. Problem discovered! So I drained the last dregs from the tank, dried up every last drop of fuel/water from inside and also drained the carbs out. Cleared out the drainage pipe, put it all back together and put 5 litres of fresh fuel in.

It took a while to start, understandably, but eventually it did. But it still keeps dying out on me. It seems that the problem hasn't gone away as I hoped it might. I thought that maybe if I took it for a spin it would clear any remaining crap out of the system and settle down. But I can't even get to pull away let alone ride it anywhere. It will now rev upto about 3,000RPM but it does it poorly and you have to be very gentle on the throttle. It still cuts out on me frequently though.

I can't find any reference to a fuel filter in the service manual at all. The only filter of sorts I could see is a mesh type thing inside the tank which I presume is there to keep any crap in the tank from going into the fuel lines.

So............ Has anyone got any ideas as to what the problem is likely to be? It was serviced last October and has done very few miles since then.

I'm no mechanic so I haven't got a clue. I'm hoping someone out there can give me a solution that I can work with. Money's a little tight so I'm trying to avoid the expense of getting someone to fix something that I could hopefully do myself with a little time and patience!

Thanks in advance

 

im now having pretty much the same problem... my engine will cut out on me and its also hard to start. im thinking its the fuel pump but i have a deep feeling my jets are clogged. btw i dont know about your F but i have an F3 and my fuel filter is the cylinder shaped plastic piece between my petcock and fuel pump. i know i need to change that but i dont know if that is the problem. well try checking any filters then check your pump to make sure its still good, and then id check your jets to make sure they arent clogged.

 

I'm curious where the fuel filter is also. I've read the owners and service manual and don't see it listed any where.

I hope you guys get your problem fixed.


Moses

 

did you make sure to get all of the vacuum hoses hooked up and un-kinked? if you didn't, your bike would be doing EXACTLY what you described in your post. it doesn't take much to kink a vacuum hose and mess everything up.

other than that... when you drained your carbs, did you just drain them? or did you take them off and clean them as well? because you need to, and make sure everything works, is clean. get a new fuel filter, you an get them anywhere.

but always try the vacuum hoses first, the problem is usually the simplist thing.

pretty sure (but i could be wrong), that the orig. F3 came with no fuel filter... however, most people have added them since (think about it, your bike is 12-15 yrs young). and fuel today (at least in america) is not what it used to be, so adding one is a good bet, just a little insurance policy.

 

Water in you're fuel tank will get everywhere, so that means it's in you're carbies as well, just sitting there in the float bowls, ready to be squirted into the donk. Water won't ignite, so you're plugs get damp & either won't fire or small spark. Because fuel & water don't mix, the fuel sits on top of the water, but it will suck through globs of water droplets (not a nice atomised spray of fuel). It's also amazing how little amount of water can cause problems & how long the water can stay around.
In the old days (60's & 70's) a generous slurp of metho in the tank could remedy the problem, these days I would not recommend it. What I do recommend is draining you're float bowls again & getting rid of any remaining water (& gunk), check you're air filter, as its probably going to have some moisture as well, replace the plugs to as their probably rooted.
Here is a pic of the fuel filter & it's location, note the models that have it.

 

ya ive decided my problem is more than likely my plugs so maybe youll wanna replace urs too

 

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Looks like I have to go back in there and remove the carbs and clean them out then........... Yikes! And check the fuel filter. I seem to recall seeing something that looks like the one in the pic you sent Pacemaker. I wondered at the time if that's what it was but as there was no reference to it in the manual I decided to leave it well alone just incase I did something wrong :-S

Well, if it's got to be done then I have do it then. Let's hope for some sunny weather. The bike sits outside! Wonder if I could bring it in to the kitchen?


Will let you know how I get on. This may take some time - a mechanic I ain't!

 

Hi All

Decided in the end to take it to the people that know as the bike sits outside and the weather was cooling down and getting wetter. Didn't fancy playing around in the cold! Anyway, they took it away, dried it out and inspected it. The problem turned out to be something to do with the caps on the carbs???? I have absolutely no idea what he was talking about but he told me one was missing and the others weren't sealing properly to create a vacuum. I'm none the wiser but apparently it's why it kept cutting out. I wouldn't have found that so it's best it went in to be looked at. Anyway, all's well that ends well. Bike now working properly.

Thanks for all the advice though.

Thick Chick

 

Sounds like they might have been referring to the vacuum ports where you would attach a synchronizer tool. Normally they have screws plugging the ports and a plastic cap on the #1 carb. That one just slides off. I guess it could be something else, but glad to hear that it's running properly again.

 

I got my bike cheap because it would not idle.
The main problem I found was all 4 carb rubber mounts (Isolators) were hard and had a few tiny cracks, which was causing a lean idle stall. New boots and she never stalled again!