so i was on my way to school today just riding along thinking, "man this sucks, last day its going to be warm enough to ride. Forecast says 32 for the next two weeks. I'll finally have to put by baby in for the winter." then as i was going up the hill my bike bogged way down and died without any warning!

i checked all the lights n the guages and tried to start it a few times but nothing hapened. all it would do was crank the engine, the engine wasn't doing anything, wouldn't fire at all. so i spent 30 minutes pushing it back home.

once i got home i gave it a once over for leaking fuel or oil or anything i could find but i didn't see ne thing wrong. the oil light is on but its only at 4k miles since last change. i put really good synthetic in it when i changed the oil, should be good for over 5k.

two weeks ago i had a ignition fuse blow. wonder if that has anything to do with it? i dunno but it sounded like it wasn't getting any spark or any gas or something when i tried to start it again. i could hear it spinning but that was it. there was no gas being burnt. and the funny thing is that it rode perfect up until the last 5 seconds before it shut off?!?!?!?

so now i am pissed cause i just got it on my birthday in august 12 from a guy in ohio. i have put about 4.5k on the bike and i love it to death. its my first bike and i worked night shift two states away from home all summer to pay for it. oh and its 2000 cbr f4.

 

this exact same thing happened to me!
i think it could be bad spark plugs? i tried changing spark plugs myself but the angle is really weird on the f4, so i couldn't quite get to them.
it just cranks and cranks and cranks but i feel like the fuel never ignites so the engine doesn't start, even tried push starting it and everything.
so yeah i would say spark plugs.

 

You don't just want to start throwing parts on the bike guessing what the problem could be. That can cost allot of time and money that's spent on chasing the gremlins around.

It could be an electrical problem or mechanical (i.e. Piston rings not sealing, valves not sealing etc.)

If its electrical it could be anything from the battery to the ICM and anything in between.

First test you should do before any test is a compression and leak down test. If that checks out good then move onto electrical or fuel.

Since its just about time to put the bike up I'd go ahead and take it to a shop at some point before next riding season. Or invest in the tools you'll need for testing, which is a bit of a waste if you're never going to use the tools again.

 

Start with the easy stuff before you go spending a bunch of money on tools to do compression tests and what-not.

You said it's still cranking over fine, so it sounds like it's not the charging system.

Have you checked the fuse that had blown out before? Sounds like an easy suspect to check..

Check your fuel filter. Is your fuel pump working?

Grab a service manual and start doing some troubleshooting.

No need to jump right into harder stuff when you haven't checked the obvious simple things first.

Also couldn't hurt to pull the plugs and see what they look like, as chucksta said.

Let us know if you come up with anything.

 

I would just like to clarify that I don't recommend that advanced testing be done by anyone without the tools/knowledge of doing the tests.

I bring up the "coulds" and "shoulds" speculating what the symptom's are possibly pointing at problem wise. Most of all the only thing I do recommend is taking a problem bike into a shop to have a registered technician properly diagnose and repair the problem. Of course this is after the basics have been covered that chuckbear mentioned by the owner himself.

So I apologize for getting into detail of testing before referring to the basic of basics.

 

yes i checked all the fuses, checked everything under the seat actually, no problems there.

prolly start with fuel delivery, cause it bogged down right before it died. but ya i was thinking sparkplugs, plug wires. iono. i plan on taking off the fairings and checking everything from i can easily get to from back to the front thats not directly on the engine block. shouldn't be too hard. then i am gonna take the tank and airbox off and start checking the motor.

thanks for the tips. i was just wondering if someone had the same problem and fixed it already. i'll keep you posted on my progress, but it will go fairly slow seeing as i have finals in two weeks. gotta start studying now so i wont be so stressed out the week before.

 

got tired of doing statics homework a few minutes ago and decided to go start ripping my bike apart. i started with the fuel delivery first and it seems like my fuel filter is clogged. water won't go through it if i put a little stream in from the faucet. it fills up the top chamber and then overflows. if i blow into the filter it goes through. it should just flow through like its not even there right??? so i am gonna get a new one tomorrow. hopefully it works then.

 

Yer the fluids should just go straight threw the fuel filter, well they did on my zx6e.

I had a simular problem on my cbr 600 f3 i rode it home after work and it had no problems at all no bogging down or anything, then went to start it next day and it wouldnt fire up, was turning over fine but no ignition so put some new iridium sparkplugs in and hey presto it worked fine

 

what kind of tool do i need to get the spark plugs out? i don't think i have anything long enough thats flexible enough to fit down that hole. talk about some bad engineering, the damn frame is right above the sparkplug so u can't get anything in there!

 

so i just put the new fuel filter in and now it will idle. only problem is that it idles at like 3 or 4 hundred rpm instead of 13 or 14 hundred, if u hit the gas it dies, and my headlight and turn signal don't work anymore. new wiring harness???? i don't feel like checking every wire, that would take forever.