it is getting colder in kansas and i was out riding my bike one night or actually early in the morning and the bike was running perfect. the next day i had early morning class (this is like 5 hours from when i got off the bike) and when i went to go start it, always pulling in full choke, the bike had a real rough idle. i'm pretty sure it was only running on 3 cylinders (i had electrical problems with my old ninja which led me to that assumption). the bike wouldn't idle when the choke was cut off. what could have caused this? the temperature outside was just above freezing so i thought maybe something was stuck. could something have had happened to the electrical system to maybe cease spark?

a couple of days later i'm still messing with it trying to figure it out and now the bike just turns over and doesn't start, even on full choke blipping the throttle. anyone have any ideas?

don't know if it is related: on a side note, i've been getting a slight tick in what sounds like the head. i thought it was the valves coming out of clearance so i went to 2 mechanics and they pretty much told me it wasn't the valves and it was probably the cam chain tensioner. today i check the tensioner (it is the self adjusting model) and the spring was still good and looked like it was in good working order. the chain was tight and i didn't find any noticeable wear on the inside of the chain. now what?

any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

I'm having a similar problem. I have a 2000 F4. Recently I started hearing a ticking coming from my motor that sounded like valves. The bike used to start without any choke at all and about the same time the ticking started I started having to choke to get her to start. The ticking has become progressively worse (though it does seem to lessen as the bike gets hotter) over time and I finally decided to take the time to check the valves. I just finished checking them and they all check out fine. However, I do have excessive leak through on a couple of the valves, intake and exhaust on different cylinders, so I'm taking the head off to clean and examine further. I have heard similar problems being due to a cam chain tensioner and as mine has probably never been replaced in 30k miles I'm going to replace it as preventative/possible fix anyways. Now if I could only get the original tensioner off so I can pop off this head...

Sam

 

i wanna say its an electrical bro but i dont want to point you in the wrong direction. I highly doubt its the cam chain problem. before the regulator on my 900 went out , my bike idle'd rough also, and went dead. it would turn but it wouldnt run. after that it even stopped turning and like a retard i jumped it with my truck and blew the regulator. I doubt its your regulator but check the power supply and see if your getting any juice from the battery to the regulator or vice versa. might be a simple fix but i know that the regulator's on the earlier cbr's went out like crazy and still do if you buy a cheap one.

 

oh ya, theres also a small fuse box right but the regulato that should only hold 1, 30 amp fuse, check that too cuzz when my bike was turning and not runnin that fuse was blown. if i woulda checked that fuse i coulda saved myself a regulator.