Hey guys, first post so I'm sorry if it's in the wrong spot.

I'm having an issue as well. I did the "poor man's" carb clean by spraying carb cleaner into it. On one of the carbs, the cleaner runs through it and leaks out of the gasket above the oil pan. This is my first bike so I'm still learning, but that just sounds bad! Any thoughts on what could be going on?

Thank you in advance!

1998 Honda CBR F3

Other issues:

1) When I pull the throttle all the way on the highway the bike bogs down and I lose RPM's
2) The radiator fan doesn't seem like it's kicking on when it should
3) Coolant boils over into the reservoir/doesn't seem like system is working properly - read somewhere that this could be cause by a few different things so a little lost.
4) Bike shoots between 12 - 13 volts from the rectifier to the battery. I found burnt out wires where the stator connects to the wiring harness, I think the stator needs to be replaced and I need to figure out the best way to splice out the burnt wires (a new harness is $350, this bike is worth less than $1k. Maybe just $500. Doesn't make sense to buy a whole new harness.)

 

Welcome to CBRF! Sorry to hear you're having problems....

1) bogging down at WOT on the highway can be from so many things, that I would need some more info on the bike in question before I took a stab in the dark. Vac leaks, carb issues, fuel flow (to the carb) issues, etc.

2) does the fan come on at all? The fan kicks on via a pill switch that makes a ground when the water in the radiator reaches a certain point. So, it has 12v supplied constantly. I'd check to make sure I had 12v to the fan, then make sure I had a good ground connection to the switch on the radiator.

3). Again, could be a lot of things. Could be serious, could be simple. I'd check to see if I could see bubbles bubbling up through the radiator while it was running with the radiator cap off. If you see that, it would indicate a more serious problem like a blown head gasket, or cracked head. If it were simple, it might burp itself clear. If you live somewhere hot (like me, sunny SWFL, AKA the surface of the sun), boiling over in traffic without a fan working could easily happen.

 

Welcome to the forum. You'll enjoy it here.
Quite a few issues on that list and probably best to work on her systematically. You could cause damage if something is seriously wrong. Making sure it's safe to start brings you to your first issue.
Test battery voltage and record it. Don't start the bike yet. The wiring. You mentioned damage to cables. Make sure all cables are insulated. No exposed conductors and if there have been repairs, expose what has been done and check.
Next, once you've checked your oils good, the next step is the water. There's obviously something not right from your description of what's happening. Whilst cold, check your levels and pipelines, nothing wrong with squeezing a few pipes here and there either. Coolant should not have any traces of oil and vice versa on dipstick. If there is either, don't run it until that issue is rectified. Check your fan for free play also as your going to try and make it kick in later.
Once happy with levels start her up and monitor. She will get up to temp pretty quickly stationary so now it's checking levels and waiting for that fan to kick in is next. Whilst waiting and watching levels, get the multimeter back out to do some readings, record at idle, revving, lights on etc. Once all the above is good, you can then move to your running issues.
Let's get that bit sorted before we have you flying down the highway at supersonic without bogging issues.
Best of luck mate and tell us how you get on

 

Thank you both!

So this is what I'm in the middle of doing/plan on doing next.

1) I've flushed out the coolant fluid, I haven't replaced any yet but is prestone good? It doesn't specifically say it's safe for aluminum engines but it says it's good for all makes. Antifreeze / Coolant | Prestone®

2) I've also drained the oil and replaced the oil filter. I have not added new oil yet.

Next I plan on:

1) Testing the stator. I was just going to order a new one but visually it looks fine so I'm going to look up ways to test it on youtube.

2) Once I figure out the stator issue, I plan on replacing the oil pan gasket. I figured working in this order would be best because when I'm done with both I can add in the new oil.

***One observation I made: I am not sure what "dirty" oil looks like but when I drained it the oil was dark, not the amber-ish color I was expecting.

3) I also plan on doing the test on the fan that you guys suggested to see if it is working properly. I want to test the thermostat as well, how involved/difficult is it to remove?

4) Now the wiring harness - I cut more into coating the covers the wires that the stator plugs into. There was a whitish/greenish chalky matter around the three yellow wires. I am assuming that it's an oxidized residue. The challenge is that on this section there aren't any exposed wires like there was by the top. Should I still just replace as much of this wire as possible and wrap it well with electrical tape? If yes, do you know what type of wire I should use? All I know is that is should be rated for high voltage.

A few questions I have:

1) Why would the carb cleaner I put into the carbs originally leak out the oil filter? Wouldn't that mean oil and gas are potentially mixing?

2) For the oil pan gasket, do I need to remove the headers? If so, any suggestions? Any parts that I should order in advance that need to be replaced with that job?

3) For the stator, I am open to all thoughts and suggestions.

4) Lastly, any more details that I can provide you to help? I am looking at this as a "project" bike and understand that there is potentially a lot of work to be done and even more learning. It's my goal to get everything figured out before I take it out again, even if that means missing the riding season.

Thanks again for all your help!!

 

No, you'll want oil that looks like black coffee. Amberish colored oil would only be when it's very, very new.

Prestone is fine, any 50/50 mix will do.

Testing the thermostat is easy. Throw the thermostat in a pot of water and set it to boil. When the water boils, make sure you see it in the open position...

 

So I'm about to remove the thermostat but I wanted to test the fan first. I did like I saw on a video and put a screwdriver in the switch and placed it on the frame. The fan never kicked on and I blew two fuses. Am I doing this wrong or does this mean there is another issue?

 

Hi, what your doing is actually shorting the circuit, you have to apply 12v through the connector to see if the fan runs, watch this video, (you don't have to take the fan off)