Recently bought my first bike, 99 CBR F4. She's not street-ready. Waiting for parts to come in the mail (crank case, rear turn signals, frame sliders, license plate LEDs, alarm system, shift lever), and a few maintenance jobs (restore snap-close in throttle, increase friction zone in clutch, reduce side play in shift lever) . I'm new to the site and excited to start my life as a rider

 

Welcome aboard galequin!

Congrats getting your F4! Get in goin' asap! Good luck w/ repairs & mods.

Have you taken the MSF Course...www.msf-usa.org? Be safe out there!

Come on over to the F4 section & post up pics when you get a chance.

Good to have you w/ us.

 

glad to have another F4! if you have any questions or wanna share what youre doing with your ride definitely hop to the F4 section and come hangout.. welcome again

 

I'm proud to say that I have completed a state approved motorcycle safety foundation basic rider course. and I'll be spending a lot of rides around my apartment complex before I take her into traffic. I'm near a college campus, lots of stop n go during certain hours... Needless to say I have my protective gear and will employ the hell out of it lol

 

Welcome! Definitely check out the F4 section..

 

It's always great to meet new riders. Sounds like you have some work ahead of you. I'm certain the rewards will be worth the effort. People I ride with sometimes kid me about atgat (all the gear, all the time) but when I wound up in the emergency room and the first thing out of the doc's mouth (upon seeing me in all my garb) was: "finally, an intelligent motorcyclist" I figured that I was doing the right thing wearing all the gear. lol
Ekelman.

 

I couldn't agree more, I'm a firm subscriber to the ATGAT way of thinking. I don't have a good camera but I'll be posting pics soon of me in full gear, and more pics of the progress made on the bike

 

galequin,

The spring return mechanism on your bike is basically a "stamped" sheetmetal plate with oval shaped cutouts that slide back and forth on bushings. There is a spring toward the left side of the carb rack that puts tension on the whole sheetmetal slide. This spring may have popped off or broken - on my 2000 F4, there was some corrosion around the oval cutouts that was causing the whole slide to bind around the bushings. I took it apart, cleaned it up, put some light grease on the bushings (plain axle grease - lithium grease is too sticky), then got a new coil spring at the hardware store with a bit more tension...this all cleared it up pretty well, and throttle snaps right back 100%.

The other possibility is your throttle cable...you may want to order a cable lube tool and some teflon cable lubricant. You just clamp the tool onto the end of the cable, then plug the straw from the spray can into the tool and go to town. Any online motorsports store should carry some kind of cable lube tool...

Adam

 

I have managed to do most of the changes I mentioned in my earlier post, got em done today. I restored the snap in the throttle except for when the handlebars are turned to the far right, the throttle actually sticks in that case... I've opened the housing and put some lube and adjusted the cable but think i need to try readjusting the cable again, a job best left for tomorrow since i ran out of sunlight :/... I have a question though, after replacing the cracked crank case and filling the oil reservoir, the oil light on my instrumentation display was still lit, more importantly, the bike would not start, just a clicking sound from the battery! It was running fine when I bought it, but after replacing the crank case it just wouldn't turn over. Then in my attempt to connect the rear turn signals I blew the battery (or a fuse, or both [I'm inclined to think the latter]) the front turn signals would not work, nor the lights on the display, I tried a push start and the battery made the same clicking sound it did before I blew it, but still no turn over. My question: what could have kept the bike from starting after the new crank case? Is it possible the battery was no good before?

 

More likely related to a short somewhere - possibly shorted out oil sensor or maybe fuse panel related, based on your comments.... OR....When you say you replaced the "crank case", are you referring to the right side crank case cover (where the oil level sight-glass is located)? If so, do you think there is any possibility that the "ignition pulse generator" near the timing rotor was bumped or damaged/disconnected?...this could sure cause some headaches...

As far as the battery goes, buy/borrow a good battery LOAD tester and check it with the cables goin to the bike removed...if you put a load on it, it will show you the integrity of the battery, not just the amount of charge.

Adam