600 RR woes

gkotlin

gkotlin

New Member
I've got an '03 600RR. The bike has been rock solid. Now lately, it doesn't want to run. Once the bike is warmed up, it won't take throttle. So you warm the bike up. Gear up. Head out to the hot pit. Run the RPM's up and it starts to miss and fart and cut out. The tachometer drops as the engine hesitates. The warmer the bike gets, the worse the hesitation gets. Sometime it won't even idle. But it starts out as a high rpm issue and then gets worse.

This leads me to believe it is an electrical issue. Possibly a sensor since it gets worse with temperature or time. All the other fields on the instrument display don't flicker so I don't think it's the gauge cluster. Has anyone had a problem like this? The bike did overheat a bit a few weeks ago. I think I had an air pocket in the cooling system. That has since been corrected and the air purged. Here is what I've done or know so far.

Side stand switch bypassed
Air filter removed
Fuel pump swapped
Spark plugs replaced
Tried different coils
Disconnected Power Commander and TPS
Checked battery connections
Can't be the tip over switch or you'd have to cycle the key when it cut out

I think thats it so far.
I'm just fishing for ideas here. It's hard to troubleshoot this. Riding through the neighborhood on a bike with numbers an no plates maintaining 10000 rpms really gets you the attention you don't want.
 
J

JASON748

New Member
Haven't heard that one yet...
but it definately sounds heat releated. Are you getting a fault code?

First guess would be to check the ECT sensor (temp sensor). The "LIGHTS/METERS/SWITCHES" section in the service manual tells you how to test it.

Second guess would be injector/fuel system problem.

Also check the IAC Valve & Map sensor too...
 
B

beechkingd

Member
Sounds like a classic honda voltage regulator failure. Check your battery voltage when the bike is running and see what it does.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
The first thing you want to do is find out why the engine sputters.

Is it a rich fuel mixture?
From a bad ECU, bad coils, bad spark plug, incorrect timing

Is it not enough fuel?
Bad fuel pump, bad ECU.

Is it that the bike gets hot or just the longer it runs the worse it gets?
This sounds stupid but if there is a fuel deliver problem, kinked line or something restricting flow, you might not see it when the bike starts but as the engine gets starved it will start to run poorly. Nothing to do with temp, just how long it runs.

Do some simple checks, pull plugs to see if they are fouled from a rich condition or burnt from a lean condition. If the plugs look good then it would seem to be an ECU or electrical problem. If the plugs are bad, get new ones to see if that solves the problem. If it does, be careful you may have solved the symptom and not the problem. If the plugs go bad again, then it would point to a combustion issue. To rich or lean. Once you know this you can then figure out what is causing the rich/lean issue.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
I need to read better before I respond. It is 1:30am though.

I would really start with why the engine runs poorly. Rich/lean condition or an electrical problem. I think those are your only options. My other post should hopefully give you some other avenues to run with.
 
gkotlin

gkotlin

New Member
So I had time to work on the bike for a few minutes. I started it up. It got well up to operating temp. No problem. Arrrgghhhhh...... So I ride it gently up the street and back. No problem still. I checked my battery voltages before it started and while it was running. They were all good. Then I turn the bike off. It won't restart. It's like the battery is totally dead. I grab the multimeter. When I connect it to the battery I get an overload. What the heck. I know the battery is bad now. But why would I get an overload reading?
 
B

beechkingd

Member
I still think your regulator is fried. What do you mean and overload reading though? The only time you would see OL in a meter is if you are checking resistance. Are you saying it is reading high?
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
Have you tried going to a total loss system, to remove the charging system from the equation? On my bike, that's just unplugging the gen/alt, jumping the connection and starting it up. Not sure about the new bikes, but if it's a bad regulator, then that would remove it from the scenario. Those with similar bikes, speak up about any issues with trying this since I don't have a 600rr wiring diagram in front of me ;).
 
B

beechkingd

Member
physicistkev;18195 wrote: Could be getting an OL reading if you use the wrong scale. Example, 6V scale and read a 12V system.
Click to expand...
I havn't used a non auto-ranging meter in a long time so it could be that as well.
 
finny47

finny47

Member
Check the FPR?

I have an F4i that had sort of similar symptoms. Mine was a fuel pressure regulator just dumping fuel into #2 and some into #3. My telltale sign was when Joe of TurnOne was spraying water at the exhaust pipes and noticing #2 would not immediately steam like the other ones due to excessive fuel because the FPR was broken.
 
gkotlin

gkotlin

New Member
It's an auto ranging digital Multi-meter. Thats why I'm confused. I'm ordering a battery and we'll see what that gets me.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
I hate electrical problems. I had a bad output regulator on the gen a few years back. Mine would run fine but just wouldn't charge the battery. Pretty easy to narrow down, but still a pain int he a$$.
 
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beechkingd

Member
physicistkev;19068 wrote: I hate electrical problems. I had a bad output regulator on the gen a few years back. Mine would run fine but just wouldn't charge the battery. Pretty easy to narrow down, but still a pain int he a$$.
Click to expand...
My VFR's failed by going overvoltage and shorting a diode in the diode tree. This allowed quite a bit of AC into the electrical system. It confused the ignition to the point it would barely run at idle or high RPM, along with that it also made the tach jump all over the place.
 
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