superhawk996

Thanks guys. Armed with the words 'test plug' I was able to do some useful searching. I always thought that only the 99&00 birds had this harness issue but just read that the 01 isn't immune. I guess I'll start digging.

Fuck you, you just wanna laugh at my strips. If I knew how I would so laugh at my ignorance instead. Suddenly nobody believes I'm related to Carlos?

No power commander. Charging was my first thought and I pushed the start button to turn the headlight off and the FI light went out, but it could have been coincidental cuz I wasn't able to stare at it while dodging traffic, I held the button just in case 'till I was in the open and the FI light was off. I rode another 20 minutes with one stop and after getting home I restarted to lube the chain, no signs of charge trouble. I just checked charging, I've been suspecting a weak battery since I got the bike, after being parked a couple hours it showed 12.1v so it is going. At idle I have 12.6 and the voltage rises as I rev it up. From 1500 RPM up I have a consistent 14.6. Seems high but it's the first time I've checked a bird's voltage. It seems to me it shouldn't be low voltage since it started right back up and started a few more times without a problem, but I also know that some vehicles have strange quirks. I should get one, I have a carb manual, but not FI.

This tire has few miles and only light twisty use with plenty of bitch strip for my hens to laugh about, can't say chicken strips around here without being looked at cock-eyed. Earlier today I discovered ridges on both sides about half way between the center line and the outer edge. I assume this is where the dual compounds meet; is it normal to have this ridge line? Anything to worry about?

Slowing to a red light splitting cars, about 8-10 MPH, pulled the clutch to down shift and it died as the light changed. It started right back up and off I went. The FI light was flickering dimly, but it's fairly dim anyway. Not a steady flash, random flickering of varying intensity. It stopped a couple blocks afterwards. It ran fine before and after the stall. It was the second short ride of the day, about 85 out, 210 engine temp. Stock motor other than a K&N recently serviced. Plugs were done recently as well as a new fuel pressure regulator. Tank close to full. Anyone know what it could be? I don't want to get blindsided down the road if there's something starting to fail that can be fixed now.

I like the description.

Cool. What's the swing arm from?

Might as well try to fix it or do whatever will make you happy, you couldn't even give that bike away now.

Yea, thanks. I can already see what to do to the insides rather than guessing. Do you know if that's a late or early can? From what I remember reading they just enlarged some of the small tubes so it should be about same anyway. I still want one or more to experiment with, mostly to see how to open it as cleanly as possible and close it back up so I may hit up rockme.

I want to cut one open to experiment with, looking to figure out a way to make a selectable internal by-pass.

I looked in with a flashlight and it does appear to have welds further in. I think part of the exhaust comes through the perforations and part through the gap between the perfed tube and the wall forward of it that gets drilled out. Now I want a can to experiment with. I like the rumble of an uncorked XX, but I also like being stealthy, a selectable by-pass is the answer.

I really disliked the buzzy sound of the decoration holes drilled, but opening the center sounded nice. Is the perforated outlet tube attached other than at the outlet? If they're not then a bigger hole saw would allow removing the tube and it may sound even better.

Depending on the contaminants accumulating in the oil while it's breaking down through use the pressure may rise or fall. I doubt the pressure change would be measurable unless you ignored changing the oil for a very long time.

I'm sure there's a better definition of galling, but basically the nut and bolt stick and rip. It's most prevalent with certain grades of stainless, I think 300 series. Mixing different metals between nut and bolt will usually keep it from happening as will certain lubes.

Some sizes of metric and sae hardware will seem to match 'till you get almost the full length of the nut on, something you can't easily test for with a nylock. If by 1/2" bolt you mean it has a 1/2" head, that most likely makes it a 5/16 bolt which happens to mate pretty well with an 8mm nut of the right thread pitch. If it's a 1/2" bolt I don't think any metric will be close enough to make it seem right.

Did you pre-lube it?--run the pump with a drill after assembly to prime the oil system. The biggest mistake I see done a lot is to not prelube, AND pre-fill the filter with oil. This creates an air lock between the pump and filter not allowing the pump to prime. An empty filter, tho it takes a moment to fill, at least lets the pump prime quickly. I watched my friend kill his new hot-rod motor this way, I told him it would happen and how to prevent it, but his other friend helping him said I was wrong. On motors that can't be pre-lubed I crank the motor with no plugs and the filter off till it squirts oil (very quick), then install a pre-filled filter and get instant oil pressure. Assuming everything was lubed with assembly lube the little cranking required will be perfectly safe. Having the plugs out is an extra safety measure so there's little load on the bearings during priming. Did you clean all the oil holes including the crank? I've seen many motors wiped out early due to dirty oil holes. Most engines, if not all, have some oil holes that have to be plugged off and I've seen them left unplugged leaving a wide open escape for oil leaving little or no pressure in the system. A few years ago I did some reading on adding zinc to oil and the it was stated that the old zinc/phos and the new replacement additives can work against each other. The two tests most discussed here have been the 4 ball and the scrubber pressure test thing. The 4 ball should be a good representation of wear in a roller cam and the scrubber test a flat tappet cam. My understanding of zinc is that it does nothing until there's a moment where the oil film is scrubbed off then the zinc becomes the final barrier.

Never had this happen because of a nylock and I wrench every day. Most likely something was in the threads that galled them up. If it's a stainless nut & bolt galling happens all the time even without debris in it, some grades require lube before assemble to prevent galling. More force, or cut it. If you want to add a tool to your collection, get a nut splitter; quick and easy. Most likely the bolt is now fucked anyway so you have nothing to loose with more force and breaking the bolt.

If you want to be careful, bring the piston to the top for each cylinder that you are working on. I almost suggested that, but if the piston is not exactly at TDC (within a couple degrees) and the pressure pushes the piston down you just lost the safety margin of having the piston there. Even worse, you may have a momentary pressure loss as the piston moves down. Confirm you are right on TDC or use low pressure so it can't roll the motor. 100 PSI will easily spin a V8 that's a few degrees off, and 10 PSI will hold the valve if not knocked. If the valve is knocked and the piston's there to catch it you can pull it back up so it seals again. By the time you account for all the safeties of using air, the string method is no more work and there's no way to foul it up. What I really like about using string is that if something happens and you want to run off for a moment or just take a break there's no danger letting it sit. Any oil with the current rating (SN I believe we're at) doesn't have enough zinc in it no matter what is touted on the bottle. If it doesn't state "not street legal" or have warnings about catalytic converter damage, it's not a high zinc oil. It would be illegal to make an oil with high zinc and label it SN as the zinc removal was one of the main requirements to meet this level.

Any non-roller valvetrain will be best protected with a zinc rich oil, but as long as the pressures aren't high enough to scrub off the oil film it'll be fine. High spring rates and rocker ratios increase the chance of finding out if you're oil is up to the task. As for the spring swap you can use air to keep the valves closed or the string trick; piston down, feed some string/thin rope through the spark plug hole, raise piston. A little more work, but guaranteed. If you use air and something happens to the supply or you bump a valve hard enough to break the seal they could fall in.

I like loud sometimes, but there are too many times it's bad....like leaving a bar town at 2am. as I just did. The guy next to me on a pocket bike (600cc something) got pulled over while next to me waiting for a traffic light, most likely because he was loud as fuck because he'd done nothing wrong. If he had two beers he might be in jail now leaving his chick walking....or being picked up by some dude not going to jail yet. Being the obnoxious one in a neighborhood isn't good either.

Yup, and he iron-butted, but he has a shit camera so he's questionable.

If you plan to ride for a short time and store them again change the oil after riding, otherwise just go with a "normal" oil change interval. Oil looses it's ability to hold contaminates and can turn acidic over time and you don't wanna keep that in there long term.

Do those have any baffling or is it just a chrome tip?

Holy shit!!! I didn't know I could get that for free. Unbolting mufflers and enjoying all California has to offer.

You could tape it up while you wait for replacements.