Service

SERVICE

The hill from hell

I have a perplexing problem with my ’94 Honda CBR600F2. When I ride the freeway on my way to work every morning, the engine dies while I’m climbing a long uphill grade on the route. And it does the same thing on the way home when I ride up the same hill in the other direction. It never quits when going downhill or on the level, only uphill and usually at the same spot. When this happens, the engine bogs like it’s gasping for fuel, and when I open the throttle farther, it bogs even worse. After about 10 seconds of this behavior, the engine dies altogether and I have to pull over to the side of the freeway. To get the engine restarted, I have to use full choke and let it crank until it gradually sputters to life and then returns to normal. After that, the engine runs fine until I try to go up that same hill again.

I’ve inspected the petcock, drained the tank, checked the fuel lines, and even switched the entire gas tank/petcock assembly with another 600F2 I have in my garage. I’ve also had the nearby Honda shop go through it, but to no avail. Can you give me some guidance? Jeffrey Bertany

Suisun City, California

The flow of fuel into your F2 s carburetors is being restricted, effectively causing it to run out of gas. The problem occurs only when you ’re riding up a long hill because uphill travel requires more power, which, in turn, resuits in greater fuel consumption. And when fuel is being drawn out of the float bowls faster than it is being replenished, the bowls will run dry on a long uphill grade.

Paul Dean

To diagnose the problem, first try riding up that dreaded hill with the gas cap popped fully open. If the engine doesn’t quit, the fuel-flow problem is the result of a restriction in the gas tank’s venting system-clogged or pinched vent hoses, etc. If the engine still quits, the problem is in the fueldelivery system between the tank and the float bowls. I know that you’ve already checked all this, but check it again more closely for something gone awry, something perhaps as simple as a slight kink in the main fuel line caused by incorrect routing.

Of course, there’s always the obvious, simplistic solution: Find another route to work.

Tapping tappets

I’m having a small problem with my ’84 Harley-Davidson FXRS. It only had 22,000 miles on it when I bought it a few months ago, but it was running badly, and the oil was so dirty that it looked like the previous owner never changed it. Otherwise, the bike was intact and undamaged. I gave it a thorough clean-up, tune-up and oil change, and now it runs almost like new. I say “almost” because although the engine runs okay, the hydraulic lifters are really noisy. Every once in a while they’ll quiet down noticeably, but before long they get loud again. My friends say that I’ll have to replace the lifters, but I don’t want to go to that expense if I don’t have to. Any advice? Tom Powers

Fairmont, West Virginia

Your friends could be right; running in dirty oil may have caused the lifters (also called “tappets”) to wear out prematurely, or to plug up with sludge or dirt. The fact that the tappets occasionally quiet down, though, indicates that excessive wear is not the pi'oblem, since they sometimes do function properly. Dirt, therefore, is the most likely cause of the problem.

But before you start ripping into the valve train, there may be an easier solution. Right beside the rear tappet block, just to the outside of the block’s right-rear bolt, is a large, flat-head screw, under which is an O-ring, a spring and a small, cylindrical screen.

The screen prevents larger pieces of debris in the oil from reaching the tappets, where they could cause the very type of problem you describe. But if the screen is clogged, it will impede the flow of oil to the tappets, either entirely or enough to prevent them from functioning properly.

The two-minute solution is to remove the screen, clean it thoroughly and reinstall it. If the noise then goes away, your worries are over. If the noise remains, you will indeed have to remove the tappets. And once you get the tappets out, you ’ll be better off installing new ones rather than trying to salvage the old ones. Why? Because if thoroughly cleaning the tappets does not eliminate the noise, you ’ll have to do the job all over again.

Starter won’t start’er

I have a starting problem with my 1982 Honda Gold Wing Aspencade. When I try to start the engine and it doesn’t fire off within the first few tries, it acts like the battery has gone dead. When I go back and try it again in 10 or 20 minutes, it will turn over like it has a fully charged battery. And it behaves the same way in summer or winter. The battery is new, and I keep it plugged into a Battery Tender when I’m not riding. I had a mechanic check the bike over but he found no cause for this condition. Can you?

James Dudley Carrier Statesville, North Carolina

The battery doesn’t seem to be the culprit; it is new, properly maintained and quickly returns to full capacity after appearing to be dead. Instead, I believe the problem lies somewhere in the starter motor.

Cranking over an engine is a lot of work for a starter motor, especially if the engine doesn’t fire up right away. Performing all of that work causes the starter to heat up rather quickly; and if the starter has some sort of internal problem—a failing bearing, a breakdown of the insulation in the armature or field coils, etc.-enough heat can be generated to cause the starter to bind up after just a few seconds of cranking. The resultant symptoms would seem much like those of a dead battery: You push on the starter button and the engine either turns over very slowly or not at all. So, one way or another, there seems to be a new starter in your future. □