Service
SERVICE
Paul Dean
Fluff and buff
Could you please tell me the best way to polish a frame? I have a bone-stock Kawasaki ZX-9R, and instead of spending $10 grand on a new bike, I am going to freshen this one up a bit. Is there a polishing tool of some kind I can buy and attach to my air compressor?
Robert Mantor Anaheim, California
Truthfully, the “best” way to polish a frame is to take it to professional metal polishers and let them do it. They have the equipment and the knowledge to get the job done much more quickly, easily and professionally than you are liable to do at home with limited wherewithal.
But if you choose to polish the frame yourself, you don’t want to attempt it with something you attach to your air compressor-unless that compressor is a very large, industrial-grade unit. An air-powered buffer requires a huge volume of compressed air to operate, much more than a typical home compressor can supply. You d end up buffing a very small area, then spending most of your time waiting for the compressor to build enough tank pressure to spin the buffer again. An electric buffer would be more suitable, even if it were nothing more than a buffing wheel attached to a drill motor.
Be forewarned, however: This is not a quick, easy or clean job. You ’ll consume several buffing pads, a large quantity of polishing cream or rouge, and lots of time and elbow grease. You should also do the job while wearing safety glasses and either a respirator or a surgical mask. By the time you are finished, you’ll be covered in so much black soot that you ’ll look like you just spent a week in a coal mine.
Jet setting
I have a 2001 Harley-Davidson Sportster that runs fine, but I decided to do the air-cleaner/mufflers/jets upgrade to boost performance. The local Harley dealer advised me to install only the slow-speed jet, saying that the full H-D jet kit causes problems by delivering too much gas. So, I did the mufflers, air cleaner and slow-speed jet. The result is a lot more noise and a very modest improvement in acceleration. Now I’m wondering: Should I install the full jet kit or is what I have already done really the best solution? Jon Savelle
Seattle, Washington
Assuming you are referring to Harley s own Screamin ’ Eagle upgrade equipment, including the jet kit, your dealer was right on the money. The main jets in stock Sportsters already are large enough to feed your engine all the fuel it needs for its nearly stock state of tune. And a modest increase in acceleration is all you can expect with such simple modifications.
Because the bike must meet EPA emissions regulations as delivered from the factory, its carburetion is especially lean down at and just above idle. The larger slow-speed jet compensates for virtually all of that condition, even here in Southern California, where the sealevel altitude results in the leanest carburetion. If you modify your Sporty much farther, though, you will need to do some additional jetting. The next step would be to install a Screamin ’ Eagle Thunderslide kit, which improves the carburetion from just above idle to around half-throttle. But depending upon the level of modification, the stock main jet still might be the right size for the best fuel mixture.
A wheelie big pwoblem
My 2001 Suzuki SV650S wheelies just fine, but it frequently slips into neutral from second gear after I upshift with my front wheel 5 feet from terra firma. This results in an embarrassing scream from the motor as it revs its nuts off, along with an unceremonious nosedive and a heartwrenching clunk as my poor forks hit bottom.
Should my tranny be slipping out of gear like that, or is it inevitable when there is very little to no load the such as when you’re making hundreds of little subconscious throttle movements to keep the bike at the balance point?
Timothy Busch Posted on www.cycleworld.com
There is nothing inherent in the design of your transmission that would make it jump out of gear when doing a wheelie. The cause of the condition is those quick first-to-second shifts you execute while the wheelie is in progress. And given your apparent riding style, I doubt very seriously that the only time you ever powershift is during a wheelie. That rough shifting has bent and/or gouged the second-gear shift fork and rounded the square edges off the gear dogs, all of which prevents the gears from remaining fully engaged while you’re working the throttle back-andforth. The remedy is an expensive one, requiring the engine to be removed and disassembled and the affected components replaced.
Fuel-infection
I own a 2000 Honda RC51 that has been fitted with a Power Com, a full Akropovic Ti exhaust > and a K&N filter. Every once in a while, the bike will start running very rich and then die. Sometimes, if I keep the throttle open and just keep riding, it will eventually start running normally again. I can also turn the ignition off, wait for a few seconds and then restart it, and it will be fine. I’ve had a Honda tech look at the fuel-injection and related parts, and he found nothing wrong, which leads me to think that there is something wrong with the Power Commander. By the way, I do have the correct map for the Akropovic exhaust installed in the Power Commander. Any ideas? Jamie Bray
Pacific, Washington
Problems such as this can be difficult enough to resolve in person; doing it from 1200 miles away involves a bit of finger-in-the-wind diagnosis, particularly when it involves a piece of aftermarket electronic gear. But my best guess, educated or otherwise, is that your RC51 has a faulty sensor, most likely the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor or the throttle-position sensor (TPS).
The fuel-injection computer is continuously fed information about engine rpm, road speed, selected transmission gear, throttle position, coolant temperature
and manifold pressure, all of which it uses to calculate the prescribed fuel mixture for the conditions at any given moment. If any of those sensors sends erroneous information, whether continuously or intermittently, the system will meter the wrong amount of fuel. And to prevent engine damage, most injection systems will default either to a very rich condition or retarded spark timing-or both-when the computer receives data that calls for a mixture that is outside the range of its preprogrammed fuel map.
If the computer on your RC51 occasionally receives incorrect information about engine rpm or coolant temperature, the tachometer or temperature gauge would also reflect that condition, since they get their data from the same source. But if the MAP sensor or the TPS have an intermittent problem, the mixture could be going full rich while exhibiting no other outward signs of that condition.
With the growing number of Hondas using fuel-injection instead of carburetors, a good Honda shop should have the equipment and the know-how to diagnose your RC51 ’s injection system and detect faults in its sensors. But because intermittent problems can be especially difficult to track down, you might
ultimately have to resort to a process of trial-and-error. First, try riding the bike with the Power Commander disconnected. I don’t think it is the cause of the problem, but it s better to remove it temporarily just to be sure. The engine might not run as crisply without it, but if the rich condition does not return, you ’ll know that the Power Commander was the culprit. If the occasional richness remains, however, you might end up simply installing a new MAP sensor or TPS to see if the problem goes away. That s certainly not the most scientific method of troubleshooting, but given the degree of difficulty involved, it could turn out to be the least-expensive-and the most productive-solution.
Gas-pump gaffe
Recently, when filling the tank on my ’94 Honda VFR at a gas station, I pulled up to one broken pump after another and finally found one that worked. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that it was a diesel nozzle until I had pumped about .4 of a gallon into the tank. I immediately stopped using that pump, then went to another one and filled the tank to the top with unleaded premium gasoline. The bike still seems to run fine, but am I risking damage to the engine if I don’t have the tank drained? If it doesn’t need to be drained, is there something else I should do? Tom Barry
Libertyville, Illinois
Apparently, you have continued to ride the bike since your diesel episode, so the problem will have remedied itself one way or another. With the comparatively small amount of diesel fuel you accidentally put in the tank (less than 10 percent), the engine should not have been adversely affected. It would have run a little lean, since every molecule of diesel fuel (which is more highly refined kerosene that doesn’t have the same burn characteristics as gasoline) that flowed through the carburetor jets would have displaced a molecule of gasoline. But as long as you didn’t run the engine hard, it should have suffered no damage.
If you ever make this mistake again, don’t cheap out; drain the tank. That s the best way to eliminate any possible problems that might result. And if for some reason you are unable to drain the tank, ride the bike gently for a short distance, perhaps 20 or 25 miles, and top off the tank again-this time with gasoline, of course-to further dilute the diesel fuel. If you top off the tank two or > three times in this manner, you ’ll render the diesel fuel harmless. But even then, if it were my VFR, I would drain the tank at the first opportunity.
Brain-dead dealers
I have a 2000 Kawasaki ZX-12R I purchased with less than 5000 miles on it that makes a weird chattering when I let out the clutch. When I took it to the dealer who sold it to me, they said they had another model do the same thing, and that after they tore it down and rebuilt it, it still chattered. I then called the Kawasaki dealer, who told me to “Quit driving it like a bitch.” My friend has the same model and says his bike has never had this problem. The bike did have a quart-and-a-half too much oil in it when I bought it, but the dealer said that shouldn’t matter. Can you offer any help? W.D. Tipper, Jr.
Florence, Alabama
Your problem-aside from the fact that you apparently are dealing with people who have the I. Q. of a turnip-is that the clutch plates on your ZX-12R have become glazed. And, yes, it’s also possible that the overfilled crankcase contributed to the glazing.
There are two possible solutions. One is to remove all the clutch plates and deglaze them by cleaning them with contact cleaner or solvent, then sanding them with relatively coarse emery cloth or sandpaper. That should cure the chattering; but if it doesn ’t—or if you ’re willing to splurge for a new set of plates from the get-go-simply replace them. The latter may be the most reasonable course of action, since you don’t know how badly the plates might have been abused by the previous owner. Replacing clutch plates is not a terribly difficult job; but if you choose not to attempt it yourself and instead pay someone to do it, try to find someone who has a working forebrain. First of all, the term “driveline ” refers to all of the components or assemblies that transfer the engine s powerfrom the crankshaft to the rear wheel-that is, the primary drive, the transmission, the final drive and any other ratioor direction-changing gears or chains along the way “Driveline lash ” is used to describe any freeplay or slack that exists anywhere in those components.
Recall Roster,
NHTSA Recall NO.03V140 Kawasaki 125 Eliminator Model years: 2001-2002 Dates of manufacture: Oct. ’00-Feb. ’02 Number of units involved: 5102 Problem: On certain motorcycles, the rear-brake actuating cam can break where it is attached to the actuating arm, causing a complete loss of rearbrake function and increasing the risk of a crash.
Remedy: Dealers will replace the brake cam. Owners who do not receive this free remedy within a reasonable time should contact Kawasaki at 949/770-0400.
“Detent” is not a canvas camping shelter
My Kawasaki KZ900 has serious transmission problems. It sometimes won’t downshift, and it gets stuck in gear after upshifting, often in fourth. Also, on several occasions, the bike was in neutral and slipped into gear all by itself while I was warming it up. What’s going on here? “Christina”
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Don’t panic; this should be an easy fix. Like all motorcycle gearboxes, the transmission in your KZ900 has a detent mechanism that holds it in the chosen gear until the rider selects another. If the detent fails in any way, the transmission will behave very unpredictably, sometimes dropping into gear all by itself, sometimes hanging up in a given gear.
On your Kawasaki, the detent mecha-
nism is a spring-loaded plunger encased in a large, hollow bolt on the left underside of the crankcase. Either the spring has weakened or broken, or perhaps the bolt has backed out so far that there effectively is no spring pressure. With a bike that s more than 25 years old, it s hard to tell exactly what might have gone awry. But either you or your mechanic need to remove the detent mechanism, inspect it carefully and replace any excessively worn or broken parts. A detent is a very inexpensive component, although you may have some trouble locating a replacement. If it’s not available through a Kawasaki dealer, you may have to find one through a motorcycle salvage yard or a used parts dealer. Go online and type “motorcycle salvage’’ on your search engine and you ’ll come up with scores of possibilities.
Lashing out
Could you please tell me what is meant by “driveline lash?” I’ve heard that term used many times but I don’t know what it means. Scott Huff
Lexington Park, Maryland >
When you apply throttle, the engine drives the rear wheel, causing all the driveline components to take up the freeplay in one direction; when you close the throttle, the rear wheel drives the engine, causing all the driveline components to take up the freeplay in the opposite direction. The taking up of the freeplay is felt as a sudden jerk, sometimes accompanied by an audible “clunk,” as the components with freeplay change location. That behavior is referred to as driveline lash.
Most driveline lash originates in the transmission, due to the basic design of motorcycle gearboxes. The gears engage one another by sliding back-and-forth and locking together with little posts or pegs, called “dogs,” that mesh with matching dogs or slots in adjacent gears. For the transmission to shift easily and predictably, the holes or slots into which the dogs engage must be wider than the dogs themselves. Were they not, those adjacent engaging devices would have to be aligned perfectly before the gear would engage. By making the slots wider than the dogs, the transmission slips into gear much more easily, but it also results in some driveline freeplay, or lash. Though the designers try to keep the amount of lash as small as possible, especially in top gear (the one in which the bike spends most of its time), there always is some present. And because that freeplay exists amid a series of gear reductions in the driveline, the amount of lash is multiplied in accordance with the overall ratio of the gear in use. □
Got a mechanical or technical problem with your beloved ride? Can’t seem to find workable solutions in your area? Maybe we can help. If you think we can, either: 1) Mail your inquiry, along with your full name, address and phone number, to Cycle World Service, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92663; 2) fax it to Paul Dean at 949/631-0651; 3) email it to CW1Dean@aol.com; or 4) log onto www.cycleworld.com and click on the Feedback button. Don’t write a 10-page essay, but do include enough information about the problem to permit a reasonable diagnosis. And please understand that due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we can’t guarantee a reply to every question.
