Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

The Mighty Ruby give some hassles for the first time...

Stats/history/relevant(?) blurb:
Stock ZZR1100D, K&N filter, 58,xxx km, has had regular oil services, but the plugs are probably well overdue for replacement.

What happened:
Niari and I went for one of our regular brekky runs in the hills. Parked up and had heart-attack-on-a-plate. All good. Went to start, and it cranked vigorously, but no life. Added more choke, repeat, ditto. Went to full choke, added a blip of throttle at start of crank, ditto. Thought maybe I'd flooded it, put the choke off, wide throttle for the first few seconds of cranking, ditto. With 20 or so bikes there and no shortage of people looking on, I'm not enjoying this! It was parked with the back wheel resting on the storm drain at the kerb in a row of bikes, so I pushed it out and a few meters down the road past the last of the parked bikes. Pushed the button and it started instantly - like there was never anything wrong. Ran perfect on the way back to Nairi's place. (Though I think I noticed very slight hesitation under very light throttle - for me this is consistent and typical of plugs past use-by specs).

And then:
Fast forward a few hours to that night (after watching Jacks amazing ride in the wet) and it's time to go home. Much vigorous cranking and much ditto-ing later, nada. Not a cough, or hint of firing. Commandeered Niari's car and went home... )-8

My suspects:
Side-stand switch, clutch switch or one of those things killing the spark? (Although cranking with the clutch pulled didn't change anything).
Maybe ignitor failure? But wouldn't this be one - the other two cylinders would fire?
Bad kill switch contact?

My head hurts - anything else that I should look into? I want to do whatever homework I can before the time so when I go back there, I have a plan-of-action and at least a chance of having the right tools/bits with me.

Cheers

Like you said: the plugs are well overdue for replacement. I would start there.

Yeah - no doubt they will be done (new plugs sitting on the shelf) but the bike is at the girlfriends place (Kalamunda) and I live in the northern suburbs. Prefer not to strip the bloody thing down up there (where a butter knife and a high-heel shoe qualify as "tools")...

Also I'm thinking bad plugs wouldn't result in an "instant off" kind of non-start? It would cough and splutter and struggle to start, getting worse over time? Not be perfect, then stone dead?!

In looking over the wiring diagram, I see there is one ignitor, not two (must have been one of my other bikes) so that is a suspect for sure.

(-8

Plugs first, then side stand switch. Would you believe ours failed at the same time? Nothing worse than trying to diagnose what you think is one problem when you actually have two. Then clutch switch failed on the other bike.
HM still has his ZZR, but it is old and cantankerous compared to his FJR (which is only 2 years younger). It still gets ridden semi regularly, but the next expensive failure will probably see it sent to the knackers yard.

Also, the ignition switch was dicky on the ZZR600 and gave the same symptoms. Not sure if the 11 has the same switch, but might be worth looking into?

Did you make sure the kill switch was on? HM has been known to bump it off, sit for ages trying to start it and then manage to bump it back on when pushing the bike. Not saying you're a silly old fart, but they are out there.

It wouldn't wind over at all it were the side stand switch, clutch switch or kill switch. Unlikely that all plugs would give up the ghost all at the same time. Is it winding over fast enough? Check all the easy stuff first... fuses, terminals, connectors etc. Check for spark and then fuel

Yeah, that's what's been bugging me - might try a 'hot wire', feed 12V past the switches etc to the igniter etc.

Yep - cranked vigorously! One of the bystanders even commented on that.

Daisy wrote:... Not saying you're a silly old fart, but they are out there.

HEY! I resemble that remark!
(-8

Yeah, good thinking - Ignition switch is another suspect. Thinking more about the kill switch - pretty sure mine takes out the starter too - wont crank when off?

Might have another go at starting it as is and if that fails fish around for a bike trailer to get the ol'girl home.

Pretty sure ZZR has ignition switch with resistor- to stop hot wiring.