ZX9R - Mystery Wallow

ty · Post by ty » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:07 am

Some of you may have noticed I mentioned a problem with my 9 in my MS Gong Ride report.
Well, it still remains a mystery so I'm hoping maybe some of the gurus here have some input.

The problem is it wallows (has no power and wants to stall) under load at anything less than 3500rpm. It idle's fine, pulls fine above those sort of revs, but wants to stall when taking off. Have to rev the tits of it(me?) and slip the clutch alot to get going (certainly turns some heads with the megacycle). Sitting still it'll rev, but sounds like shit - much lower note and lower frequency.

This happened suddenly too. Riding along at about 40kph with the pushies (after about 9 hours of constant slow riding) and all of a sudden it wanted to stall.

My mech has had it since monday and has been looking at it between scheduled jobs. Plugs are ok, coils are ok, and carbs are ok. Water's fine. Oil's fine. No leaks of any kind (including fuel).
He's going to spend more serious time on it today, but as he hasn't had much success with the simple things so far I thought I'd rack your brains and see what many heads can come up with. Sounds almost like I-K's problem, but his was a carb issue (wasn't it?) so I don't think it's the same.

Anything I can think of I discard as wrong as idling fine, and pulling fine above those revs doesn't add up. eg I thought maybe I had some troubles from it overheating with the previous radiator troubles I had, but I'd expect any troubles related to that to affect it either at all times including idle, or to not go away at higher revs.

Any ideas appreciated.
Coasties, I think it's fair to say I'll be a no-show this weekend, but we'll see.
ty

SNR · Post by **SNR** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:23 am

How long have you had the pipe for and was it jetted correctly last time you took it in......could be the pipe

snr

ty · Post by ty » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:36 am

nah I've had the pipe since I bought the bike in April (came with the bike). So I doubt it's the pipe - it would've caused problems well before now
ty

MickLC · Post by **MickLC** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:42 am

Sounds like a pain Tony, certainly nothing like I ever had with mine. The only one I can remember that was vaguely like that was when the balance tube came loose from the ram-air and it would idle fine, rev fine at a standstill, but when you started to move it would get steadily worse the faster you got.
As I said, different to what you are getting, but a simple easy-to-miss thing that I luckily found fairly quickly. I hope you get it sorted.

Robsalvv · Post by **Robsalvv** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:35 am

I had a similar problem... ended up being an unconnected vaccuum tube that controlled the sliders in the carby.... idle fine... crappy under ANY load.

Good luck with it.

Cheers

Rob

Post by **MadKaw** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:47 am

Tony, As Mick said check the air intake tube from inside the ram air intakes to the carbs. I use to forget to re connect this when putting the 9 back together and it would have similar problems to what you mensioned.. although worse...
Check all the hoses and fuel lines for kinks and check the fuel tap to make sure theres no blockage....

and don't ride around at 40 k's, you know these bikes are not made for that.... :-)

ty · Post by ty » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:19 pm

MadKaw wrote:and don't ride around at 40 k's, you know these bikes are not made for that....

That comment took longer than I expected

ty

ty · Post by ty » Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:23 am

So still no idea what it is.
Gibbo (my mechanic) had already checked the ram air and vacuum lines, so no go there.
They're renting about $1000 worth of bits from Metro Spares today to try a few things out.
So we'll see.
ty

matchan · Post by **matchan** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:49 am

good luck with it Tony, fingers crossed mate.

Matt

MickLC · Post by **MickLC** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 9:35 am

As long as they don't charge you for the $1000 rent....

Hope they find it anyway

ty · Post by ty » Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:06 am

Nah it's about $50 to rent the stuff for the day.
These guys are pretty good, and I'm a regular so they're unlikely to shaft me.
In the past, for example, they really only charged me labour for fixing the found problem - not for the time investigating it. Not saying I'm expecting them to do that this time as this is taking longer, but I expect they'll do right by me. They're a small shop and their regulars (like Dave#3, Cath and I) are their meal tickets.
ty

mike-s · Post by **mike-s** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:35 am

At least its not like a shop someone i know from elsewhere ahd to deal with, whereby they charged him for the 4-5+ hours the apprentice spent fecking about trying to do his service while it would have taken the snr mech about 40 mins -1.5hours to do, max.

ty · Post by ty » Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:16 pm

All fixed - it was actually the coils.
Gibbo inspected them first and got the measurements and tolerances from Kawasaki and they all measured within spec. However he was still a little worried about them because they were all slightly different.
So he connected up the rented ones first thing and problem solved - they generated a noticably better spark too. So even though they were within tolerance mine were still no good.

That's the good news.
Bad news is the cost. $225 labour - fair enough in my mind for the time he's spent - they've only charged me for the time he would've taken if they knew what the problem was, plus a little bit. Nowhere near the 10+ hours I know he's spent on it.
But $300 for the coils! 2nd hand!

Oh well, them's the breaks. All good now and I'm picking it up tomorrow morning.
Thanks guys
ty

MickLC · Post by **MickLC** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:24 pm

Geez, a simple solution in the end, but don't you hate it when it costs that much? At least you get to enjoy it this weekend

momomags · Post by **momomags** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:25 pm

Good to hear its all sorted...