Bad Runnings

[daedos]

My machine (98 M600) has been playing up a bit in the last week. Went to work on Friday and the thing broke down twice, each after 1/2 mile, the bike became hesitant and then just lost all drive. It pretty much refused to start after that. After a jump start it got going and was fine for the rest of the day.

On Saturday it started fine but only ran for 500m before stalling at some lights and then refusing to restart. In the afternoon we managed to get it started off a jump start and it was left idling for 10 minutes - no problems. Went to go out for a ride but when reving at standstill it felt hesitant again before cutting out. Then it refused to start again, but after standing a couple of minutes it was starting every time and running sweet.

As far as I can see that triggers are either the fuel tank being taken off and put back on the weekend before or the bike being soaked by rain on Tuesday (last 10 miles of a 50 mile ride). To me it sounds like a fuel delivery issue but I don't know here to start. Any ideas or other possible causes?

Thanks

[cerebus]

I guess the first thing to check is that none of the pipes were kinked when the tank was put back on.

Cerebus

[gwyndaff]

On my 98 600, the fuel pipe does get trapped sometimes on the righthand side between the tank and the frame if youve had the tank up.

Also the simptoms sound very much like a problem I had when the bike was quite new. The bike would start to run sh1t then cut out and then i would have trouble starting it. Look under the seat there's a relay in black box that you should hear click when you switch the ignition on. Mine was dodgy and Pegasus(Reading) changed it for nowt.

I hope you find the problem. Someone on here will no doubt give you the correct fix.

Good luck
Gwyndaff

[stef]

usually it can be two things: electrical or fuel.
first, i'd rule out the electrical problem by checking for a good spark.
mine was playing up because of very dirty plugs (although only 3 months old).
it would stall, or not start at all.

[daedos]

I am aware of the pipe being pinched by the tank and the frame and do my best to make sure this is not an issue. Secondly I've check the sparks on the plug and they seem fine.

gwyndaff - I have a black and a yellow relay under the seat. The black is the flasher relay (replaced months ago with a Fiesta flasher), so which is the black relay you are refering to?

Thanks

[Scotty]

similar ish thing happend to me once
was stood in traffic in the rain for an age waing for tyne tunnel (was carrieing ridiclaly large package preventing filtering) and just before i was due to ddo the tunnel (oh err) cut out
dificulty starting but then seemed ok untill trying to make it go with a bit more throttel it cut out agan repeat ed afew times
tunnel 'guard came to my aid and having got it started again slowly built up the reves untill it was bouncing off the revlimiter for about a minuit (seemed like hours) so as to clear any air bubbles stuck in the system was fine and dandy after that

glad i had a warm engin for that though

[Nigel C]

Don't know if the the m600 has one but probs with the Crank position sensor gives these exact symptoms just a thought !!

[daedos]

Turned out to be a fuel line that had a bad habit of kinking out of sight when putting the tank down.