A gentle spring warm up along the bypass, then half a handful up a bumpy B road, revs creeping up towards 9k...cut! Coast to a standstill, all electrics seem to be working, starter motor spins the engine, but nothing? Wait..why is the fuel pump still running? Lift the fuel cap and I can see fuel being pumped around. I'd been meaning to change the in-tank hoses for a while, even though I try to avoid anything with ethanol in, but maybe a hose is leaking internally and we're just not getting pressure. My own fault then, call the recovery and deal with it later. With the tank apart, I see that that while the hoses look a bit bloated, I can see no obvious cracks and it's all pretty clean in there. Ah well, let's do the hoses, filter and O rings and put it back, but the creeping suspicion is that it's something else. The way it cut, no spluttering or misfire, like the kill switch..or shh, don't even think about the ECU. Switch on, and still the fuel pump runs unceasingly, engine turns but no fire. So, no further forward but at least I've done some overdue maintenance. Starting with the easy stuff, let's clean the fuses and fuse holders. All looks good actually, but you never know. Try again - same deal. Ah! I've forgotten the 2 inline fuses under the seat: the 20A holder looks a bit mishapen and the contacts are nasty. Pull and push the fuse a few times and try again. Fuel pump primes, stalls and will the engine start? Immediately! But, wiggle the fuse and it cuts again. Now, this is also partly my fault. Each winter, when the bike isn't being used, I pull the 5A and 20A and spin the engine every few weeks to send oil around, in the belief that one fuse was for ignition and the other fuel and although I had noticed the 20A contacts were getting discoloured and the holder had been getting hot, I'd ignored the signals and DONE NOTHING. So the simple remedy was to replace the inline 20A fuse holder with something a bit more butch. So, had the bike let me down, or had I let it down?
These babies love preventive maintenance. A bunch. I have been « neglecting » my like new 916 SP3 to tinker on the 900 SS these past couple months. She’s now giving me all kind of troubles : speedo cable lower end broken, one bar end weight gone missing, instrument cluster silent blocks snapped, etc. With no real reason, really…
Mine melted the fuse holder, looked like a lump of sticky snot - was still working fine though. Simple enough replacement and a reminder to keep the fuel filter clean otherwise the pump needs to work harder, resulting in greater load on the wiring...
Agreed: I opened up the filter, but it appeared pretty clean. No telling how it was flowing though, but no contamination in the tank itself.
