Lurchy end to my day :(

So I took the VFR out to stretch it's legs today (ride the FJR mostly now and haven't ridden it in a monthish). It took a couple whacks to get it started, which wouldn't be unusual after a month, and it started right up and rode great the first part of the day. Oil levels, coolant levels, tire pressure etc all checked before ride. At one point I got gas and the starter button did nothing the first couple times I pressed it to try and start it back up. Then all of a sudden it worked fine. Bike continued to run fine until the end of the day....I will say that there was a fair amount of stop and go traffic for awhile before it started acting up, but I could hear the fans cycling on and off as normal....it wasn't like it was so hot they stayed on or anything. All of a sudden 10 miles from my house it started sputtering and periodically knocking. I had to hold the throttle slightly cracked open at stop signs and lights to prevent it from stalling..which was sketchy as many of you know..lol......it would acclerate sluggishly making that lower tone like it was running on less than all 4 cylinders and then here and there it would burst back to life for a second and then back to limp mode. I limped it all the way home and now its in the garage with a fan on it. I should add when I was sitting in all that traffic and I thought to check my Volt meter since I didn't want to drain my battery....It looked like it said 11.3 a couple times when I was idling. I checked again in motion etc and the meter was back at 13.5 ish. No unusual crazy high or crazy lows that I could see, but by then i was focusing on getting the bike home. Do you guys think I got bad gas, or is this the Rectifier?.....or am i about to grenade my engine? She is old...about 75k miles. Replaced rectifier with Ricks (the OG Japan made ones) at around 30k. Im trying to sell it, so I'd rather not kill it..lol

 

what year bike?

 

94

 

Maybe it's fuel related. Check plugs, could be a leaky fuel rail in carb assy

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First time for everything! My left bank rear spark plug was like finger loose in there! Perhaps i was a bit TOO careful about over tightening last plug change. Now i suppose i have to go check/change all the plugs just to be safe. Think that would explain the very light intermittent knocking i was hearing the past several rides…leading up to it getting loose enough to actually move around, causing misfires? There’s no evidence of damage to plug gap, which means it probably didn’t get knocked out by the piston or anything bad. I suppose the starter issue is just that i have a motor/wires with 75k on it. I know the starter clutch needs replacing, just waiting for my regular clutch plates to wear out.

 

does the starter clutch make a crashing sound sometimes? I did one on one of my gen3 VFRs, they sell the kit separately which turns into more money, unlike the Kawasaki which uses one part number for this part. Anyway, back years ago, I had a hot start issue with my high mileage gen3 bike, maybe 70,000 at the time, the starter motor needed fresh brushes and a clean up, that solved the hot start issue and the bike sounds like an eager beaver ie new sounding bike.

 

I assume you mean scratching or crunching…yes occasionally when it’s hot the starter clutch will miss and do a whirring/gears slipping on each other sound…similar to how your transmission sounds when you go into a false neutral.

 

False neutrals? whats that? kidding aside, all my stuff shifts with the accuracy of a Swiss watch. The Ninja takes a 5 minutes of riding for the gear shifts to initiate a little easier (I swear I don't think I ever hit a false neutral with it.) My 91 has 85,000 miles and had a Factory Shift Kit for 70,000 of those miles, I may have run it into the rev limiter half a dozen times and hit a false neutral when I was breaking in a new pair of shoes, sometimes though when your shift from 5 to 6 you can get a phantom shift, ie - shifts but stays in 5th. Remedy is to be going 90-100mph and snick her into 6th and its a good solid shift. 93 has no shift kit and I am ok with it, it does have the same quality of wanting to be going 90-100 for 6th gear.

I rode a few Gen4 bikes but not for at least 15 years, I think I felt that they were a bit more racy in the seating position. Peace