Yamaha FZR400 3tj-1 1991. Not running

[MikeD400]

241196

Heres a long spiel on my trademe listing which i wont spam here!

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=385891252

Let me know what you think about price, about fixing it, about swaps what ever!

Thanks Mike!

[hayd3n]

dude you should get ppl on here to help ya they usually charge beer:(

[MikeD400]

dude you should get ppl on here to help ya they usually charge beer:(

I know its sad to just let it go like this but like i say in the auction im a learner rider and i need a 250 to complete my license on i cant have this beast sitting in the garage while i wait for my full. Also im 24 married with two kids and cant afford to ride illegally :(

[jaffaonajappa]

Gidday Mike. Good utube video.....and your bike has an Ohlins sticker - has it got an aftermarket shock?
It might be worthwhile posting up your story in the 'general maintenance' or better yet the 'electrical' sections on these forums - imagine if someone offers to help you fix it 100% for a box of beer, and tha parts cost $30. With Ohlins, if its cleaned up....you could be adding 1k to your sale price. possible.

Anyway, good luck - nice looking bike!

[hayd3n]

I know its sad to just let it go like this but like i say in the auction im a learner rider and i need a 250 to complete my license on i cant have this beast sitting in the garage while i wait for my full. Also im 24 married with two kids and cant afford to ride illegally :(

TRACKDAYS and fix her up for a better sale

[MikeD400]

Gidday Mike. Good utube video.....and your bike has an Ohlins sticker - has it got an aftermarket shock?
It might be worthwhile posting up your story in the 'general maintenance' or better yet the 'electrical' sections on these forums - imagine if someone offers to help you fix it 100% for a box of beer, and tha parts cost $30. With Ohlins, if its cleaned up....you could be adding 1k to your sale price. possible.

Anyway, good luck - nice looking bike!

Maybe the forks have been painted and sitckered and someone stickers the rear swing arm lol i waas led to believe they came standard with Ohlins goodies!

[MikeD400]

TRACKDAYS and fix her up for a better sale

Yeah im going to start a thread on helping me fix it up just ideas would be nice i troll google for hours looking for answers to no avail.... I basicly just threw it up for sale after getting stressed out with it and just wanting it gone! So i can get a 250 so i can actually RIDE! (goin nuts due to excessive time in a cage... (cage being a car lol)) And thats why the price is what it is atm i was just looking to see what sort of attention it would grab.

[Paul in NZ]

There is several things it could be but I suspect that the dodgy radar detector is a strong candidate.

It should definately run without it plugged in so that needs to be rectified.

Then we look at the bike. Its obviously been apart so god knows whats been done. Stock they were a few wires short of decent even when new in the wiring. And the charging systems were never that good either. First off a simple check (as per the manual) of the alternator windings and coils with a meter. If thats OK get it running and drop a meter across the battery to check the voltage. You might find the rect / reg has gone tits up and the voltage is going too high which will spike the cdi for sure (adding protection to the cdi aint a bad idea)

Once you have fixed that - add a few extra earths from the battery to the engine and to the rec / reg mounting plate (in the R version it relied on 2 pop rivets ffs - these viberate loose and the bike runs like a turd)

If you need bits - buy them from the USA (I can give you a link if you need - I think) as they are waaay cheaper and the bike was uber popular there for track work.

For what its worth, $2500 is over the odds for a non std paint FZR400 with 'issues'

[imdying]

I'm with Paul... I suspect you own 3 good CDIs and a bag of dodgy wiring. Wiring is a pain in the arse for some people, but it's basically very simple so have at it... you can definitely get a bit more for it, two grand is waaaay more that I'd pay for a sick one, maybe just me.

[MikeD400]

I'm with Paul... I suspect you own 3 good CDIs and a bag of dodgy wiring. Wiring is a pain in the arse for some people, but it's basically very simple so have at it... you can definitely get a bit more for it, two grand is waaaay more that I'd pay for a sick one, maybe just me.

Yeah i didnt expect to sell it at 2k i just wanted to spark some interest and get some offers rolling and maybe atracting some sort of trade in, i want to get it going if i can then flick it to get a 250cc. See how we go ill take wat i can from u guys here and see if i can get her runnin again! Cheers mike.

[MikeD400]

I'm with Paul... I suspect you own 3 good CDIs and a bag of dodgy wiring. Wiring is a pain in the arse for some people, but it's basically very simple so have at it... you can definitely get a bit more for it, two grand is waaaay more that I'd pay for a sick one, maybe just me.

Yeah i didnt expect to sell it at 2k i just wanted to spark some interest and get some offers rolling and maybe atracting some sort of trade in, i want to get it going if i can then flick it to get a 250cc. See how we go ill take wat i can from u guys here and see if i can get her runnin again! Cheers mike.

[Paul in NZ]

Have you got a workshop manual and an electrical meter?

I may still have a soft copy of the earlier manual but I'm sure that there is one on the FZR400 Yahoo group....

The CDI's are reasonably tough on these but repairing the radar installation PROPERLY is the go....

[White trash]

First things. Take some nice close up shots of the bike. Just the bike, not your mates bikes or road signs. We wanna see the condition of the bike (looks nice btw), not where you've been on it.

[Banditbandit]

I'm with Paul... I suspect you own 3 good CDIs and a bag of dodgy wiring. Wiring is a pain in the arse for some people, but it's basically very simple so have at it... you can definitely get a bit more for it, two grand is waaaay more that I'd pay for a sick one, maybe just me.

Fuck .. wiring. I hate chasing electrons .. you can't see the little fuckers and they can be unmanageable ..

[MikeD400]

Have you got a workshop manual and an electrical meter?

I may still have a soft copy of the earlier manual but I'm sure that there is one on the FZR400 Yahoo group....

The CDI's are reasonably tough on these but repairing the radar installation PROPERLY is the go....

Yeah ive got a reasonably good PDF copy of the manual tho i am lacking the electrical meter which is big issue seeing as im working with an electrical problem lol, from what i can gather the two transistors inside the CDI (ive pulled one of the CDI's apart to have a good look) that control the coils have packed in because everything else seems to work but no spark...

[MikeD400]

First things. Take some nice close up shots of the bike. Just the bike, not your mates bikes or road signs. We wanna see the condition of the bike (looks nice btw), not where you've been on it.

Yeah was planning on getting some good pics of the bike and its problem areas tonight and post them in the thread i started last night in the Electrical section of the forums. Look forward to chatting more about this with you guys its good finaly shed some light on this headache, and ifs theres any beer drinking Bike Mechanics near Pukekohe that want to come have a look ive just put a fresh Brew of Lager down on sunday so that could be some insentive! Be ready to drink in 3 weeks. :)

Cheers

[SPman]

I just missed out on an FZR400SP over here - some fairing damage, good mechanical - $1900!

[Jay GTI]

Assuming the transistors are big enough to remove (desolder) they are pretty easy to test. Any tv repair, electronics specialist type person can do it, in fact you should easily be able to do it yourself with a decent multimeter... although admittedly I'm an electronic engineer, so might be overstating easy if you're not comfortable with electrickery.

If they haven't been fried, then you at least know to continue looking.

[MikeD400]

I just missed out on an FZR400SP over here - some fairing damage, good mechanical - $1900!

Bummer! Should have set up an auto bid?

[MikeD400]

Assuming the transistors are big enough to remove (desolder) they are pretty easy to test. Any tv repair, electronics specialist type person can do it, in fact you should easily be able to do it yourself with a decent multimeter... although admittedly I'm an electronic engineer, so might be overstating easy if you're not comfortable with electrickery.

If they haven't been fried, then you at least know to continue looking.

Yeah im pretty comfy with electrickery just dont have a multimeter myself to properly test them its a double sided board so would also need a solder sucker or just cut the legs and resolder new transistors on i mean they are only like 3 buk each but yeah still an underlying problem to sort out here.

Cheers Mike

[MikeD400]

There is several things it could be but I suspect that the dodgy radar detector is a strong candidate.

It should definately run without it plugged in so that needs to be rectified.

Then we look at the bike. Its obviously been apart so god knows whats been done. Stock they were a few wires short of decent even when new in the wiring. And the charging systems were never that good either. First off a simple check (as per the manual) of the alternator windings and coils with a meter. If thats OK get it running and drop a meter across the battery to check the voltage. You might find the rect / reg has gone tits up and the voltage is going too high which will spike the cdi for sure (adding protection to the cdi aint a bad idea)

Once you have fixed that - add a few extra earths from the battery to the engine and to the rec / reg mounting plate (in the R version it relied on 2 pop rivets ffs - these viberate loose and the bike runs like a turd)

If you need bits - buy them from the USA (I can give you a link if you need - I think) as they are waaay cheaper and the bike was uber popular there for track work.

For what its worth, $2500 is over the odds for a non std paint FZR400 with 'issues'

Yeah the Radar detector has a plug on it with two wires that plug into a aftermarket plug that runs into the loom thats the only thing that is left unpluged when radar detector is removed... Its gotta be this but i cant identify where the wires go using the manual.

[MikeD400]

There is several things it could be but I suspect that the dodgy radar detector is a strong candidate.

It should definately run without it plugged in so that needs to be rectified.

Then we look at the bike. Its obviously been apart so god knows whats been done. Stock they were a few wires short of decent even when new in the wiring. And the charging systems were never that good either. First off a simple check (as per the manual) of the alternator windings and coils with a meter. If thats OK get it running and drop a meter across the battery to check the voltage. You might find the rect / reg has gone tits up and the voltage is going too high which will spike the cdi for sure (adding protection to the cdi aint a bad idea)

Once you have fixed that - add a few extra earths from the battery to the engine and to the rec / reg mounting plate (in the R version it relied on 2 pop rivets ffs - these viberate loose and the bike runs like a turd)

If you need bits - buy them from the USA (I can give you a link if you need - I think) as they are waaay cheaper and the bike was uber popular there for track work.

For what its worth, $2500 is over the odds for a non std paint FZR400 with 'issues'

How would i add protection to the CDI? And also do you have that link for the parts? Thanks for your post by the way very helpful! Thanks

[MikeD400]

Ok yesterday I went to Dick Smith and got myself a multimeter and box of connecters, then back to work and printed off pages 158 - 203 of the full service manual which covers electrical and printed myself off a nice full color wiring diagram.

So sat down at my bike and had at it! Redid some connecters and tidy'd up all the poo wiring that was evident.

Then continued to check with multimeter as per manual specifications battery, fuses, switches engine stop, neutral, sidestand, diode relay (got odd readings from this could be my newbieness but noted), continuity between plugs, spark plugs, spark caps, spark leads, coil packs, pickup coil (odd readings from this also Noted), after all this still no spark "Replace Digital Ignitor Unit" (Manuals words) so today im off to Jaycar to buy some transistors the same spec or high than the ones in the OEM Ignitor see how i go.

Any way carried on last night skiped starting system because all turns over fine and strong but saw clutch switch in this section so checked that.

Then onto the charging system, fuse, battery, charging voltage (bikes not running.... (thanks for the reminder manual)), stator coil resistance seems fine, wiring ok "Replace Rectifier Regulator".

2am off to bed lol.

Verdict all seems in reasonably good shape few odd readings but i think thats due to manual saying set multimeter to Ohm x 1k and my mutlimeter having 20 200 20k 200k 20m settings and my goin wtf and flicking threw them till i get a apropriate reading (got the hang of it in the end 20 = ohm x 1, 200 = ohm x 10, etc etc.

So what I'm goin to do is beef up this Ignitor with some stronger transistors and replace a suspect rectifier / regulator and hopefully she will fire up and run sweet if not ill look into replacing the components with "odd readings"

Let me know what you think and ill post some pictures soon.

[MikeD400]

Anyone want to lend me some coil packs? Im totaly out of ideas now. Cdi has new transistors soldered in put it in spark spark oooo got excited put the gas inlet into some gas choke open.... nothing...... check spark again. GONE! WWWWWWWWWWWTF!!!!!!!!

price is going to drop ill tell u now im fukin sick of it.