Broken VTR1000

[Grizz]

Well seeing it was such a nice day thought I would tootle up to Orewa via Coatesville R/Head Highway. Only managed a few km's before loosing power and the engine sounding like its full of nails!! Pull over to the side of the road (State 16) and after a 2 1/2 hour wait the towie turns up and my baby is now sitting in the gargre on its stand, looking all innocent.

Buggered if I know what it is, the engine still runs but is as noisy as hell. Its hard to tell where its coming from. Its a shame as it only had it major service done in Jan, and sine then i've only done 1500km's.

Oh well will have to ring Red Baron on Monday, hopefully it won't cost too much to get it sorted.

Thanks to the two bikers that stopped to check if I was ok, and I really appreciate Crashe and Gremlin, stopping and waiting till I was on the tow truck, just as well I was wearing my K'br T-Shirt eh!

I saw heaps of bikes go past, I hope you all had a great ride as the weather was primo!:sunny:

[Fatjim]

Maybe a buggered Cam Chain tensioner. Usually the front one goes first. Unfortunatly it's the harder one to get to.

Don't run it anymore.

[crashe]

Anytime mate... cant leave a biker stranded out there on the roads.
And that KB t-shirt sure stood out a mile.. couldnt miss it at all.

Did the bike stay still on the way back to your place...
Any damage done to the fairings with the tie-downs.
Nice towie driver, making sure that it was tied on ok and to your satisfaction.

I never realised how difficult it could be to tie-down a sportbike onto a flatdeck truck. Especially when there aint a lot of places to tie the strops onto.

[jonbuoy]

Maybe a buggered Cam Chain tensioner. Usually the front one goes first. Unfortunatly it's the harder one to get to.

Don't run it anymore.

He he I'll say, took me long enough just to take the cover off and put it back on with the gasket in the right place and no crud dropping in it. Ditto on the CCT don't even run it. Doesn't sound catastrophic or I don't think it would run at all. Bit of a worry that you lost power. BTW check the gaskets holding the cam cover rockers on, see if the semi-circular part of the gaskets popped out. I had one blow out from a missfire, made the engine sound rough. Wasn't easy to find either. Good luck and let us know what it was when you find out.

Cheers

[Damon]

That sucks man :shit:, keep us posted

[Dooly]

Bad luck mate. At least you got home ok.

How many kms has your bike got on it?

[Grizz]

Did the bike stay still on the way back to your place...
Any damage done to the fairings with the tie-downs.
Nice towie driver, making sure that it was tied on ok and to your satisfaction.

I never realised how difficult it could be to tie-down a sportbike onto a flatdeck truck. Especially when there aint a lot of places to tie the strops onto.

Thanks Crashe,

Yeah it got home in one piece, looked fairly forlorn on the back though, and it was rather quiet comeing down the driveway, even saying "brm brm brm" wasn't the same.

The towie wasn't a bad bloke even though he said he hates bikes, grrr.

[Grizz]

Bad luck mate. At least you got home ok.

How many kms has your bike got on it?

27'000kms, of which only 3'000 are mine, and its done 1500km after a major service, of which the CCT's were adjusted, and the comment from the mechanice was 'you have a really strong engine there', hmm could be a Tuis ad, yeah right.

[oldguy]

sounds bad I,m looking for parts,( just kidding) as fatjim said could be camchain tensioner fingers crossed :mellow:

[Dooly]

Let us know how you get on Grizz and what the damage is, hopefully minimal.

[Grizz]

Let us know how you get on Grizz and what the damage is, hopefully minimal.

If it's major you can buy my pipes, I'll take $8995.00 for them :P

[Grizz]

Thanks for the advice so far, I guess that until the bike shop looks at it I won't know for sure. Hopefully it isn't too serious.

Will let you know how I get on.

[tl_tub]

27'000kms, of which only 3'000 are mine, and its done 1500km after a major service, of which the CCT's were adjusted, and the comment from the mechanice was 'you have a really strong engine there', hmm could be a Tuis ad, yeah right.

Its usually about 30-35k that the tensioners break, from what ive seen so far.
I assume you know about the overheating regulator too? If you havnt put extra cooling on it, now is a good time.

[Dooly]

If it's major you can buy my pipes, I'll take $8995.00 for them :P


Bargain!:yes:

[Dooly]

Its usually about 30-35k that the tensioners break, from what ive seen so far.
I assume you know about the overheating regulator too? If you havnt put extra cooling on it, now is a good time.

How do you put extra cooling on the regulator?
Where is it too?

[Grizz]

Well RB came and picked up the bike, I rang them today and it was a broken front cam chain tensioner. Luckily the chain stayed on and no damage had been done, otherwise I would hate to think what the bill would be.

As it is it will cost about $200.00 for the tensioner, and I am going to get both done so another $200.00, plus labour.

I had a look on the VTR registry and there are a few posts about this part failing early (again mine has only done 27'000kms). It seems that this is an achilles heel for an otherwise sound engine.

Does anyone know anything about aftermarket manual adjusting CCT's. How much they are, where they can be sourced, and how often they need adjusting etc etc etc.

[XTC]

Why do honda find it impossible to make a reliable CCT? Even my CX suffered from this 100 years ago....

[Fatjim]

The newer ones are a little better. Mines done 42k now with no rattle. I should take it out one day and have a look.


AAARRRGGHHH! I probably given mine the kiss of death now.

[tl_tub]

How do you put extra cooling on the regulator?
Where is it too?

Its been november since I had mine, so I could be a little rusty.. Take off the cowl that is around the seat, on the right hand side you will see the regulator bolted to the frame. I had the early model, 1997-98ish, so the later model could be different. My model had the overheating problem - no fins on the outside of the regulator, just a metal surround with a plastic inner.

I used a file to flatten the top of the regulator, squeezed a tube of heat transfer compound on top and fitted a heatsink/fan that I purchased from dick smith (just a generic computer CPU type). Just hook the power up to the tail light, so it runs when the bike is on.
The temerature difference was quite significant.
Mine was on the way to burning out as the plug had allready started to melt. I saw one mention on the net of one catching fire?
Just a shame i went to that trouble and the bike was written off 3 days later! :)

[Paul in NZ]

The newer ones are a little better. Mines done 42k now with no rattle. I should take it out one day and have a look.


AAARRRGGHHH! I probably given mine the kiss of death now.

Pucker up Baby.....

[jonbuoy]

http://www.aperaceparts.com/

Hey, glad to hear its not too serious- you were pretty lucky there. Manual CCT

I got them from these guys, they look fugly as you get a plated steel bolt with a lock nut sticking out of the motor, very visible on the rear cyclinder. They need a bit of adjustment every now and again. Worth the money though, same price as the stock Honda ones and will last forever.

Drawbacks are that as they don't self adjust they will either increase wear on the cam chain slightly or rattle a bit when the motors cold. I don't think it makes much difference though.

[geoffc]

Hi Grizz
Sorry to read about your drama. What you don't really need. Hope my bike keeps behaving. Had mine only a short while and the bl**dy rectifier thingy fried itself. Stuck out in the middle of no-where not my idea of fun. Cheers

[Dooly]

Its been november since I had mine, so I could be a little rusty.. Take off the cowl that is around the seat, on the right hand side you will see the regulator bolted to the frame. I had the early model, 1997-98ish, so the later model could be different. My model had the overheating problem - no fins on the outside of the regulator, just a metal surround with a plastic inner.

I used a file to flatten the top of the regulator, squeezed a tube of heat transfer compound on top and fitted a heatsink/fan that I purchased from dick smith (just a generic computer CPU type). Just hook the power up to the tail light, so it runs when the bike is on.
The temerature difference was quite significant.
Mine was on the way to burning out as the plug had allready started to melt. I saw one mention on the net of one catching fire?
Just a shame i went to that trouble and the bike was written off 3 days later! :)


Cheers mate.

Seems to be the same two things that are the only probs with the VTRs, good to know.