1990 Bandit electrical issues

[GoldMiner]

Hi Guys
I'm hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction, I have a 1990 Bandit 250 which has been giving me a few hassels. It has an annoying missfire, it's like it drops a cylinder or floods in one cylinder, so I took it apart cleaned out the carbs etc, have replaced plugs, coils, battery and high tension leads, put it back together improved it a bit, but still won't idle and still has misfire, (very dodgy when cornering if the 4th cylinder kicks into life at the wrong time!). Then the other day went to put new tyres on and rev counter didn't work? took it apart checked the wiring no obvious fuses blown etc, put it back together went to go for a ride and no dash lights (oil, temp, nutral etc and aslo no indicators or brake light) very frustrating I suspect it's a loose plug for the dash stuff but the rev counter was on a seperate day any hints on getting the old girl to run smoothly and where the problem lies for the rev counter. Thanks in advance.

[Blackshear]

Hi Guys
I'm hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction, I have a 1990 Bandit 250 which has been giving me a few hassels. It has an annoying missfire, it's like it drops a cylinder or floods in one cylinder, so I took it apart cleaned out the carbs etc, have replaced plugs, coils, battery and high tension leads, put it back together improved it a bit, but still won't idle and still has misfire, (very dodgy when cornering if the 4th cylinder kicks into life at the wrong time!). Then the other day went to put new tyres on and rev counter didn't work? took it apart checked the wiring no obvious fuses blown etc, put it back together went to go for a ride and no dash lights (oil, temp, nutral etc and aslo no indicators or brake light) very frustrating I suspect it's a loose plug for the dash stuff but the rev counter was on a seperate day any hints on getting the old girl to run smoothly and where the problem lies for the rev counter. Thanks in advance.

Even though this post is old as, my 1990 bandit occasionally drops the 3rd cylinder from the left, for what appears to be no apparent cause for.
So whilst the bike was running, I wiggled all the spark plugs and... A jumping spark managed to get me a couples time. Appeared the lead was arcing to the engine before going through the spark plug itself.

Since giving the lead a good fucking bashing and pointing it away from the engine (the raised cam cavity thing in the middle?) works sweet as.

Who knows if it helps, but worth a shot.

Rev counter will be fucked if you've blown a fuse. Check your fuse box under the seat. Pretty sure headlight, indicators and gauge lights go as well.

[elevenhundred]

Also check your battery connections and earths for good measure

[GoldMiner]

Hi
Cheers for the suggestions, went to fire up the bike the other day and the dash lights etc were all going again ????? I think they may have gone out due to me spraying contact cleaner in and around the plugs on the wiring maybe causing short dunno, rev counter still dont go though. The next door neighbour used to be a mechanic so he's having a look for me he's ruled out the plugs and leads and seems to think the #2 cylinder is the problematic one, unfortunately his compression gauge was too short to reach to the base of the plug hole but he suspects the compression in #2 is down possibly due to valve clearances. Other possibility was rubbers between carbs and motor being too loose (sucking too much air, making it run lean), currently in the process of getting longer compression gauge from a mate and put packers around outside of rubbers to make the clamps squeeze up tighter. Will keep you posted.

[GoldMiner]

Bit of an update, neighbour came over, with compression gauge and checked all 4 cylinders #1 was 50psi #2 25psi #3 unable to get a reading(to low!!) #4 49psi. Not good! suspect a blown head gasket (should note these were done while engine was cold so may improve a bit if warm but still not the 142psi the book says it should be). Any suggestions how difficult is it to do a head gasket and rocker gasket change and any ideas on costs for new rings because if i'm gonna pull it apart might as well do those too! or do I call it a day put it back together and flick it off to someone with more tme and money? Extremely gutted.

[CookMySock]

With them all that low, I would say its more like its heavily worn cylinders and rings.

Steve

[GoldMiner]

Yeah that has crossed my mind too, If I have to do them then I may as well reuild the entire engine, unfortunately the bike probly ain't woth that so may have to look at a second hand engine with less K's on the clock, my old girl has done close to 70 thou.

[GoldMiner]

Just had an email back from the bike shop, their mechanic said that this kind of thing is common with these bikes and doubts that it's the gasket etc but most likely just the valves needing to be adjusted so with any luck that's all it is, here's hoping

[Blackshear]

Fingers crossed, eh!
Far amount of k's for the poor old girl!

[GoldMiner]

Just took the old girl to bits to check the valve clearances and they seem ok but the timing appears to be out, Does anyone have the info on how to reset the valve timing on the 45hp version GJ74A Bandit, The manual I have is for a 400 bandit and the engines are consderably differently set up, I can't seem to find any notches on the crank to indicate where to line it up to reset the timing and there are 2 sets of notches on the cams one set of smaller marks and then the larger notches that the 400 manual says to use, However the larger notches don't line up anywhere close to what they should. It would be really usefull to get my hands on the manual for the 250 if anyone has it in a PDF version any help would be awsome.
cheers

[GoldMiner]

Hey for all those of you that are having the same problems as I am finding a manual for your bandit 250, I have discovered a site that has the manual for the GSX250F (suzuki across) free to download, this has the same engine as my bandit just a differnt carb set up and from what I can tell the specs on the engine are the same as the bandit (valve clearance, Timing marks etc, even gear ratios) if your intrested have a look at http://www.scribd.com
Hope it helps.