Motorcycle Forum / Country Specific / UK Group / August 2007

Having had Mr. Beav (and Son) of this parish attend my mishap-ed
motorcycle, I visited on Saturday to set about remolishing it into a
zx10 shape. See here for the "after" shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christofire/1250284290/

Removing and refitting the front end of the 10r is laborious - you need
to remove most of the bodywork to do this. After a spell on Saturday
and a revisit on Sunday we'd fitted panels, reconnected connections,
fastened fasteners and general productivity had occured. I got to meet
Brownz too, which was nice.

What wasn't nice was getting the whole thing back in one piece, then
finding that something wasn't quite right. When you turn the ignition
on there's usually a long whirr of the fuel pump, the exhaust valve
mechanism spins to and fro and there's General Noises. There were
noises, but not enough noises. Things happened, but not for as long as
suspected. The neutral and oil lights were on, and nothing else was -
situation normal there. Hit the starter, the engine spins and the FI
light flashes. Hmm. Try again, same thing.

There's no smell of fuel, so we tried syphoning from a handy Yaris but
found there must be some sort of device to prevent that. So we took
some fuel from Beav's bike, put it in mine, still no go. A quick trip
to the local petrol station saw another £5 of fuel in the tank. Still
the fuel pump doesn't prime properly and the engine won't fire up.
There's still no smell of fuel.

Fuel tank back up, and disconnecting the fuel hose from the tank gives
a spurt of petrol, so it's getting through. At this point we'd run out
of time, so I head home to peruse the manuals. Flashing FI light
appears to mean ECU immobiliser problems. Oh dear.

I return on Sunday, armed with ZX10R manual onna (USB) stick, and a
hoping I've just not reconnected that wire that I can't remember
disconnecting. Five minutes with the allen keys and it wasn't that
wire. Bugger. Bits were prodded, investigated and the (500+ page)
manual was read. It wasn't the immobiliser as the lighting up sequence
said that was all fine. It wasn't fuel as there was plenty.

Some more tea was drunk, the internet was searched and I found a forum
post by someone with the same problem. All appears fine, but the fuel
pump doesn't prime for as long as it should, the bike won't start, and
the FI light flashes when you hit the starter as the engine turns over.

We set about removing the tilt switch. The little thing that detects
when your bike falls over, and then kills the engine to prevent damage.
After removing side pods (again) and then unbolting the tank (again) I
unbolted the switch from its bracket, and swung it into view.

It was then that I saw "dn", clearly embossed on the side.