| Author |
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Paypertyger
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 01:18 am: | 
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Ok guys here's the deal and I hope this helps someone out there. My 99 S3T suddenly started acting up at low constant throttle openings. One day fine next day not. No trouble codes indicated. I did the usual things, new gas, new plugs checked the temp sensor, swapped out the O2 sensor, checked the ground straps to no avail. It seemed to accelerate alright though which will seem weird when I tell you what the problem was. I noticed something strange when I got back from a test ride, as I pulled into the driveway, the bike would idle on one cylinder, but......when I got off the bike it would work on 2. Even if I just stood on the pegs it would cut out one cylinder. I rolled it up an incline to see if the change in angle would produce the same results....Nada. Only when the rear suspension was compressed would the problem occur. I checked all the wiring around the swing arm and did the wiggle pull tests while is was running and didn't get any results. So I finally resigned myself to pull off the body work and check things underneath. The tank came off first and then I sat on the bike pumping the suspension up and down looking for wiring movement. I noticed that there was enough flex in the rubber isolators to allow some engine movement and thus slight harness flex around the frame cross member. I snipped the zip ties and pulled the connectors off the injectors, (I read here that's sometimes a problem but they checked out fine. I was just about to put the tank back on when I decided to cut back the sheathing on the injector wires for the front cylinder. There was a pretty bad kink in one of the wires where the zip tie had been so I gave it a tug and Voila!! a broken wire with only the insulation holding it together. There must have been just enough flex when the suspension was compressed to part the wires inside the insulation, I patched the wires and fired the bike up and it idles like a charm, no time to go for a ride tonight but I have no doubt it will run fine. I've noticed whoever put the zip ties on at the factory liked to really muscle them on, much tighter than I would do so the constant flexing (minor as it was) on one side of the zip tie work hardened the copper wire and it broke inside the insulation. I hope this helps someone else here. By the way I determined which cylinder was cutting out by disconnecting one plug wire at a time firing it up and sitting on the bike to see if that cylinder stopped. I also figure because the muffler wasn't loading up with fuel from the non firing cylinder and popping that it was the injection and not the ignition. Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;^) |
Terrys1980
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 08:59 am: |
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You sir are one bad mofo and nice first post! |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 10:27 am: |
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Paper tiger, not! Nice write-up and systematic diagnosis. Electrical trouble like that can be a nightmare to diagnose. |
Kalali
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 03:59 pm: |
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Thanks for sharing. You're one lucky guy... |
Two_seasons
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 08:05 pm: |
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Welcome to BadWeb.
Great post.
Thanks for sharing. |
Paypertyger
| | Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 - 08:21 pm: |
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Thanks guys, I had the bike out today for a bit of a blast and its running great. So if you have one of the tubers and you're having those symptoms, I suggest you check the harness under the tank where its zip tied to the frame cross member. It looks like the fuel injection wires are pretty susceptible to breakage there. |
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S3T stuttering missing at low throttle openings