Extremity
Junior Mint
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2010
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- 228
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- Location
- Tampa Bay Area, FL & Baton Rouge, LA
2005 Fz6 - somebody change "guage" to "gauge" in my subject >.>
So my bike sat for two years. Yeah. I had a family member that was supposed to start it and run it for a few minutes every week while I was out of the country, but they "couldn't figure out how to turn the key" and didn't call to let me know this. For two years. And they rode for like 10 years as a kid.
Whatever - usual crap for a bike sitting this long. My tank wasn't full, so the inside was rusted pretty bad. The first thing I did was replace the battery, which was totally dead and wouldn't charge. I haven't bought a new battery for this in so long that I didn't realize how much of a pain in the ass it is (at least here) - I went to four shops before driving to a Yamaha dealer 45m away that had one left. Battery went in, bike would crank up but wouldn't start.
Keep in mind that at this point, after putting in the new battery, it wont start but ATTEMPTS to start and the fuel gauge is NOT flashing.
I take the tank off and spend a batter half of the day cleaning it out as best I can. That small opening where the fuel pump is does *not* give very easy access but I wanted to do as much by hand as possible, pretty much destroying my arm in the process. I got about 90% of the rust out and what is left isn't going to fall off on its own - I'm going to look into just getting a new tank, but that's gonna come later.
I took the fuel pump apart carefully - I managed to get it out in one piece by slightly bending that little plastic piece that makes it hard to remove from the tank. Somebody here had posted to do this with needlenose pliers and it worked great, came right out and nothing broke (after 30m of trying to do it without the pliers). I know now that I could just take off the fuel level gauge arm thing before pulling it out - I'll do that next time. So yeah, I took the entire thing apart and cleaned it up as best as possible - it looked pretty good once I was done with it. I put it back together making sure everything was connected properly, and installed it back in the tank.
Put the tank back on, connected the stuff underneath, turned the key just to see what happened - flashing fuel guage (all bars) and no attempt to prime, but on the second try or so I heard some clicking from the fuel pump. Figured it was trying to prime but there was no gas. I put in a gallon of fresh gas and tried again, which is where I'm at now - the fuel gauge is flashing all bars, and now it's not cranking at all, it's not attempting to start.
Obviously it's something wrong with the pump but I can *not* afford a new fuel pump especially with the crazy cost of them. I don't think it's just a loose connection (unless it's one that I can't see) but I'm going outside now to check again. I *might* have put the fuel pump in backwards and bent the arm slightly but I'm not sure - if I did do that wouldn't the bike still start, and the worst would be my fuel gauge would be inaccurate? I'm going to go outside and check the connections and count the flashes to hopefully get a more specific answer with that. The service manual I have for an 05 does not reference the fuel gauge flashing at *all* and just references a check engine light type thing, which isn't on.
Sorry for the giant wall of text - I love this bike and I'm pretty pissed off about the condition its in, but as much as I wish I had a ton of money to dump into it I don't. The $104 for the battery (I'm too impatient to order online) sucked enough. Help! :c
Edit: Went and checked, flashes 8 times, 3 second downtime, repeats. Looks to be the same pattern I've seen posted here before, pretty much meaning "something isn't right". Hooray. I only have about a gallon of gas in there but I'm pretty sure that having low (even really low) gas wouldn't cause this.
The clicking I'm hearing, although I could have SWORN I heard the pump click, is coming from that little rear fairing piece near the seat lock. On the clutch side; the same location on the other side has the fuses, this just has some connectors and some other crap that I haven't really messed with. Everything looks connected and I doublechecked the connections under the tank too.
Edit #2:
I was getting ready to pull off the tank again at 1:45am and pull out the pump to see if I missed anything even though Im pretty sure I didnt. I decided to turn the key again first for the hell of it.
Pump primes.
Do it again, and again, and three more times. Primes beautifully, every time. Still wont crank at all. I'm pretty sure I'm not forgetting something obvious - kickstand up, in neutral, holding in clutch regardless, killswitch or whatever you guys call it isn't turned off, but pushing the starter just does... nothing. I even checked all the fuses. The tank isn't all the way down, it's resting on the front fairings (I dont want to bolt it down until it starts) and the seat isnt on but thats never prevented starting before.
The fact that it's priming has me even more weirded out. I honestly don't care about riding with no fuel gauge, which is what most of the people in the "flashing 8 times" posts have had. I just want it to start! So now I've got it flashing 8 times, 3 second gap between flashes, priming fine, but no attempt to start at all. Im still getting some clicking from that rear fairing but as far as I can remember that was normal..? I think I'm messing with my own head because I've listened to it enough times now that I'm starting to convince myself it's not normal. I really wish there was just some code saying "fix this".
So my bike sat for two years. Yeah. I had a family member that was supposed to start it and run it for a few minutes every week while I was out of the country, but they "couldn't figure out how to turn the key" and didn't call to let me know this. For two years. And they rode for like 10 years as a kid.
Whatever - usual crap for a bike sitting this long. My tank wasn't full, so the inside was rusted pretty bad. The first thing I did was replace the battery, which was totally dead and wouldn't charge. I haven't bought a new battery for this in so long that I didn't realize how much of a pain in the ass it is (at least here) - I went to four shops before driving to a Yamaha dealer 45m away that had one left. Battery went in, bike would crank up but wouldn't start.
Keep in mind that at this point, after putting in the new battery, it wont start but ATTEMPTS to start and the fuel gauge is NOT flashing.
I take the tank off and spend a batter half of the day cleaning it out as best I can. That small opening where the fuel pump is does *not* give very easy access but I wanted to do as much by hand as possible, pretty much destroying my arm in the process. I got about 90% of the rust out and what is left isn't going to fall off on its own - I'm going to look into just getting a new tank, but that's gonna come later.
I took the fuel pump apart carefully - I managed to get it out in one piece by slightly bending that little plastic piece that makes it hard to remove from the tank. Somebody here had posted to do this with needlenose pliers and it worked great, came right out and nothing broke (after 30m of trying to do it without the pliers). I know now that I could just take off the fuel level gauge arm thing before pulling it out - I'll do that next time. So yeah, I took the entire thing apart and cleaned it up as best as possible - it looked pretty good once I was done with it. I put it back together making sure everything was connected properly, and installed it back in the tank.
Put the tank back on, connected the stuff underneath, turned the key just to see what happened - flashing fuel guage (all bars) and no attempt to prime, but on the second try or so I heard some clicking from the fuel pump. Figured it was trying to prime but there was no gas. I put in a gallon of fresh gas and tried again, which is where I'm at now - the fuel gauge is flashing all bars, and now it's not cranking at all, it's not attempting to start.
Obviously it's something wrong with the pump but I can *not* afford a new fuel pump especially with the crazy cost of them. I don't think it's just a loose connection (unless it's one that I can't see) but I'm going outside now to check again. I *might* have put the fuel pump in backwards and bent the arm slightly but I'm not sure - if I did do that wouldn't the bike still start, and the worst would be my fuel gauge would be inaccurate? I'm going to go outside and check the connections and count the flashes to hopefully get a more specific answer with that. The service manual I have for an 05 does not reference the fuel gauge flashing at *all* and just references a check engine light type thing, which isn't on.
Sorry for the giant wall of text - I love this bike and I'm pretty pissed off about the condition its in, but as much as I wish I had a ton of money to dump into it I don't. The $104 for the battery (I'm too impatient to order online) sucked enough. Help! :c
Edit: Went and checked, flashes 8 times, 3 second downtime, repeats. Looks to be the same pattern I've seen posted here before, pretty much meaning "something isn't right". Hooray. I only have about a gallon of gas in there but I'm pretty sure that having low (even really low) gas wouldn't cause this.
The clicking I'm hearing, although I could have SWORN I heard the pump click, is coming from that little rear fairing piece near the seat lock. On the clutch side; the same location on the other side has the fuses, this just has some connectors and some other crap that I haven't really messed with. Everything looks connected and I doublechecked the connections under the tank too.
Edit #2:
I was getting ready to pull off the tank again at 1:45am and pull out the pump to see if I missed anything even though Im pretty sure I didnt. I decided to turn the key again first for the hell of it.
Pump primes.
Do it again, and again, and three more times. Primes beautifully, every time. Still wont crank at all. I'm pretty sure I'm not forgetting something obvious - kickstand up, in neutral, holding in clutch regardless, killswitch or whatever you guys call it isn't turned off, but pushing the starter just does... nothing. I even checked all the fuses. The tank isn't all the way down, it's resting on the front fairings (I dont want to bolt it down until it starts) and the seat isnt on but thats never prevented starting before.
The fact that it's priming has me even more weirded out. I honestly don't care about riding with no fuel gauge, which is what most of the people in the "flashing 8 times" posts have had. I just want it to start! So now I've got it flashing 8 times, 3 second gap between flashes, priming fine, but no attempt to start at all. Im still getting some clicking from that rear fairing but as far as I can remember that was normal..? I think I'm messing with my own head because I've listened to it enough times now that I'm starting to convince myself it's not normal. I really wish there was just some code saying "fix this".
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