1991 Suzuki Katana 750 - known problems?

The problem was a bad battery ground wire. It's running, and in my
garage now. I rode it around my driveway and yard tonight.
Transmission seems OK. It is idling very fast, which I believe is due
to a vacuum leak. I'm going to put the bodywork on it tomorrow
evening, and take it down the road. I'll post the results.

Wade

 

*NO, THEY DON'T* You've been pointed at the Charter again and again, you
utter fuckwit.

Ah! So this is why you change your posting ID every week.

 

Read the Charter, fuckwit.

There's a lot else besides.

 

Dave:

What exactly in my original post lead you to believe that I know
nothing about motorcycle mechanics? I asked a question about a
particular motorcycle that I knew nothing about, and passed along what
the seller had told me. I rode and worked on minibikes and motorcycles
from about 1970 to 1985 (just after my first kid was born). I was away
from motorcycles for about 20 years, coming back in 2005 with a $200
1980 Suzuki GS750L. I bought that because it was cheap and ran, and
figured that in the worst case, I could part it out and at least get
my money back. I soon found out that the wheels on it that I thought
looked odd were in fact mid-80's Yamaha FZ wheels, as was the front
suspension and front & rear brakes. Finding that out allowed me to
round up the appropriate parts to put it together and make it safe to
ride. I still have it, but may sell it after I get the Katana fully
sorted out. I will inform any prospective buyers as to what I am
selling. Granted, I don't know much about the bikes in that 20 year
span, but it doesn't mean I know nothing about mechanics.

I was given a 1996 Yamaha FZR-600 in May of 2006. Along with missing a
title, it was missing a lot of parts (radiator, gauges, ignitor box,
headlights, starter solenoid, and many small pieces). Just over a year
later, I have a running, titled, nice FZR with about $500 invested in
it (thanks to patience, eBay and some local salvage yards). I spent
$500 on a bike that cost nothing. Does that seem like a lot? These
bikes are selling for $1,000 or more still.

I took a calculated risk on the Katana. Worst case, I could sell it to
someone else and get my money back. If you can buy something for much
less than market value because it needs repair, you estimate the
repair cost, add it to the purchase price, and see how it compares
with the same item that is ready to use with no problems. If it is
more, you don't buy. If it's about the same, you probably don't buy,
unless you just like to work on things. If it's significantly less,
you get a good deal.

I understand and appreciate your advice (and the advice from the
others), especially regarding electrical/electronic components. I
bought a 2000 VW Jetta for my son last year. Other than a noisy
starter, it ran perfectly when he test drove it, when I test drove it,
and for several days after the purchase. Then the ECU box died. It
came out of the repair shop with a new ECU (and starter), but I was
about $1,000 poorer. That turned a great deal (bought the car for
significantly less than Blue Book) into an average deal.

By the way, if one of my previous posts arrives on the list a second
time, I apologize in advance. My satellite internet connection was
acting up Tuesday night, and it looked like my message didn't post, so
I sent it again Wednesday.

Wade

 

Hey Wade:

I suppose like everyone else that participates in newsgroup posting with any
regularity, my judgement tends to be a bit colored after reading the many
many questions from people who don't have a clue what they're doing. I
apologize for lumping you in with them if in fact that's not the case, but
realize that all anybody has to go by as far as your qualifiactions go is
your original post... which was quite brief.

Not that you want to confuse your question by adding useless info, but a
one-liner like "I am mechanically inclined and know my way around a
motorcycle" or some such will get you far... otherwise folks might
incorrectly assume you're not capable of effecting repairs. I have urged
people to bring their bike to a mechanic if I don't feel they can
realistically fix it, although I did not do that in this case because it was
in no way evident that you were not up to the task. Albrecht for one
assumes that anyone can effect any repair, and maybe that's a good thing. I
will only say that I know people who have made a royal mess of something
which was only marginally out of adjustment or requiring only a small
repair, myself included.

As I noted in one of my (sorry, many many) posts on this subject, what I
meant to do in my original reply was to give an indication of the POTENTIAL
costs which May be incurred when buying a non-running motorcycle, akin to
your Jetta story. I also noted that if you got it cheap enough, you could
likely recover your costs by parting out the bike.

At any rate, it sounds like you got a steal of a deal and I'm glad you are
up and running. I am envious as I am currently on the lookout for an older
(read "affordable") sportbike...

Cheers,

Dave S.

 

No harm done, Dave.

I get aggravated when working on these old motorcycles when I see some
of the "repairs" (read "horrors") previous owners have done. It seems
like everyone becomes a master of motorcycle electrics when they start
having problems, and start removing fuse blocks and cutting and half-
ass rewiring the bike. Then they reassemble the bike with improper
hardware, or lose half of the hardware.

Then there are the hillbillies selling bikes without titles that say
"All you have to do to get a title is to fill out this form, and take
it down to the BMV with $20, and they will give you a title". If it
were that easy, they would have done it, and been able to sell the
bike for double what they are asking for it.

Anyway, I rode the bike tonight, and discovered that most of the high
idle speed problem is an improperly routed or adjusted throttle cable.
When I turned the bars, the engine speed went way up, especially when
turning to the right. I came back home pretty soon after discovering
that, since it's dangerous to ride it that way. It does ride nice,
though.

I'll post any more developments. Thanks again to all.

Wade

 

.... for about five minutes.

Soldering wires on motorcycles - especially those that tend to vibrate a
little or a lot - is not a very brilliant idea. The joint will crack or
break after a while, resulting in fun, hard-to-find intermittent
connections.

Properly waterproofed connectors don't usually suffer from the high
resistance problem that you mention so the better fix is to crimp on a
proper (ie, non-insulated) connector using the correct tool, reinsert
the connector into the connector block, waterproof with some silicone
grease or similar (or use heatshrink tubing if you don't have a
connector block) and Bob's your mother's brother.

 

Gee, all this on a motorcycle that, according to one of your earlier posts,
was absolutely, positively NOT prone to any electrical problems.

 

Yeh, I spent the better part of an afternoon last weekend epoxy filling the
swiss-cheese-like air filter assembly on an older bike. Apparently the
previous owner had determined that more air is better and had actually
drilled holes which allowed air AROUND the filters. Also figured there was
no need to change the jetting. Gotta say, it was quite an improvement in
performance just plugging those holes (and changing the oil and filter of
course). Sometimes more is not better.

There is the odd great deal out there, but over time I've realized that most
great deals are too good to be true. Or you get what you pay for. Or there
ain't no such thing as a free lunch. A cynical attitude to be sure which
probably made me miss out on the odd bargain but overall has saved me a lot
of money and aggravation.

That's excellent in that throttle cables and zip ties are about as
inexpensive a fix as you could ask for. It sounds like you might just need
more slack around the triple tree.

 

Nope, nothing that well thought out. Fortunately, the Katana has been
spared the kind of work that I'm referring to. I'm talking about
patching in new sections of wire that don't match the gauge or color
of the existing wires, then twisting them together and covering the
connections with a wad of electrical tape (maybe even masking tape or
duct tape). Also, it seems they just arbitrarily attempt to rewire the
bike with wire and twist-on connectors from the local auto parts store
because they think some part of the factory harness may be bad (but
they don't know for sure). Those kind of repairs never seem to get
done, and the next owner has a real mess on his hands.

Wade

 

There's nothing wrong with getting rid of the cheap failure prone OEM
connectors from the stator to the reg/rect, and replacing them with
properly crimped, strain relieved, and waterproofed butt splices.
How often do you need to break that connection, unless you are replacing
the stator or the R/R, or removing the engine?

Consult FAA Advisory Circular AC 65-15A Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics
Airframe Handbook, chapter 11.

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAdvisoryCircular.nsf/MainFrame?OpenFrameSet

"Solder splices may be used, but they are particularly brittle and
not recommended"

 

Fair enough. I usually don't use crimped butt splices but I'd agree that
they are probably as good, if not better than spade or bullet
connectors.

But for obvious reasons, I prefer to have the ability to take things
apart again if necessary .

Indeed, that was kind of my point here, not the fact that they shouldn't
be spliced at all.

My favourite bodgers are people who put a blob of solder on the end of a
wire and then crimp on a spade connectors. So they've pretty much
ensured that it'll (a) break and (b) not fit correctly anyway because
the solder on the wire tends to 'flow' a little under pressure, thus
negating the effect of the crimp (which is supposed to form an airtight
seal if you do it properly).

 

And they vibrate like a motorcycle, or a car, right? And obviously the
FAA doesn't know what they're doing either (see Mark Olson's post).

OK, so I guess you probably are very, very good at soldering electrical
connections. Trouble is, your average shade tree mechanic isn't and I've
just had to fix another soldered joint (butt splice, as per Mark's post)
that broke on one of my bikes. Took a while to find that; fortunately it
was only something as unimportant as an indicator connection.

That splice hadn't been done by a pro and failed with predictable
results.

Not on my bikes, at least not when I've checked. Apart from the reg/rect
connector on the VFR that got hot enough to melt the block, but that was
hardly a fault of the connector.

Wasn't me, guv.