CBR running lousy all the sudden

Gang,

I'm a little lost with these modern bikes, maybe these symptoms will scream
something obvious to you learned folk.

It's a 2001 CBR 929 with 12K miles. About a year and a half ago I garaged
it with a battery tender. (We'd just moved, it needed tires, and all my
time and money was going into a 74 MGB) Two weeks ago I got new tires,
tags, insurance, etc and started commuting on it again and it ran just fine.
Ride quality and gas mileage were just as before for several hundred miles

I think the spark is OK: I swapped the coil from a working center plug to
one of the outer wires, connected a plug outside clamped to the frame, and
hit the starter. The spark looks strong, even using one of the old gummed
up plugs. Then I tore in deeper and swapped one of the injectors from a
center cylinder with the injector from one of the outer cylinders. There
was no change, the center pipes still got hot after a few seconds but the
outer pipes were relatively cool.

I did disconnect it for a few minutes, and all that happened was the clock
reset.

I just scanned the manual and don't see anything specific like that. I've
heard in general that you have to watch yourself jumping the engine, but I
was just driving down the highway half way through a 40 minute commute when
the trouble started. FWIW, it was really hot, over 100 dgrees. I was
watching the guage temperature though, and it didn't look particularly high
(maybe 215 or so).

If I open the throttle and look down the intake throats while cranking the
starter, I see a bunch of fog around the outer cylinder intakes before the
engine catches and I have to cut the throttle. I guess that means it's
getting at least some fuel but just not igniting for some reason. I was
hoping to see visible squirting to see if the center squirts were stronger
than the outside ones, but I can't really see anything like a liquid squirt
on any cylinders (I'm not familiar with fuel injection, so didn't know what
to expect) If I idle the engine, all four intakes seem to have similar
suction on my hands when the engine is running. I have a compression meter,
but not an adaptor for these small diameter plugs.

If I disconnect the inner plug wires and nurse the throttle, I can get the
engine started with just the outer cylinders hooked up. I have to use a lot
more throttle, though, compared with idling with the inner cylinders only
hooked up which ticks along with no throttle turn at all.

Tomorrow I'll check the valve clearances and maybe try to find a way to test
compression. I seem to have at least some fuel and at least some spark, so
there's not much left.

I also noticed that the red dash light would flash nine shorts just after I
turn on the key. I don't have a decoder ring. I don't remember seeing the
flashes before tonight, so it's probably just related to the fact that I
have the airbox opened up at the moment.

of highway/suburban commuting. Last weekend I changed the oil, filter
(OEM), and brake fluid. It still ran just the same. Thursday afternoon,
about 150 miles after the oil change and 3/4 way through a fresh tank of
gas, it started missing a little on the highway portion of my commute home.
It gradually got worse, with last few suburban miles very rough It felt as
if it was missing on about half of my cylinders when the engine was under
any load at all -- exactly the way my old twins (Yamaha RD250, Triumph
Bonneville, Moto Guzzi V65) did when the points needed adjusting on one
side.

This weekend I replaced the plugs (point Guzzi on this particular
operation). Two of them were pretty fouled. I also bought a new air
filter, but found out it was broken after getting it home, they won't have
a new one until next week. Well I put it back together and it's still the
same. I wondered about the air cleaner so I took the old one out for a test
and the problem persisted. I went out and topped off the tank (put 3 gal in
a 4 gal tank), but still the same. My thinking now is that it's electrical,
maybe the coils. Those integrated coils on top of the spark plugs look
expensive to change out for a test, I wonder if there's some way to test
them.

Any ideas?

Have you checked the device which triggers the ignition? I'm not
at all familiar with your bike, but the symmetry in the non-firing
cylinders suggests that maybe the device which times those sparks
is at fault. I'll admit it's a very long shot, but you said "any".

8-)

bob prohaska

TNX!!,
Dave