Author Topic: Is it over heating?? (Read 3183 times)

travellukie · « **on:** May 11, 2006, 11:35:10 AM »

Hi, I need help, I cant get it from local mechanics...!!

I recently bought a 250Bandit 2 weeks ago. I am living in Japan on a 12 month exchange programme and bought the bike for a daily runner and also so I could go away on short trips and tour Japan. My Japanese is poor, and i find it impossible to talk with mechanics here..

I have found two or three problems in the last week, I went away on a 10 day tour, and I had these problems, maybe they all relate to one problem and I was hoping someone out there can help me and give me a few solutions..

It seems to run perfectly early in the mornings and at night when its cold, so I thought it might be a over heating problem, but even sometimes in the morning and thirty minutes of riding it starts to run bad, as i wait at at the traffic lights, it idles fine but when i go to take off, nothing happens and when I pull back on the throttle there is no power, and slowly it buiulds up rpm:s and then I can take off... This happens regulary, it also has a strange muffled noise coming form the exhaust in the 1st 2nd and 3rd gears. It always workks fine in high rpm;s . If I rev the shit out of it in 1st gear when I take off it works too, but this is not what I want..

I am getting terrible milage due to revving it so much.

The other problem was I had to ride over the mountains here, which can be quite high and I think it was getting quite hot (the motor), then the motor just stopped, it would idle in neutrel but as soon as you put into gear it would cut out... as soon as I turned the bike around and went down hill for a few hundred metres it worked fine and then I would turn around and keep going up until the same thing happened..

Can anyone help me out there, any help would be very appreciated..

Two mechanics that I spoke to gave no help at all, One had no idea what it was and the other told me because I had a tank bag on, it was stopping the air going down into the petrol tank and causing a lack of air/petrol mix into the carbie.. I just cant see this happening..!! I have had tank bags on all my bikes and never had this problem..

cheers travellukie

travellukie · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2006, 11:44:35 AM »

It`s a 1993 bandit ( I think )

Red01 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 11, 2006, 12:16:38 PM »

Sounds like either the carbs are dirty and not working right or you have a jetting problem - like too rich. High altitude will sap power from carb'd engines real easily and if you're too rich at low level, you're drwning the thing in the mountains.

rider123 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 11, 2006, 01:15:24 PM »

I'd concur with red, if it runs fine when cold then gets worse and worse when hot I'd vote running too rich as well. Are the mixture screws drilled out or just open? If they are open you could try leaning out the mixture a bit by turning the screws clockwise say 1/4 to 1/2 a turn. Just for fun I'd also check to see how dirty the air filter is. If it's super dirty it will richen the mixture up. I'd also check to see if the choke is fully closing it may be a little sticky.

Also in Japan sometimes it's easier to write things out for them they usually can read english ok but can't speak it due to the amount of "engrish" on all their advertisments. You could also go to an english school, and cut and paste what we've been saying, get it translated, then you can take this to a mechanic with our suggestions and they can see if they can fix it.

Red01 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2006, 01:20:41 PM »

Have you been boiling water/steam out?

If you don't have these physical signs, you're not likely overheating the motor.

Does the 250 have a temp gauge or idiot light?
Is the fan working?

jeffw · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2006, 12:41:38 AM »

Probably a dumb question, but, is the petcock/fuel valve in the run position, or the PRI position?

travellukie · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2006, 02:11:51 AM »

Thanks for all your help, its been great.

I have to admit i am no mechanic (maybe I need a beginners course) the motorbike did not come with any manuals, I dont understand some of the terms used..!!

ie.. petcock valve/ PRI postion = are we talking about fuel switch?? Its turned to on, I was told by a fellow rider on the weekend to turn it to reserve when on the steep mountains, but other than that I leave it on "on".

As far as steam or boiling water coming out?? where would it come from?? I did ask a mechanic about the fan, he said that it turns on at 90 degrees, but I did checked it daily to see if it had moved, and it didn:t move at all over the whole trip.. Does this mean that it never heated up more than 90 degrees or maybe the fan is not working at all ..????????

It does have an idiot light, but it never came on...

And now for the dumb question, where would I find the mixture screws on the carbie/carbies?? (it just proves I know nothing about this engine) does it have two carbies?? (not having a manual is being a problem) normally I would have a go at it, but now I need extra help locating things..!!

I am about to head down and have a look at the bike, I hope that I am not a complete fool an am able to locate the choke and air filter on my own, would changing the oil do any thing??

thanks again for all your help, Its rather isolating here in Japan with no english, and its frustrating trying to ask for help in japanese to local mechanics, cheers.... travellukie...

Greg · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2006, 03:48:57 AM »

There is a temp light but the fan comes on before the light. My fan has come on only a few times in the 14 months I have had my 250 and that was in summer sitting around in traffic.

Leave the fuel switch on "on" switch to "res" when you run out of fuel and all going well it will give you about 2L of fuel to get to a petrol station.

I would change the plugs check the air filter drain the fuel (tank and carb) put in fresh fuel and test. If that doesn't do it then look into doing some carb work.

Red01 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2006, 11:15:53 AM »

If you use the board's search feature and look for mixture screws and/or jetting you should get plenty of info and several of these posts have pics that'll help you out.

Red01 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2006, 11:37:20 AM »

Yes, the petcock valve is the fuel valve on the bottom of the tank. You may or may not have a PRI (prime) position, I know most of the 400's don't come with one from the factory, but can be easily modified to have one. Look in the 400 forum for details.

You shouldn't need to switch to reserve for mountains. You'd have to be going downhill pretty steep and pretty low on gas before it would make a difference - and if you're that low, you should just leave it in reserve and start thinking about your next fuel stop anyway.