Sudden Stop then loss of power.

This morning I had to break hard down from about 70 MPH, because of a traffic clog at a tunnel here in Minneapolis. I accelerated around the traffic, but about 45 seconds later I noticed a battery smell and it felt like I was running on 2 cylinders.

I putted along at 55 mph the last mile to work with sluggish acceleration. When I parked I expected the engine to kill spontaneously, but it idled o.k. till I shut it down with the off switch.

I never smelled gasoline just the battery smell.

In another couple of hours I get off work and we'll see how it runs.

What do you folks think happened?

The bike is a 1982 GPz750 4 cylinder with carburation, Within the last 2 months, I rebuilt the starter motor, replaced the plugs, sparkplug wires and sparkplug caps, new drive sprokets (forward and rear), new drive chain.

31,000 miles.

This bike tends to blow the main fuse once every 3 months or so.

Post edited by: idkrash, at: 2006/06/27 15:10

Not sure what a battery smells like, but it might mean you've overcharged your battery. That might mean that you're dyno's not charging your battery correctly while the bike is running.
Put a volt meter on your battery. If its reading less than 10 volts with the motor off, it's dead. You may be able trickle charge it, and it may still hold a charge. Then you have to check the voltage when the engine is running, and the dyno is charging your battery. You should see around 14 volts at about 3000 rpm. More than 15 means you're overcharging and you cooked your battery. Less than 12 means your undercharging, and your bike is draining the battery as you ride.

Good luck.

Here is what I found after work.

The motor started right up. I rode off with good acceleration for 7 blocks then I felt something wet on my leg. I looked down and saw gas coming out of the overflow tube from the left carbs.

The engine started running lubby and kept running lubby and dripping gas out of the drain tube until I got home. I live about 14 miles from work.

I started to get good acceleration again for the last block and a half. I didn't have time to really look into it so I just parked the bike instead of taking it back on the road to see if the acceleration would remain strong. Today I'll change the oil, becuase a lot of gas probably spilled into the left cylinders yesterday. I'm going to read up on the carburators and fuel lines today.

I hope that the gas that was spilling out of the tubes was left over from the sudden slow down and there won't be anymore overflow. I didn't plan overhauling the carbs until this winter.

About the battery smell. That smell is kind of sour and acrid. It is generally noticable on older batteries that show some white or greenish crusty build up on the terminals. ( www.vjmw.org/workshop/elec.htm ) My terminals are clean of any kind of corrosion.

The battery was charging at 14 volts yesterday and was reading 11 volts when I parked it at home. I didn't check the water levels, but I had topped it off about 4 weeks ago just after I finished rebuilding the starter motor.

Post edited by: idkrash, at: 2006/06/28 11:02

idkrash wrote:

Here is what I found after work.

The engine started running lubby and kept running lubby and dripping gas out of the drain tube until I got home. I live about 14 miles from work.

lubby

neat word, what's it mean?

If it's still dripping gas you may have somehow blobbled up the float in that hard stop

.

Post edited by: idkrash, at: 2006/06/28 13:52

I heard it in the movie Master and Commander. Capt. Jack Aubrey is being chased by another ship and fakes that his ship is not British Navy vessel.

He tells his crewman to make the sails lubby and unnavy like. That made his ship slow and unmanuverable.

So my motor was running all burpy and shakey with no power. Unfortunately I couldn't just pull it tighter.

Aye matey, you need to scabber it's jibbers and then kellhaul that carb bank.

Check your regulator/rectifier with a multimeter by checking the voltage at the battery terminals at idle and at 4K rpm. Do this as I suspect your battery is frying as well as other electrical components. Don't trust your dash gauge to give you accurate readings. USE A MULTIMETER!

will do

I think that's covered on page 151 of Kawasaki KZ750 Four, Motorcycle Service Manual, (c) Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. 1985; Sixth Edition (16): May 30, 2001 (M), Printed in Japan. (Oiled up in the USA)

I think the (M) stands for Maritime.

btw I used marine grease on the back axle when I swapped out the race wheel it came with to a stock wheel off a 1982 KZ750 Ltd.