Bike stops when riding, won't start for 30 sec.

Hi everyone. This is my first post. I recently purchased a 1981 KZ750 E. It was running fine for about a week and then a couple of things started happening.

First, as I was riding, the bike started to lose and regain power (kinda like it needed to go on reserve). It only lasted a short time (5 - 10 sec) and then everything was fine. This has happened a few times now. and it doesn't seem to matter whether the bike is hot or cold.

The other thing is that (also a few times now), I've lost power altogether. When I go to restart, the starter doesn't engage and nothing (no sounds). There is power to the headlight. After I'm sitting on the side of the road (wiggling spark plug wires etc), the engine will start after about 30 sec (not from anything I did I'm sure).

Hope you can help. Thanks. Jim.

Post edited by: geojim, at: 2007/07/22 21:07

Part of the losing power could be from the gas cap not breathing and creating a partial vaccum in the tank, next time the fuel is down so it doesn't suck out of the tank as you are riding, release the cap and see if it regains power.
The actual dying could be just loose wiring, or corroded connections somewhere.
If it won't turn over at all, actually disconnect the wires from the battery, starter, starter solenoid and the ground connection at the engine. It's amazing what corrosion can do. One of the members here just went through that with a charging problem. Quite a few posts on that one,,,
Ride and wrench safe.

Thanks. I found the problem. It was a splice job that someone did before I had the bike and it was covered by a wire wrap.

I had someone hold in the clutch and start button while I moved a few wires around. Found the problem almost right away.

Next time I'll be sure to try a few things before I post.

Thanks again for your input.

Jim

I am always amazed how some people still think electricity is magic.

I can't count how many bike I've resurrected just by running the hot to the solenoid instead of the ground...