999 troubleshooting nightmare! (any help would be appreciated)

[Bill in OKC]

The tech said that he had ruled out the injectors being the problem.  If they were flooding the cylinder, would that cause the cylinder not to fire?  

If the tech has ruled them out, OK.  I just hadn't seen that mentioned before.  A bad injector will cause a cylinder not to fire if it is stuck closed or to flood if stuck open - maybe it will still run or occasionally hit but very very rich.  It has the added bad side effect of washing the bore.  Old e10 can cause either case.  Another issue I have had personal experience with is an injector coil shorting out internally.  Good luck.

[Lars D]

My guess would be the crank sensor is either bad or dirty, its a magnet and can pick up metal shavings.
Those things are hard to diagnose and rarely go bad.

[Howie]

If the tech is good with a scope he will be able to spot a notably bad injector by the firing line. Certainly he would notice a difference between the cylinders.  The tech should also , if the problem is ignition, if you have a wiring problem.  Something wrong with the primary signal would lead to a wiring, computer or primary coil winding problem.  Something wrong with the secondary signal would lead to secondary winding, spark plug, mixture or or mechanical problem.  A scope can also be used to check injector opening and closing.  Once the problem is found, then pin point testing would be needed to find the fault.  This used to much easier back in the days of breaker point ignition.  Problem is each vehicle now has it's own unique pattern.

In the world of motorcycle repair it sounds like your tech is hands above most others just because he is using a scope.  If the tech can take a snap shot of the pattern you could post the pattern and that from a known good bike I might be able to help.

I am not going against the popular opinion you have a harness problem.  If it were a horse and I was a betting man I would bet on it.  Problem is to replace it without knowing for sure is real expensive. 

[TAftonomos]

I have a harness you can try.  If it works, then bingo (and you pay me for the part).  If it doesn't, just send it back.

$150 shipped.

[Raux]

I have a harness you can try.  If it works, then bingo (and you pay me for the part).  If it doesn't, just send it back.

$150 shipped.

wow, take that deal. bet you paid more than that for the troubleshooting so far

[psycledelic]

In the world of motorcycle repair it sounds like your tech is hands above most others just because he is using a scope.  If the tech can take a snap shot of the pattern you could post the pattern and that from a known good bike I might be able to help.

He said he has 20+ years of experience.  I will bring up about a snap shot and comparison tomorrow.  Thx.

Electricals are a kick in the ass, aren't they? 

Yes they are.  I noticed from the diagram that there is a shit load of wiring on this bike. 

I have a harness you can try.  If it works, then bingo (and you pay me for the part).  If it doesn't, just send it back.
$150 shipped.

That might be a plan.  I appreciate the help.  Let me talk to the tech tomorrow and see where he is.  If he wants me to get the harness and try it, I will PM you tomorrow.  If that is cool with you? 

[psycledelic]

This was kind of funny.  I called the shop the day before yesterday and asked if the wiring harness and connections had been checked, as SpeedDog and others had suggested.  They said that they had already been ruled out.  The service manager called my house yesterday and asked it I had the manual for the bike.  They wanted the wiring diagram out of it.  I don't know if they found something, want to recheck something, or if they didn't check it to begin with.  I just thought that was interesting that they needed it two days after I called and asked. 

[TAftonomos]

I think it's weird a shop would call a customer and ask for literature to fix the bike..... hell, I'd be embarrassed to even think of asking.

In any case, it sure sounds like a break in the harness somewhere to me.  My 03 did this one time, and after make the beast with two backsing with it for hours on end, I just replaced the harness.  Worse than yours, the bike wouldn't start (sometimes) but would other times.  It left me stranded once about 500 miles from home, and that was the last straw.

When all the diagnosis "fails", you start throwing parts at the thing until it gets fixed, and move on.  Replacing the harness isn't terribly hard to do, but is a bit time consuming because of the battery box.  Should take and hour or 2 (tops). 

If you've tried swapping coils and it doesn't follow the coil.........

[Porsche Monkey]

I agree with the wire harness recommendation. If its not a mechanical issue and the tech has swapped all the other parts then its in the harness. Your lucky the problem is easily replicated and not intermittent. I have serious problems with them asking for your wiring diagram. If the tech truly used an oscilliscope then he should have had a diagram in front of him.

[Lars D]

Is it fixed yet?