Just picked up a mint RC36 tonight and something went wrong on the way home

[image: IMG_7245.jpg]

[image: IMG_7246.jpg]

[image: IMG_7247.jpg]

What a story! It reminds me plenty of time when you say to yourself: "But why???" Lucky for you you were able to solve it in the end. Also, rear cylinder spark plugs are easier to access than the front ones. I did not know how to changes plugs without removing the cooling radiator.

Let us know how she runs after you put a new plug in. 

Bro, for real. The bike has 7,700 miles on it so the plugs are good for awhile, the gap on the broken one looks decent. Just hoping no more are broken. As of now Im leaving it, I cant afford for one to break off in removal.

The ride home was pretty great other than the crazy soft suspension, but ill have a look at that and have it setup soon. Im coming off a Duc 1098 with race exhaust and the RC doesnt quite shake the ground like that one did, but it does sound pretty good, albeit kinda quiet compared to the Duc even with the slip on. Might need a header in the long run but for now, she's pretty nice. Just need to stiff the suspension up and add some preload to get her to turn a little better. 

BTW, where should the temp needle sit when cruising on the highway/freeway? Mine sits at about the 25% percent area if you consider the cold to hot marks 100%. Should it be about half way (50%)? Do I have a thermostat problem too? It does seem like it takes a little bit to warm up. 

Thanks!

Front plugs: loosen radiator and push a wedge (piece if scrap wood) from the side to move it out more to give you just enough space.

As for the other plugs, maybe the PO overtightned them? Set torque wrench to spec for the plug, switch direction and see if the other rear one will come out. Increase torque setting by small increments if not. 

Temp gauge: after 19 years, 100k+ ownership I can tell you it rarely moves over 25% 🙂

I've never seen that before. Lucky it wasn't stripped threads.

I'd probably replace all the plugs. Rears are easy. The fronts, you remove the lower radiator bolt, loosen the top, and you can hinge it forward towards the forks to get your hand in there. I usually take the fan off too, or at least 2/3 bolts and swing it out of the way. Makes life much easier.

In the 24 years I've had my '95, I've never seen the temp gauge much past 25%. I even replaced the thermostat early on thinking it might be stuck open. It wasn't.

Nice "save" with that broken spark plug.  Good job.

I've seen some strange things with spark plugs.  When I saw your first picture I was thinking you had a thread failure in the head and the engine spat out the spark plug (I've seen this happen on 1990s-2000s Kawasaki engines).

Hey guys, kinda need some help again. Not out of the woods yet.

Picked up a plug today. Put it in and it ran fine, died a min later. Figured I may of hit the fuel shut off switch. Took the seat off sure enough it was off. 

Rode it in about an hour of solid lane splitting on the 101. Got that thing hot to give her a nice shake down. It has a high mount Delkevic on the brake side (right?) and my ass was on fire. Went to a friends to be like "hey check out my new clean a$$ bike". Hung out for a bit, then tired to leave, wouldnt start. I dont know much about this bike but I have briefly seen the rectifier problem, looked around to see where it might be, Im guessing its on the side right above the exhaust at the tail? Im also guessing the exhaust being high mount cooked the sh!t out of it and killed it. 

From the brief searching I've done the Ricks motorsports looks like its the one to get? What do you guys think? Also if this is the problem I'm guessing I might have to relocate it under the seat away from the high mount exhaust. 

Let me just say that push starting that thing on flat ground is a real b!tch. So far, ownership of one of the most reliable bikes isn't looking too good. 

Also does anyone know where I can find a guide to the suspension, like where the adjusters are at and what they do? Maybe something like a sticky. I tired to look around and really havent found anything. The thing is super soft and it dives and lifts too much plus the seat is kinda low. I like to fix it. 

Thanks guys. 

PS also realized the Delkevic had the db killer in it. Took that out and it sounds even better. Sounds like a da$m f1 car near redline. Only bummer is theres no screw to go back in and theres a leak now right before the can. 

You don't know the age and state of the battery, it may be a simple issue of a dead battery, charge and load test it and once you can start your engine check your charging voltages. You may not need a new R/R yet!

Will do. But it just seems weird. It fired up yesterday when I picked it up. Fired up again 3 times when I was checking for problems, and fired up like 3 times today riding around to various places. I would think the battery would of been dead before all that. Also rode it 2 places push starting it and each time I killed the engine it would not restart. Wouldnt this be a charging issue? 

1 hour ago, 2wenty

Will do. But it just seems weird. It fired up yesterday when I picked it up. Fired up again 3 times when I was checking for problems, and fired up like 3 times today riding around to various places. I would think the battery would of been dead before all that. Also rode it 2 places push starting it and each time I killed the engine it would not restart. Wouldnt this be a charging issue? 

Could well be a shorted cell. If you noticed your bike was cranking over OK with all the starts you did and it didn't have an indication that cranking was getting slower and slower then it points to a shorted cell which will rapidly kill the ability to crank the engine.

The other thing is that if you were able to push start your bike and ride any distance this would mean your charging system is probably OK. A dead battery AND no charging system = No ride!

Also make sure your battery connections are clean and tight.

So really, until you're sure you have a good battery in the bike, you can then verify your charging system is working correctly. If with a good battery you're seeing low charging volts then you can start to look at a Stator issue or the R/R or both.

Cheers.

Did only around 500km on mine since restoration. Saw the temp gauge needle go over 25% (like let say 35-40%) but it was like 30+ degrees F here (something like 86-89 degrees F apparently) and I was stuck in traffic waiting for too long. Hopefully, fan works 😉 As long as I ride it, it never goes beyond 25%.

Just want to say thanks for posting this. When I read it, I was like WTF. I work on a lot of bikes and I can think of two spark plug related issues I have seen in 36 years of wrenching.

My 1996 has 27,7xx miles. I thought, maybe I should check mine. Usually I replace plugs at 50K miles.

Let me just say, If you have a forth Gen VFR and have not checked the plugs, you might want to open up the bike and have a look see.

When I saw your picture, I knew exactly what happened to the plug.

I hit my back two first. Yep. Both were only hand tight in the hole. Jumped on the front two the one on the right was snug but not torqued. The left was just again hand tight.

You can see in the pictures, that fuel and exhaust were blowing past the plug. The bike still ran fine.

I ran down to Car Quest and picked up new NGK CR9EH-9 Part # 7502.

The bike ran fine before, but now after a quick trip to the Cherohala Skyway this morning, the bike is running awesome like a VFR should.

Your other problem, I suggest replacing the Regulator/ Rectifier and battery first before replacing any other electrical part.

I am 85% sure this will correct the electrical issues you are having. At 7K miles, the RR has not been replaced with a better one.

[image: sparkplug1.jpg]

[image: sparkplug2.jpg]

Well, welcome and you are fortunate.

These bikes have their quirks, but are the best ever made in many people opinions.

There are things you will learn.  Replace the plugs, oil and filter, air filter, and sub air filter (off the right side of the airbox)  Pm me your address and I'll send you either a clymer or factory manual.  I've got several.  Get a vfrness from wiremybike.com.  You are in for a bit of a learning curve, but it's a fairly easy one and fun.  Just put some time in and you'll be up to speed in no time.