Bike died after 33,000
 

Hey everyone, just wondering if I could get some help figuring out what went wrong with my bike. I was on Hwy 1 for about 5 minutes before my bike made a ticking noise and died. I tried to start it and it would just click, I pushed it to my work not too far away, checked the baterry, that was fine, the fuses checked out including the one on the rellay. The next day I tried to start it and it sounded like it was only running on the back cylinder I felt the front of the motor and exhaust and it felt cold while the back was already pretty warm. I checked for spark on the front plug connecting it to a tractor and that was fine, I didn't do a compression check cuz I don't want to risk doing more damage. After reading through a lot of the articles, Im thinking it could be the front CCT, does this sound close? I really love this bike so hopefully its not beyond repair or to expensive to fix.

Do you have stock cam chain tensioners? Or manual? Sounds like your front cct may have failed, and bent some valves.

Yea I have the stock ones, and that's what I'm thinking too, I just want to make sure so I know what to order, gonna get the manual CCT'S if that is the problem. If that is the problem, anyone know what kinda price I'm looking at to get it running again? I'm in Santa Cruz California. Such nice riding weather right now and I'm driving a Hyundai now, this sux.

first,have to make sure its a failed cct,i would order manual cct's anyway,but make sure this is the problem.
it could be a number of problems,bad plug,bad coil,no fuel to the carb,clooged fuel line.
no compression.
there is many things,take the cover off the head and see if chain is loose,if not,than zip tie the chain to sprocket so it doesnt skip and take out the cct.this is a good start.from there,you will determine which way you need to go.

Alright, sounds like I got some work to do, thanks for reply's you guys:)

the hardest part of all this is the front cct,you have to take tank and air box off.
you should be able to get too the cct without too much issue.
dont just visually inspect the cct,physically check it,the spring in it will most likely be the culprit if it has failed.

If the CCT failed and the bike continued running, wouldn't the chain have surely skipped?

its a 50/50 when it skips,couldve fell right back in place.but its best to mark everything where its at so you know which way to go to put it back to timing if need be.

Personally this doesn't sound like a CCT. Well, not entirely. The bike died on him. If the front CCT went out, it would have made a helluva racket and died. If it stayed in time, it would have ticked maybe, but definitely not died if this was the case.

Very slight chance it skipped timing, one tooth, but then didn't skip more? This is highly unlikely methinks.

Cold exhaust on one side at idle is normal. All of our bikes exhaust is cold on one side at low rpm's then the "hot" exhaust is balanced by the higher pressure of the higher rpm's.

How loud was the ticking? Was it metallic sounding?

If this means the front header pipe was cold, then I agree it was running on one cylinder.

Oops you're right, I didn't read that carefully enough.

I suppose if the front isn't getting proper compression and is running cold, the valves could be bent. Sounds like CCT failure is a possibility...

I still want to know more about the "ticking" and "clicking" sounds. Most people describe the failure as more of a munching, crunching, the motor is eating itself metal noise. And a "clicking" noise generally seems electrical. But shadowrider could just be really modest in his descriptions ;)

Problem is, shadowrider, if your CCT has failed causing these symptoms, it's too late to replace it... it's already done much more damage to the motor. Bent valves at the least but could be more. You will have to replace it, but make sure this is what happened. The best way to see if damage has happened is to do a valve clearance check as per the service manual. If your valves are WAY out of spec, they are bent and you'll know your CCT failed and the timing skipped, meaning you'll have to tear the front cylinder apart.

If they're not, something else is making your header run cold and dying while running, and I'd look into electrical problems.

Edit: actually, like other posters were saying, just taking the valve cover off and looking at the timing marks on the sprockets at TDC will tell you if timing has skipped.

After rereading the symptoms as stated, I'm not sure it's not electrical. I had very similar symptoms when my R/R failed and I was fortunate enough to hear my R/R failure. If you have ever heard a small capacitor explode, you have heard the sound. After that the symptoms were near identical to Shadowrider's. As was said above, the verification of your cam timing will certainly move you closer to knowing which system has failed.

Sounds like an electrical problem to me.

You verified that the spark plug is working, but there are many other components which could have failed leading up to the plug. So, the front cylinder may not be getting any spark.

I'd remove the spark plug and reconnect it to the spark wire and then (using insulated pliers) I'd hold the plug against the engine while cranking the engine. Make sure engine stop switch is in the run position. You should see a strong blue spark across the spark plug gap. No spark or orange spark is indicating ignition issue.

A timing light with an inductive pickup works, also.

lol so much to look at.its not as bad as you think,its just product of elimination.
just make sure first its not cct so you do no more damage,than if its not,happy hunting ;)

So I checked if the bike was giving the plug any spark and it wasn't a strong blue as described by CrankenFine, it was orange. Also, the bike didn't turn on so it could be an ignition issue. When I tried turning it on, it made a sound on the front, I don't really know how to describe it, but it was like when you over-wind a wind-up toy, a rapid ticking sound. The bike is at my work for now so I won't be able to mess with it again till Monday:( Thanks for being here for a fellow Hawk rider, it makes one feel better when there's suport:) I'm gonna go to San Jose now and get stuck in traffic, yay.

the starter is below the front head,could the winding sound be coming from there.might be straining.
just a thought.

The wind-up toy sound you describe, is it similar to the sound the engine makes as you operate the starter while one spark plug is removed? Such as when doing a compression test? (both plugs out, compression gauge connected to one cylinder)

Or is it more like the repeated clicks heard that the starter relay makes when the battery is so low that there is not enough electrical current to drive the starter?

What voltage readings did you get on the battery:
1- while at rest
2- with key on for ten seconds
3- while cranking

Well too bad I'm not in the Bay Area anymore.... though by your follow up posts it sounds like you may have cooked the R\R and just don't have enough juice left to fire the bike.

Though like many things it can be hard to tell over the 'net

it makes repeated clicks bellow the headlight, kinda loud. I only tested the battery while it was sitting, it read 12.3. I replaced the R/R on it once already, 10,000 miles ago. I'm taking the bike this friday to my moto mechanic buddy's place and we'll see what's wrong with it then, gonna help him out so I can learn more about the bike. Hopefully nothing too serious, I wana ride soon:)

Check your front coil. It is mounted on the upper left side of the frame, under the front fairing. There's a possibility of a short and the ticking you hear is an arc everytime the coil fires (experienced this once on my old xr, I'm not entirely sure if it would happen on the hawk though).