Hi All,
I've been searching and reading posts off and on over the last year.
Picked up an 05 SuperHawk last year.
I'm out in the country, nice roads and several places to give this bike a real romp.
Downside, too far from any dealers to visit every darn week.
Love the pull that this bike has, but getting tired of a gremlin.
Anyone have a similar issue or can offer a solution... Before I give up on this ride.

Here is the story.
Bike is all stock from what I can tell. (different windscreen)
Just over 22,000 kms.
First ride last year coming home from the shop where I bought it.
Up around 200kph starts to go soft on power.
Feels like fuel starving.
Check fuel lines for pinch around back of tank, (big and long fuel lines).
Seems OK, Took it back to the dealer.
They cleaned the carbs and sync. Told me nothing wrong.
Was a little better on response but they are in the city and no way to ride it at 200kph plus. (they wouldn't even if I begged them to)
I hope the issue goes away.
Dealer is very good and wants to help me fix, but time issues, holidays get in the way one family thing after another. I have very little time to keep on top of the time resrtiction when buying a used bike. Plus wife hates me for screwing up the days driving the bike and car into the city.

Over the summer starts to drop one cyl. a good hour or so into a ride. At any speed. It has to be hot it seems.
Check my battery, seems fine in the garage with my multi-tester 13+ volts standing still and the rectifier seems to charge when playing with the throttle. But, I suspect an electrical demon.
Noted a few flat spots with the rectifier (voltage drops) depending on the rev range.
Put on a new rectifier, noted better higher voltage charge under all revs.
Rode the bike... Was good for 2 days.
Problem comes back... Dropping one cyl. again.
Strange part is I could stop the bike turn off ignition, restart and back on 2 cyl. again for awhile.
Figure I have a bad cell in the battery by the end of last season.
Started to have a few slow turns on the starter and not complete starter engage when on the start button by this point.
Store the bike over winter, usual storage stuff.
New battery this year all seems good for 2 days.
Push it hard down my favorite road up over 200kph (my only way to test this issue) Big back fire then drops to one cyl. again.
After a km or so it comes back on.
The bike is hot at this point so I don't really know which cyl. is dropping.
By the time I slow down and check it comes back on.
Every time I throw parts at it... I think I've fixed it.
It seems like I'm slowly killing charging components, batteries over time.
At my rate I'll be riding this thing for 3 years before I find the problem.

Considering new coils and fuel tap.
I may have more than one issue at play here.
Long read, but I figure someone else knows what I'm going through.
Cheers

 

Well an easy fix that it might be is: PVLIR. (petcock vacuum line inadvertent relocation)

That is if the vacuum line to the petcock is on the wrong nipple.. Check to make sure it is not on the one that points down. (it looks like it should be on this one, but this one should have nothing going to it) Rather it goes to the one on the back of the petcock that points sideways.

 

Be very logical in hunting down the problem. It is likely to be something simple and staring you in the face rather than major parts failure.
1. Look at the plugs and see if you can isolate which cylinder is not right.
2. Determine if the problem is electrical or fuel related - you said at the top like fuel starvation, but you also said it chopped to 1 cylinder with a backfire which hints at electrical.
3. Only change 1 thing at a time, so there can be no confusion.

Check the easy small stuff like HT leads, plug caps, electrical connections if it is electrical.
Check very carefully if it is fuel related - carb and fuel tap diaphragms, air leaks and fuel line connections at the tap.

Above all, KISS (keep it simple st....) principle applies. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks guys...
I did check the PVL (petcock vacuum line inadvertent relocation)
Yes, the line is in correct location.
I also checked some of the air lines that run down.
I heard that some guys had lines tucked up awkward under the lower chin cowl allowing water or dirt to sit inside them. (causing poor vacuum)

I have a new fuel petcock assy. on the way. (should be here this week)
I plan to put that on and ride again.
If the diaphragm is worn out, would that cause weak vacuum?

Although...
I'm certainly thinking it's an electrical problem more and more.
But after I had a good battery and rectifier the only time I can make it fail is to push the bugger super hard.
Thus giving me that fuel starved feeling.
As the bike will come back to life on 2 after things calm down.

I'm now understanding why this bike was traded in.
The good thing is that this bike chugs along well enough on one cyl.
So I'm not completely dead, yet!

 

Well the next thing is to pull the plugs and see if you can figure out which one is cutting out. It could actually be a bad coil that only fails when hot. Just go though things one step at a time, starting with the easy fixes.

As for the petcock, it is easy enough to disassemble to check out. I doubt your current one is bad, they are fairly reliable.

 

I second the bad coil, I think that you regulator failed and overcharged the system and fried your coil, check the resistance of the coils and replace what's out of spec, get a stronger R/R like the R1 RR mod on this forum, check the stator resistance to make sure it's healthy, have the battery tested, it could fry R/R also and make the voltage do weird things. If you do all this the bike should run ok in a matter of days.
GB

 

I third the bad coil. Also check wires for arcing (usually looks like spots of white powder) and check the spark plug insulators for cracks or damage.

 

I have had coils go bad on the hawk and it would drop a cylinder only when cracking the throttle slightly more than what was needed for "in town" acceleration. The coils are pretty easy to test with a multimeter, just make sure to test both primary and secondary circuits on the coil. Also test the wire and cap. The numbers and procedure can be found in the manual. If anything is out thats what you need to replace. It would be a good idea to replace both at the same time.

 

I'd say coils are a possibility... But I'd also spend an afternoon checking all connectors on the whole wire harness if I where in your position... And by all, I really mean ALL... If it takes less than 3-4 hours, you most definitely have missed some... Look for corrosion and bad grounding... Clean and grease all connectors to safeguard against moisture and corrosion buildup...

 

When he says "weird" thing happening regarding charging system performance, If theres a short in the regulator, the subsequent spikes and voltage drops in the system could cause the Ignitor(CDI) unit to go into fault.
Put a VOM(meter) on the battery and chart the voltage upward as you slowly increase RPM from Idle. It should be basicly a smooth linear line upward with RPM.
If you experience a chop in the readings as you rev up the motor, theres a fault.
Measure the Ohms on the stator side plug (3-prong), (no desc here) and if the stator checks out, you fail the Regulator.
No chops are evident except near the top on a healthy R/R.
And like others mentioned above, overcharging is a common type of R/R failure state, melting headlights and instrument clusters like chernobyl.
So, used bikes can be scary in this respect.
Some get really cooked good and then repaired and sold.
Melted plugs and wires are low hanging fruit in checking your bike for signs of cookage.

 

Thanks guys, your comments are very welcome.
I'm going to go ahead and order new coils, wires and plugs.
That stuff should go easy enough for me.
I hope I don't need to go through the entire wire harnnes.
I've been trying to avoid that.
It'll be at least week or so before I can get it done.
Wife just had laser eye surgery, so I'm Mr. Mom for a day or 2.
Which will get me behind with my business.
I'll report back once I have more parts on the beast.

 

I've got an odd question for you. Is rain or washing the bike a factor? One summer years ago, I thought I was losing a cylinder whenever it rained or following a good bath. You'd think it was an electrical problem, right? So did I, until I recalled that 6 months prior I removed what I thought was a useless T in the tank breather hose.

This hose runs from the tank to the chin fairing, and T's midway to a foot long hose to nowhere right below the airbox. When water enters the line at the chin (unavoidable in the rain) this T-in is the only way for the tank to breath in a rain storm. Why not look? It's cheaper to check this than replace a coil here, a reg-rec there, etc...

 

Eliminate the cheaper, easy stuff first. Change the plugs. An insulator with a hairline crack in it can cause havoc with an ignition system.

 

You can test those coils with an ohm meter, not sure of the exact specs, but there is more stuff that could cause this, it would be bad to waste money there.

 

Thought I'd give an update.
Picked up a new fuel tap assy. Will try to find time to install it this weekend.

I never ride in the rain... If I can avoid, it I will.
I only got caught out by mother nature once last year.
I went for a good long ride a couple days ago.
Starting from my place very low on fuel so I go direct to the gas station.
Put 91 octane in, (actually not sure what fuel grade this bike is suppose to take) I didn't get a onwers manual with it.
Before I get to the gas station.
The bike did a small stint of running on one cyl. at low speed, not pushing it. I filled it up and hoped for more symptoms to help me diagnose the problem. 2+ hour ride and nothing happens? Bike runs perfect.
And when I think about the ride just before issues poped up I was low on fuel and pushing hard.
So... I'm thinking this could be a vaccum issue of some sort, or bad vent in the fuel filler lid??
After I try the new fuel tap I will test again with different fuel levels in the tank.

 

When you notice starvation, pop the lid on the tank to equalize pressure.
If it starts running better, you may have a bad gascap vent for sure

 

Another update.
Checked the tank vent, it is fine.
Put on a new fuel tap assy all looks good.
I've got so much apart now.
I'm doing a bunch of mods as others have.
CCTs, Pair, jetting etc.
Just waiting on parts.

Cheers

 

Finally got some time and some parts in for garage time with my 05.

Did the TPS job.
Used Dremel and slotted the heads.
Didn't need to take carbs off to do it.
Stock setting was 795 Ohms and @ full throttle 4560
Now is locked down at 505 and @ FT 4260 Ohms
While I was at it did a PAIR full removal and capped off air box hole and others.
APE CCTs not here yet but should be any day now.
That will be next.
Then new plugs and coils go on after that.

Cheers

 

Hi all,
Did the APE CCTs install over the weekend.
(I couldn't wait for Tuck's)
Put it all back together.
Tested for an hour ride late Sunday evening.
Runs good. Much better.

During the teardown.
I did find the front spark plug a littel darker but not really significant.
I suppose that cyl. was dropping.

With all the mods and parts I put on...
I may never really know the exact cause of the glitch.

Thanks to all who offered tech help.
And many thanks to all the site contributions for the mods that can so easily be done from the knowledge base.

For now I'm going to leave the bike as stock as possible.
Except for the PAIR removal. (which I can put back on any time)

Maybe over the winter I'll look at some other upgrades.
But that will cut into my snowmobile ride time.
(2009 Yamaha Nytro XTX, 140hp Fuelie 4-stroke torque monster)

Here is a pic of my 996.
And a pic of my Yamaha Nytro XTX. (winter fun)

Thanks again guys!!