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Posted by Robbwilson
- May 17, 2016, 22:15:01 PMI'm hoping you guys can give me some guidance on the best steps to follow to trouble shoot my 2000 Drifter 800. My story is that in November 2015, one of the cylinder's stopped firing on a short ride from home. I nursed the bike the remaining mile to its garage and put in fresh fuel (thinking maybe I was running out of fuel). It would start and run, but only on one cylinder. I left it in the garage for the winter, after adding fuel stabilizer to the full tank, and figured I'd get to it in the spring.
Well, spring is finally here and I'm ready to ride! I went to see if it would run last week and it wouldn't fire on even one cylinder. I thought maybe the battery wasn't supplying enough voltage (even though I keep the battery on a tender during the winter) so I hooked up a freshly charged car battery to crank it over, but it still wouldn't fire despite repeated cranking. It still has a full tank of treated hi test gasoline from its winter storage.
So, what would be the best way to diagnose the issue? I've never taken the bike apart before. I've obtained a VN 800 service manual, but since it is not a Drifter manual, I'm in the dark on some things. I figured the place to start was to verify spark on both plugs, and change the plugs while I was at it, and then check the coils if I had no spark. So I pulled the seat and started to pull the tank. Problem: Is there any trick to pulling the tank? I can't lift the instrument panel off the tank after having removed the bolt near the seat and the three Allen bolts for the instrument lights sub panel. I've disconnected both wiring harnesses for the instrument panel, and I believe that in order to remove the tank that I'll need to remove the speedo cable from the front wheel and then feed the speedo cable up from under the tank as I lift the instrument panel away from the tank. Is that the correct procedure to gain access to the front bolt that is hidden under the speedometer and secures the tank to the frame there? Any trick to removing the speedo cable from the front wheel -- or just a pair of pliers to loosen the knurled nut and pull it out (but don't move the tire afterwards or feeding the helical gear back in won't be easy)?
Once I have the tank removed, I was going to check for spark on both cylinders, thinking that perhaps one of the spark plugs or one of the coils has failed. Could it possibly be a gummed up carburetor? But then why would one cylinder have fired and not the other? My petcock has never allowed rotation to any of the settings other than "ON." I thought I'd fix the petcock too while I was taking things apart, since I've already disconnected it from the tank. Can anyone recommend a good online source for parts -- or is the Kawasaki dealer the only place to secure parts for these bikes?
Anyway, I've got a million questions but am smart enough to know not to ask them all at the same time. If anyone has a "Try this, and if that doesn't work then try this next ...." approach, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it.