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Help with V-Strom 1000

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Tabasco

Tabasco

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
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Location
Houston (Heights)
First Name
Larry
Last Name
Burleson
Have had no trouble with my ’14 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 till I took my last ride on it. New owner was going to come and pick it up the next day. Noticed a little miss on it that finally seemed to smooth out on the freeway but after I got off the freeway it still had a slight miss pulling away at the light. Kept riding but still had a miss. Called the potential buyer and told him not to come the next day till I checked further. Heard that a strom possibly would not run right if it had a low or bad battery. Ordered and replaced it and no difference. Seemed actually like I could hear it going from firing on one cylinder then 2 then back to one. One guy on Stromtroopers said replaced the gas and go ride. It hadn’t had a full tank of fresh gas in awhile so drained it put in fresh. Cranked it, sounded a little strange but it idled, then tried to take a ride but I noticed not much power so turned back around after about a mile and headed back home. Appeared to be running on one cylinder only now. After cool down cranked again put one hand on front header pipe and the other on rear header and only front cylinder started warming up. Bike is punishing me for trying to sale it. Anyone have a similar experience or have any suggestions I would appreciate it. Looking like I may need to take it somewhere, does anyone know of a place with a good Suzi mechanic.
 
It's only one of a few things, right? Lack of fuel, spark, or air. I'd pull spark plugs first and see what they look like and while they are off, check to see if you are in fact getting spark to the rear plug. If you aren't getting a spark to the rear, then I would start at simple stuff first like new plugs, and then work my way up from there to coils, and whatnot. If you are, then next up in my book would be fuel. Perhaps a throttle body isn't working quite right, or is gummed up?

All these are just a shot in the dark. All the years I had my Strom, the problem you are having didn't really come up on the various message boards.
 
Change at least the rear plug, likely it is fouled. How many miles? How long has she been unused, etc.
 
Thanks for your feedback. Bike only has 7,900 miles, bought new, only owner. Didn’t realize till started digging into it that it has dual plug cylinders. I pulled the only plug that was visible, front lower plug, the other day it looked ok. There is one plug on the top of the head and one on the side. After pulling some plastic could reach the lower plug on rear cylinder, pulled it and laid it against the cylinder, with plug cap on, gave it a quick turn on the key, could not see a spark in the gap. Had the wife on the computer looking for plugs, she found these are bike specific NGK iridium plugs and are hard to find. Some places showed $40 apiece. Stromtroopers have a thread on this that was “enlightening“ also. It’s hard to believe 2 plugs had gone bad at the same time. Manual shows to replace plugs at 7,500 miles, Stormtroopers say that is probably something carried over from the gen. 1 model, iridiums are supposed to last way longer. Suzuki did have a recall on the ecu unit about 2 to 3 years after I bought it but hesitated taking it in because it ran so good. They replaced it and I wasn’t crazy how it had a higher idle at start and needed longer to warm up, but ran about the same. Some say they got better gas mileage but I couldn’t tell. My next question is can a ecu unit be plugged into something and be checked can the unit cause one cylinder to loose fire?
 
Check the fuel pump screen as well

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
 
How hard is that to get to? I take it that it is in the tank. It will actually run so it seems more spark or electrical related.
 
Not that this helps at all, but when I had my Strom I changed my spark plugs for the first time around 60k miles. They still looked pretty darn good.

It's been awhile since I've tinkered with a Strom, but do both plugs get their go juice from a single coil? If so, it could be a coil that has gone bad (not likely but it could happen), or something happened to the wiring telling the coil to fire. Again, just shooting at things in the dark here. After it has run for a minute, I'd pull one of the rear plugs and that will tell you right away if they aren't firing. If they aren't they will be soaked in fuel, and then we can go from there. If they are dry as a bone, then we know it is a fuel problem.
 
Tabasco said:
How hard is that to get to? I take it that it is in the tank. It will actually run so it seems more spark or electrical related.
Click to expand...
You have to remove the tank.

I had a 650 that would exhibit similar symptoms, turns out it was starving for fuel due to sediment clogging the screen. It would very based on rpm, amount of fuel etc

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Good question Bill, I actually thought about that today, wandering if each went to separate coils but I’m not around the bike now, it’s located at a place I have near Coldspring. May try to find a schematic of the electrical system on the internet to see. Will have to pull more stuff off to see in that V a little better. When I did pull that rear side plug it didn’t appear wet but I only rode it a mile or 2 after draining the tank and that’s when it began firing on one cylinder only. One more thing I forgot to mention, when I got back from my short ride the wife was waiting for me in the garage, I pulled up and she said something smells hot, I lost my sense of smell 20+ years ago, temperature gauge showed normal but looked like the pipe had steam coming off of it ahead of the Yoshi exhaust. Thought maybe that flapper valve thing wasn’t opening. Yoshi pipe seemed extremely hot for carbon fiber also. Pulled exhaust after it cooled and cranked it. The flapper started opening as it warmed up. All that seemed odd.

Samuel, there is an electrical plug near the rear of the tank, I figured where the fuel pump is. Is that pump actually in the tank or a compartment within the tank?
 
Looked at BikeBandits site. They show 4 coils all different part #’s and 4 different prices.
 
Tabasco said:
Good question Bill, I actually thought about that today, wandering if each went to separate coils but I’m not around the bike now, it’s located at a place I have near Coldspring. May try to find a schematic of the electrical system on the internet to see. Will have to pull more stuff off to see in that V a little better. When I did pull that rear side plug it didn’t appear wet but I only rode it a mile or 2 after draining the tank and that’s when it began firing on one cylinder only. One more thing I forgot to mention, when I got back from my short ride the wife was waiting for me in the garage, I pulled up and she said something smells hot, I lost my sense of smell 20+ years ago, temperature gauge showed normal but looked like the pipe had steam coming off of it ahead of the Yoshi exhaust. Thought maybe that flapper valve thing wasn’t opening. Yoshi pipe seemed extremely hot for carbon fiber also. Pulled exhaust after it cooled and cranked it. The flapper started opening as it warmed up. All that seemed odd.

Samuel, there is an electrical plug near the rear of the tank, I figured where the fuel pump is. Is that pump actually in the tank or a compartment within the tank?
Click to expand...

It is in the tank. If you follow where the fuel line collects to the tank there will be a removable section that the pump is mounted to

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Tabasco said:
Good question Bill, I actually thought about that today, wandering if each went to separate coils but I’m not around the bike now, it’s located at a place I have near Coldspring. May try to find a schematic of the electrical system on the internet to see. Will have to pull more stuff off to see in that V a little better. When I did pull that rear side plug it didn’t appear wet but I only rode it a mile or 2 after draining the tank and that’s when it began firing on one cylinder only. One more thing I forgot to mention, when I got back from my short ride the wife was waiting for me in the garage, I pulled up and she said something smells hot, I lost my sense of smell 20+ years ago, temperature gauge showed normal but looked like the pipe had steam coming off of it ahead of the Yoshi exhaust. Thought maybe that flapper valve thing wasn’t opening. Yoshi pipe seemed extremely hot for carbon fiber also. Pulled exhaust after it cooled and cranked it. The flapper started opening as it warmed up. All that seemed odd.

Samuel, there is an electrical plug near the rear of the tank, I figured where the fuel pump is. Is that pump actually in the tank or a compartment within the tank?
Click to expand...
Dry rear spk plg = clogged injector?
Mabe pull it...crank the engine to ck for spray. Do same with front inject for verification or swap em to see if problem follows to front cyl.
Could also be bad elect connect to injector?
 
Yea but I pulled the lower rear plug, put it back in the plug cap, grounded it against the cylinder bumped it over with the starter momentarily and did not see the plug spark in the gap, the old fashion way to see if we’re getting any fire.
 
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