Please help

[Millgsxf]

Hi, new the forum,anyway I recently purchased 1998 katana 600, I having some issues with it, she will fire up and idle roughly, like it's only on 3 cylinders,and I'm getting a very strong smell of petrol, I changed out the plugs and cylinder 3 plug was wet, any advice will be greatly appreciated
Cheers

[shpielers]

Need to rebuild the carbs. Go to the wiki and read carbs 102 (not 101) for a how to. Pay particular attention to the floats - bad orings, debris, varnish, height incorrect.

Welcome and good luck.

[Millgsxf]

Need to rebuild the carbs. Go to the wiki and read carbs 102 (not 101) for a how to. Pay particular attention to the floats - bad orings, debris, varnish, height incorrect.

Welcome and good luck.

Thank you, I'm just thinking because it's only running on 3 cylinders, could it be a faulty ht lead?as no3 plug was soaked therefor no spark and just flooding hence the strong smell of fuel when the bike is started

[shpielers]

Sure that's possible too. Something to check: start the bike and let it idle for a minute or two - how many of the header downpipes are significantly cooler? If it's just 1, maybe it's the plug wire as you suggested. You can remove the cap, trim back the spark plug wire about a 1/4" and reinstall the cap. There are YouTube videos that can show you how to seperate the cap/boot, snip it, reinstall. Sometimes the wire gets old/brittle/corroded and this helps make a better connection.

If there are 2 downpipes that are cooler, verify the coils are connected correctly. I think left coil goes to cylinders 1 and 4, right coil goes to 2 and 3. Then verify that they are getting enough current (11V or over)


If it's only one down tube that's cool, unikely to be a coil or you'd be cool on 2 cylinders instead of 1.

If you already have the plug out, check the gap too. Could have eroded away a bunch so now it's too big a gap. That plus sub optimal power to the plugs could make an even slightly larger gap impossible to arc across.

Also, pull the filler cap and smell your oil - if it smells like fuel you'll want to do an oil change prior to running the bike for more than a very very short time.

[Millgsxf]

Sure that's possible too. Something to check: start the bike and let it idle for a minute or two - how many of the header downpipes are significantly cooler? If it's just 1, maybe it's the plug wire as you suggested. You can remove the cap, trim back the spark plug wire about a 1/4" and reinstall the cap. There are YouTube videos that can show you how to seperate the cap/boot, snip it, reinstall. Sometimes the wire gets old/brittle/corroded and this helps make a better connection.

If there are 2 downpipes that are cooler, verify the coils are connected correctly. I think left coil goes to cylinders 1 and 4, right coil goes to 2 and 3. Then verify that they are getting enough current (11V or over)


If it's only one down tube that's cool, unikely to be a coil or you'd be cool on 2 cylinders instead of 1.

If you already have the plug out, check the gap too. Could have eroded away a bunch so now it's too big a gap. That plus sub optimal power to the plugs could make an even slightly larger gap impossible to arc across.

Also, pull the filler cap and smell your oil - if it smells like fuel you'll want to do an oil change prior to running the bike for more than a very very short time.

Cheers mate, I will try that, you have been very helpful,many thanks