Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Just a note on working on / maintaining your own bike, when like me you are "still learning", that's nice speak for don't really know what you are doing.

I put my SV back together tonight, taking care to torque everything correctly, apply lots of grease where needed, etc, and generally taking my time and being careful with it.

When I went to start the bike, it wouldn't start and just got an FI error on the dash.

I had fitted a new rear shock, requiring that I cut my battery box, and relocated the battery slightly. After a quick search on the org I found the cause of the FI starting issue. The bike thought it was lying on the ground. The little electronic box on the front of the battery box (me not having a clue what it was or what it did), turned out to be the tilt cut out switch which I had flung into a free space in the side fairing panel.

It's just pure luck that it had ended up at 90 degrees to the correct angle and so the bike wouldn't start, alerting me to the fact I had a problem. If in flinging it into the side panel, it had ended up at lets just say for ease of mathematics, 45 degrees, then the bike would have started and I would have thought everything was tickety-boo. My first aggressive corner when I leant the bike over to 45 degrees, would have put the tilt switch to 90 degrees, cutting my engine mid corner :shock:

I don't mind admitting when I've made a c*ck up, I am still learning, if somebody else can learn from it that's good.

It would never have occurred to me to check if any of the electrical boxes under the seat needed to be the right way up, or even to check what they are, you just think "that's an electrical 'thing', so long as it dry, plugged in, free from chafing, etc, that's all it needs.

In future before I move or change anything, I'll be finding out what it is.

Needless to say it's now nicely secured in the upright position.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Yikes that is scary. Good advice. Do all bikes have a tilt cut out switch, and are they all usually near the battery??

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

oh dear, just as well you have a brain and realised your error.

Tiz why I get somebody else to do it.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Glad you found the problem :thumright:

Must admit i am one for taking bits on and off and not noting where it came from :(

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I tend to photograph everything at all stages from all angles, and label up everything in separate freezer bags or masking tape if it's big or cables, tends to work for me but I didn't know about the tilt switch - Is that just a pointy thing?

Glad it's sorted and you spotted it

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Actually Ralph it would probably have been Ok if you had been riding the bike because the sensor can't tell that the bike is leaning over unless you stop and lose the centrifugal force....but then generally the bike falls over anyhow. Still, we all know what you mean.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

well at least you are getting in there and doing jobs on the bike I cant stand it when people don’t maintain there bike/achieve simple procedures it really bugs me.. I believe that to pass your test you also nee to be able to pass a test that give common knowledge about how a bike actually works.. Once again I applaud you for getting dirty with your bike!!

It also helps improve rider skill as you know exactly what is happening to the bike in different situations.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I've only ever seen fuel injected bikes have tilt switches. Their purpose is the cut the motor if the bike is on its side, carbed bikes will usually stop fairly quickly when horizontal as the fuel is gravity fed into the float bowls and also the jets only dip into the fuel when the carb is upright or vey near to upright.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I made this mistake - forgot to put the tilt sensor back on its lug. It rattled around and caused numerous engine cut-outs on the motorway. It was very annoying until I'd realised what I'd done - but not exactly dangerous.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I think the tilt switches can be more or less anywhere on the bike (for the reasons explained in above posts). On the 700 Deauville it's up near the headlamp I believe.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Maybe nothing dangerous happened in your case, but if your engine cuts in the fast lane of a busy motorway, and you can't restart it whilst rolling with the clutch in, you either come to a stop there, or work your way across three lanes of traffic to get to the hard shoulder, whilst constantly slowing down against a flow of dozy cage drivers who are still half asleep?

I played with mine for a while to learn how it works, and mine (K6) cuts the engine and the FI light comes on and the engine can't be started again until the ignition has been off for at least two seconds, flick the key off and on without waiting and the FI light is still flashing, which is what most folk would do in a panic on a motorway. I reckon the fastest my engine could possibly be restarted, is about 3-4 seconds and that's if you knew what the problem was, was expecting it, knew that you had to wait for it to clear, etc, etc

If you ask me it could be very dangerous, and if it can do it whilst upright on a motorway, and gravity is not helping, centrifugal force won't help you in corners either.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

The length of the wiring coming out of the loom, kind of restricts where you can put it on the SV, but yes, by design it could go anywhere, so long as it it the right way up. I tested it quite a few times to make sure it works if mounted longitudinally rather than being mounted across the bike, and it's now secured longitudinally to the frame on the left hand side of the battery.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

It really needs to go across the bike in the orientation that it originally had.
Fitted as you have it hard acceleration or heavy braking can cause it to cut the motor.
This is exactly the elusive problem I discovered after someone brought me a bike, (not an SV), that was cutting out intermittently, the sensor had been fitted to the bike in the way you describe after an undertray had been fitted.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I did the same when swapping my fairings on the 600rr. It's either on the right way or upside down. I had put everything back on before realising... Lots of swearing ensued.

I am always very very cautious of your average amature mechanic. Some may well be very very skilled... Alot are just cheap and don't want to spend cash.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Once bitten twice shy as they say. Thank goodness you realised!

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Tis how we learn mate. At least you got to it before it got to you! :)

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Similar problem to the old Pan when I first got it - dodgy tilt sensor meant it used to cut out when it banked over too far. The problem being that this tended to be just as I was pulling out for an overtake - NOT a good place to suddenly loose all power!

Sorted now, replaced the sensor but it made for some exciting rides for a while (exciting in the same way that being shot at, is exciting!).

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Excellent post. Didn't even realise this type of device was fitted, thanks for the info.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Life is a learning curve----no one is at the end yet

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

I spose it could be dangerous if it was unexpected at an unlucky moment. After the first occurrence, I rode accordingly.

If it's loose, it's bumps and things that tend to make it rattle about and cut out, rather than smooth corners. Centrifugal forces don't really apply on a bike as the forces are always acting vertically with respect to the bike.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Interesting little read, having done some bits and bobs to my curvy you had me worried then, luckily it seems okay but had a panic for a second!

I will admit that when I saw the title, I was half expecting that ruddy post from the gsxr forum about the guy who cleaned his chain on idle with a rag *shudders*. So I clicked to see if I could come moan about having to see it again!

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Devils advocate....

Getting someone else to do it can also be dangerous. Once payed someone to put my brakes back together incorrectly. Cost me my breakdown recovery "no call out" discount.

Have also payed someone to neglect to do my wheel nuts up on the car.

:rolleyes:

Forgetting to do the Brake caliper bolts more than finger tight was another one but that wasn't my bike so doesn't count.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

Yes, my carpal tunnel syndrome tends to play up after too much DIY.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

not doing it yourself is dangerous too, dealer didnt do up my dads rear wheel nut on his sv1000

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

97 SRAD had one I think.
I think just because these have electric fuel pump not vacuum.

I heard about some others cutting out with it mounted sideways if they had a bit of a wobble from back stepping out.

An interesting problem, some people silicon them so they don't activate at all. Not sure if this is good personally.

Re: Doing it yourself can be dangerous...!
 

OK, thanks, I'll try and find another place for it to live across the bike, or make a bracket for it to go in it's original position, the cable from the loom to the switch is not very long restricting the options.

I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't do their bike maintenance themselves, quite the opposite, it's good to learn about your bike, but if they do come across something that they need to change, just take the time to look up the service manual and teach yourself what it is. If I'd known it was the tilt switch I'd have done it differently.

:rolleyes: :jocolor: