XT660X broke down, where to start?
 

Hi All,

I have a 2004 XT660x with DNA stage 2 & 3 air filter, Kev fuel mod, MTC exhausts with baffles in. Been running fine but i felt it was possibly a little rich, so dialled it back from 6 -5 -4 o'clock on the Kev mod thing and felt it was a bit crisper. Anyway, rode it 30 miles home from work last night and it was running like a dream.

Came out this morning and pressed the starter and instead of jumping into life it just span over? So I thought perhaps I'd leaned it out too much and put it back to 6 o'clock. Stumbled it a bit but crept into life? Rode up teh road and it seemed fine, got to a junction and went to pull away and it died and wouldn't start again. Spins over fine but no signs of life. There is no back firing or anything, just dead?

I've parked it in the garden and will get into it on Saturday, any ideas on where to start, or has anyone else had this happen?

Many thanks.

First thing Id check is the plug..maybe have a new plug ready?..

Defo agree about the plug, and while it's out being checked/replaced reconnect it and check for a good spark .

May I ask how long you have had the fuel mod fitted

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies. It came to me recently with the kev mod fitted and its been fitted for over a year with no problems.

Weird thing is, I came home from work tonight, stuck the key in and it fired up like it normally does, or did? I dont have the time to test it until the weekend and working intermittently is worse than a total failure to me, but I'll have to have a dig round it over Xmas.

I'll keep you all posted/ask for advice etc.

If the fuel mod fails the engine light will be on logging a fault for air temp senor.

Where is the CO set at in the dash? It should be around 10 to 15max.

How old is the fuel in the tank, how many kms since the last spark plug change, is the battery spinning the motor over at the correct speed?

As my normal ride is an inline four this thread has made me realise the importance of carrying a spare plug under the seat of the XT.

No engine lights is on the dash.

I'll check tomorrow.

Day old premium fuel.

Battery is quite recent I believe (I've only had the bike 2 weeks) and is certainly throwing it over well enough. Also when it wouldn't run it showed no signs of dying as I was spinning it over so i'd say its still a good healthy battery.

I'm going to order a new plug (CR7E?) for the hell of it, but this didn't seem anything like a plug breaking down.

A good place to check for an intermittent fault is the plugs that connect the switch gear into the loom under both sides of the tank.
I recently had the wires from the rhs kill switch drop down low enough for the frame/lower yoke steering lock stops to sever the wires inside the switch gear part of the loom,and subsequently found potential corrosion festering inside those loom plugs.

Colin J

Thanks. I'll have a good hunt round and see if i can see anything like that. :)

Whilst your waiting for your plug, or the weekend I'd put the battery on charge. Cant hurt none.

Does the bike die when the handle bars are in any particular position?..ie strain on the loom/switchgear..

Tis hooked up to the optimate as we speak. I'll check the handlebar movement tonight, as yours and Cozi70's post has got me thinking...

Here's my problem

You did well finding that!!

I'm thinking when it didnt start, it was on the side stand on full lock. I then turned the bars straight to make sure I had the clutch in properly etc and it started. It rode fine but cut out as I turned left at a junction. When i got home an dtried it and it started, it was with the bars straight and not on full lock. Might be coincidence, but that would make your broken loom possibility very plausible!! Damn this being at work thing, I want to go home and check it!!!

Indeed I was as it was inside a virtually undamaged outer section. Seams like the loom had been moved slightly,possibly when additional wiring had been added,and not secured back into it original position.

Well as I said earlier, it started up fine and when I got home tonight, I put my other bike in the back garden, and then thought i'll put this one round there too. It started straight up and just sounds like it always does. So I thought hell, i'll test ride it and off I went 5 miles later and i'm back home and it hasn't missed a beat???

I'd rather have found a fault than not know if its ever going to do it again, but I've brought it into the garden and will give it a good going over and check connections etc.

Is'nt there a side stand cutout switch?..ie it should'nt start when its on its side stand..

I thought that was to make it cut out if you tried to pull away with the stand down?

It could well be..it was past my bedtime..

Just checked...Sorry,my bad.

I checked. It starts with the stand down but cuts out if you put it in gear. So we know its working okay. Also it started as normal again. I'm starrting to think it was just a glitch in the matrix...

Personally Id keep on looking...last thing you either want or need is a breakdown when out and about.

Absolutely! Nothing worse than an intermittent fault!

Over the Xmas break, i've started and ran the bike a few times and each time its started instantly and ran just fine. I decided to ride into London on it today. I came out this morning, hit the starter and it fired straight up. I rode it the 30 miles into work and it never missed a beat and ran like a Swiss watch, albeit a very loud one? I can only assume that when I leaned the fuelling back slightly it simply didn't like it on a cold start. I put it back to where it was and its started perfectly ever since, so i'll just go with that. If it is something else then i'll just wait for it to show its hand later on?

may i ask what setting you have the fuel mod on as i have just fitted one to my bike it would be handy to know so i can start from there. thanks

6. i turned it back to 4 to start testing, but it looks like the bike didnt like it. I have the DNA stage 2 & 3 air filter.

So bike likes 6 in this weather. I have stage 1 and 2 air filters 02 controller and fuel mod and I trimmed the inside of the snorkel. I have not tested it yet. will go out when it’s dry. I will start on 6 then. I did start the bike up on 3 revved it 3 or 4 times and the thing cut out ? Never cut out before hoping it was because it was cold Thanks for the info mate

I think the xt660 I had 2 years ago was on 6. Still cut out now and then which was fecking dangerous. Funny I have a 2006 as well with no mods rides spot on and never cuts out ? Pull like a train for one of these no surging nothing

I've not had the bike long but the fuelling is pretty good. I'm not familiar with these bikes but gather the earlier ones suffer from surging and cutting out, mine doesn't do any of this, so i'm leaving well alone now!

Air is denser in winter to it needs to be at the richer end of the the adjustment, so i'd deffo start at that end.

As part of the fitting process/upgrade it is Kev's advice to remove the snorkel altogether..improves the air flow as does drilling the airbox..30/32 mm with a flat wood bit.

I won’t remove the snorkel no need to really, if you cut all the front of the snorkel out that go’s in the air box and drill holes in the snorkel it lets plenty of air in. want to keep as much water out as possible, as water dose get in there when washing the bike, I have found. so with the snorkel out water would get in easier than I would like. As long as bike runs well not bothered about trying to get 1 or 2 more horse out of it I have te fuel mod 02 controller,stage 1 and 2 dna filters snorkel I have modded how I want it. And have drilled out the air box and fitted filter caps , I have my cbr 929 and my Fz1n for speed Just got the xt for putting in the back of the van and taking up to Scotland and riding round Loch Ness and the high lands so speed is not what I got it for will only use them them half a dozen times a year.

Sounds like a great trip. Take your camera for us armchair tourists!:icon_thumleft:

Stock
 

I have just got my xt and had a 350 many moons ago, See tho people saying to me mod my 11 plate 660 as it is stock, but I don't want to run into all the problems and cost, I only want it for the occasional day to take missus out on and maybe a bit of green laning or plod round the fields by me at the weekend, I have a grom for getting me from a-b that does the job and I haven't modified that neither just to get a few extra horse power, well I say that now but let's see when the weather gets better! just gonna get some handguards, footpegs and maybe do kev mod forks, I put a ACD bash plate on it so don't damage pipes when plodding around fields e.t.c.
Oh! I did a AMR graphics mod on grom but nothing to power plant Attachment 7095

It's all a matter of choice init. TBH I followed Kev's adivce,after reading the research and fitting stage 1+2 DNA filters etc.

The best advice when it comes to mods, is what needs doing on these and the answer is, whatever you're not happy with! ;) ;D

Personally, I love messing about with bikes and its all part of bike ownership for me. Plus I cant abide bad fuelling, something so many Fi bikes seem to suffer with, so i'm more happy to correct that where I can!

A few hundred miles in since the breakdown and no sign of it doing it again? New spark plug arrived yesterday so I fitted that last night. Old one was the right colour and looked like everything was burning right. I plugged up the AIS and reduced some of the annoying popping on the overrun. So I'm very pleased with the bike and how its running, no real surging or cut out problems and the bike seems pretty sorted really.

I dropped some fork spacers in at the weekend and am pleased with that little mod. Overall I am a very happy chappy with this bike. :)

FWIW I turned it back to 5 and its much better at that. Smoother throttle roll on and just seems to have a crisper throttle response all over.

It played up again on Saturday and again this morning. Both times it spins over but doesn't fire up. I can smell petrol when its doing this, so I put a brand new spark plug in the ht cap and the spark looked very weak?

Both times i kept spinning it over and eventually it catches after a few pops and bangs which it seems to do more if I open the throttle slightly? On saturday when it fired up it didnt feel right at all and it was misfiring and cut out once or twice before running properly. This morning once it caught, it ran perfectly straight away? Rode it 30 miles into London and it didn't miss a beat?

I put a new CR7E in a couple of months ago, but will try an iridium one now. I'll check the coil resistances too. Ill see if there are any codes stored as well. Any other ideas on what to check?

If you have changed the ht lead and plug cap,swapped plugs and are having intermittent probs like you are then tbh I would consider the coil like you, to be suspect.

I now it sounds daft BUT I have had similar problems on my 1200.. struggled to start,would pop and fart before it would eventually run clean.

After a lot of faffing about I put some Redex in the tank and ran it through..cleaned up the problem for me.

If you have changed the ht lead and plug cap,swapped plugs and are having intermittent probs like you are then tbh I would consider the coil like you, to be suspect.

I now it sounds daft BUT I have had similar problems on my 1200.. struggled to start,would pop and fart before it would eventually run clean.

After a lot of faffing about I put some Redex in the tank and ran it through..cleaned up the problem for me.

I've just bought a second hand, known to be good, coil with lead and cap. Dunno why I did that without testing my own coil first, but I did! ;D

I might well stick seem fuel cleaner through it, but I generally only use BP Ultimate or TEsco momentum in it. Funny thing is, its running the smoothest it has since I got it, although sometimes i'm sure the idle is sitting higher than normal. I seem to recall reading something about that when i was having a read of the archives, so i'll go and have a search again...