Burning smell

[bluenova]

Hi all,

I got home from work today, after parking up in the garage I noticed quite a strong burning smell. After shutting off the engine I had a good look round the bike, thinking I might have caught something on the commute home that was sitting against something hot, but I couldn't find anything. The only thing that looked slightly strange on the bike was that cable 3 and 4 for the spark plugs cross each other and had very slightly melted where they touch. I'd be very surprised if such a tiny amount of melting (it really was tiny) could have caused such a strong smell. Bike temperature, radiator and oil all checked out fine.

Does everybody else's bike have spark cable 3 and 4 touching each other?

Can anyone suggest anything else it could be?

 

[bikerider]

I had a small twig on the exhaust. Smelt real bad. Searched everywhere thinking it was the engine.

 

[reiobard]

How old is the bike? My exhaust smells really bad when the bike is up to temp right now because of the anti-rust agent that they spray on it when they build it is burning off the excess. Nut mine is brand new so it may be something different on yours. Could be some oil sprayed from a car in front of you or something also?

 

[CanadianFZ6]

Does it smell like burnt toast?

 

[bluenova]

3 months old with 3999Km on the clock.

I had the usual coating smells when it was new. I only noticed this one tonight, and it really smelled more like PVC burning, but like I said the only thing I noticed was these two spark cables were a bit sticky where they cross each other. But shouldn't all those cables be resistant to heat as they are so close to the engine? Engine temp was normal 97-100c (after coming through the city).

 

[bluenova]

Does it smell like burnt toast?

Could of been a bit like toast I guess.

 

[reiobard]

have you recently done/had done any maintenance?

 

[bluenova]

have you recently done/had done any maintenance?

Only thing I did was tighten the chain at the weekend as it was over the limit and I was starting to feel it on the throttle, but the slack is in check (about 45mm) and I didn't notice the smell yesterday. Nothing else has been done since the first service.

 

[reiobard]

strange, check for leaks and then let it idle up to temp on the center stand and watch for any smoke coming from anywhere. typically where there is smell there is smoke however faint it is

 

[wrightme43]

My 3 and 4 plug wires cross but there is a little insulator rubber there.

 

[opds9091]

maybe something got on the pipes

 

[bluenova]

Well, after my ride in to work today I smelt it again about 20min into the ride after the bike was fully warmed up, but when I got to work I let the engine run for a couple of mins and couldn't smell anything, so I'm hoping it was just something that I couldn't see that got picked up by the bike. Well I'll be off the bike for the next 10 days or so as temps are going below 0c tomorrow. Thanks for all the replys.

 

[reiobard]

good luck finding whatever it is. if you find any hidden debris pockets that collect smelly things let us know so we can keep an eye on it for ourselves.