Help! Dead bike, where do I start the trouble shooting?

[Sin_Tiger]

Plastic screw driver handle 

[Ossian]

Well rapping the fuel pump panel had no effect that I can see, so I disconnected the two fuel pipes and using a drift I pushed in the spring valves on the tank. However when I then spun the engine over no fuel came out of either valve. Would this be an effective way of finding out that the pump isn't working ?

[Ossian]

OK With feed pipe plugged into tank, the return is gushing petrol , so it's an ignition fault.

[Ossian]

Bulletin update. Stripped out tank ( having emptied it first ) as I am going to fit a pair of metal female fuel connectors anyway, and this seemed like a good time. Anyway, with the tank and airbox off I spun the engine over and squirted "engine start" into the TBs. IT FIRED UP !.
From this I deduce that the load of supermarket petrol I had just filled it with was total shite.

[JayDub]

Have you checked for water in the tank?
give the fuel you took out of the tank a good shake and pour some into a clear PET lemonade bottle etc, let it settle for 5 mins and if there is water you'll see it separate from the fuel.

[Ossian]

I siphoned the fuel out using a fresh length of transparent tubing, and then looked closely as the fuel drained. There was no sign of water, it's usually obvious when present.
I discussed this with my friendly garage guy, and he is vehemently against the supermarket stuff (though he is usually dealing with the results of cheap diesel) He advised to only use branded fuels, which means effectively BP as the only remaining major here with sites.

[Bixxer Bob]

I know from experience that unless it's pulling only water from the tank it'll run on wet petrol. 

The fact that it fired means the ign spark circuit is ok. 

When you've put it back together, and if you can, put the tank on a workmate or similar next to the bike and plug everything in.  You can then try to start it.  If it firesup, great.  If not, open the throttle as it turns over and see if the injectors are firing because at the moment it's pointing to either very low fuel pressure (before you started pulling things apart) or something like low volts stopping the injectors firing. 

Because I wrote the golden rule (If it's running don't fuck with it) based on the horrors of years of obsessive tinkering I've had most of the common problems.  I've had injectors not firing because the battery was flat.  Not firing because the battery appeared fully charged but was knackered. Not firing because I'd run the battery down while working on it to the point where the trims got corrupted.  A fresh remap and it was back to normal that time.  So lots to go at, but first things first.

The problem with running even a good battery down, or turning the engine off when the battery is knackered, is the ECU energises a relay which keeps it fed with battery voltage while it stores the trim values and other settings.  Once it's stored them it releases the relay whcih shuts everything down.  You can here it click about 3 or 4 secs after you turn off.  If the battery voltage is below 11.5v the ECU can't write to memory so either the values don't get stored or, worse, they get corrupted.  A remap resets everything and get you going again.

[Ossian]

I'm still waiting for the fuel connectors to arrive, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do the air-box mod. I have the air-box split - only needed to Dremel 3 screws ! Can anybody point me to any threads about modding the air-box ? it's easy to remove the interior panel, but the front air intake looks very restrictive and I'd like to know whether it is worthwhile to either enlarge this or put in another airway on the opposite side of the box. (The standard is an intake on the LHS only)
Edit. Just found the ChrisCanning thread.

[Timbox2]

...............Edit. Just found the ChrisCanning thread.

What, the one where he says "Dont try and split the airbox"

[Bixxer Bob]

If you remove the snorkel you'll end up taking on water which will soak the air filter......

[Ossian]

I was expecting trouble with the airbox, and ended with 3 unwilling inserts. Luckily they were fairly well spaced around the housing and I was able to cut the bolt heads off with a Dremel. Now those 3 act as location pins. I used 5mm tap and die to clean up the remaining bolts and inserts so it all went back together easily (a little copper grease on each )
I left the snorkel in place and only removed the plate, which can now be easily replaced if the mod doesn't work well.
I reassembled the bike and it still won't go so I'm going to call in the cavalry. 

[Bixxer Bob]

Did you do the injector check I described earlier???  And although you got fuel out of the fuel line, if it's not at the correct pressure you still won't get it to run.

[Ossian]

Well "The Cavalry" - old school motorcycle mechanic (who rides a Tuono) - hasn't been able to get it going either.    In desperation I'm probably going to have to take it to the local agent. £75.00 per hour. 

[Ossian]

Well, I've discovered an expert in system diagnostics and trailered the bike there today. Before I left him to his alchemy, he said to hold on while he did a quick diagnostic as I waited. Long story short, there were no faults showing at all. The dash lights all came on and the starter whizzed over but zilch.
So I left him to ponder the situation.

[Ossian]

Now the Expert has announced that the crank position sensor is faulty. Triumph want nearly £50 for one. Can anybody suggest another more affordable source ?