Bandit 1200 bogging down & dying

[talkToTheHat]

With the spark plugs securely in place and the caps removed, pour hot soapy water into one plug well at a time. Check water absolutely pisses out the drain holes. If not clean with a straightened giant paperclip or similar bit of stiff wire.

If the HT cable is screw-in at both ends just replace it. You can seal against rain with a little silicone. If the leads get damp inside they can corrode quite badly.

Find the drain screw for each carb float bowl and drain the carbs (fuel tap to ON or RES). Is what comes out dirty or have water in it? You can clean the drain holes with a bit of wire if the carbs don't drain, but that's a sign they're full of crap. Running some fuel system cleaner through the bike might help remove resins from old fuel but won't touch old tank rust.

I had to remove the petcock assembly from my tank and clean the mesh on the fuel inlet snorkel thing, which was covered in old fuel residue. Note also that reserve comes in at about 6 litres remaining, which shows as still 3 bars on my fuel gauge.

Smell your oil, if it stinks of petrol you have fuel leaking into the engine when stopped.

Also, investigate what's in the airbox drain pipe. should be near the right footpeg and securely capped off.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[mudcow007]

I have just gone through the procedure of a blocked spark plug hole on my Bandit, mine was caused by one of the rubber seals from a plug cap getting wedged at the bottom of the plug recess

god knows it had been in there for, but it seemed to have swelled up an there was a pool of water in there

pour water down the spark plug holes - obviously with plugs in, the water should drain really easily - if not, dems be blocked