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Major smoke and burning plastic

Gen 3: 2008-10 
1K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  Twistedsocal13 
#1 ·
Hey I have a 2010 ZX-10R, The snow finally melted up here in Wisco so I took my bike out for a short 2 mile ride just to get the cobwebs off. On my way back home I noticed a higher pitched "whine" when I throttle. Didn't redline or anything as I was on residential streets (sub 35mph) and only got up to 2nd gear. About 20 seconds later as I'm pulling into my garage I notice THICC white smoke emanating from the area in between where the battery and the tank meet. Smelled like burning plastic, I hit to engine cutoff, ran in the house and grabbed a bucket of water and it eventually stopped smoking. I have no idea what's going on, I do not perform maintenance myself. The only thing I've done since last year was remove and maintain my battery for the winter months, which I put back in last week and started it up in the garage to make sure everything was legit. I let it run for like 3-4 minutes and everything was fine. Today was my first ride of the year. I'm waiting for it to cool off to take the seat off but I'm hesitant to take off the seat as i'm trying not to get exploded. Bike only has 2k on it and never had have had any issues with it. I have no idea what's happening. Wish I would have found this forum back when I bought it. Any idea?:crying:
 
#2 ·
Sounds like a short somewhere. Did you hook battery up correctly? Do you have any other wires besides neg and pos cables going to battery? Remove seat and see where melted plastic came from which should give you a good idea of where your issue is. Keep switch in OFF position and remove key. Do not run bike until you dig deeper and find your issue!
 
#13 ·
you know that synthetic oil burning can smell a whole lot like plastic burning. could be the air filter managed to collect oil and then it dumped into the head through the drain and got really hot really quick. thing is if it is white smoke that is usually steam so idk without seeing it
 
#11 ·
Tank is easy man. Remove bolt at rear and two more in the front LH and RH side. Not sure if side plastics need removed on your gen. Once bolts removed gently lift up and hoses and fuel lines will be easy to disconnect. Minimum tools required. Look under your seat for burn marks also. That smell and smoke came from somewhere! Like Michael said, you will need to remove a few more pieces to see everything. Trust yourself, very easy job to remove tank!
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the positive reinforcement! I'm going to attempt what you advised but I've never taken a tank off before, mainly just light chain maintenance and battery removal/replacement. I wish I was more mechanically inclined but kids and work take up all my free time lol.
 
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