spark plugs - are they telling me anything ?

GK, do you have a tight fit on your vacuum hose from the #2 carb to the petcock?

Eric

drop the bike into neutral and stop

Jeez you don't want to do that. Its always best to leave it in first gear with clutch in and one on the mirror to watch for jackazzes running up your keester. Rememember I mentioned the Viet guy that came up right behind me when I had your bike out Friday? If I hadn't moved forward as I saw him coming, I'm sure he would have hit me.

I'm still thinking it is a carb, idle circuit issue, and possibly those air mixture screw o-rings.

Another thought I've been having ( mostly about my own bike issues) is the possibility of air leakage through the holes that the butterfly shaft goes through. The schematic shows o-rings on the outsides of the carbs and we don't normally change those. I'm thinking if they start to break down in the dip then we would have a problem with air getting in wouldn't we?

Something else to ponder on.

Hopefully it will get better as you ride this week.

Cheers,
spyug

still stalling

Redman - Thanks for the tip....

So I did the other 3, even put a dab of di-electric grease buttoned it all up, put on new rubber boots as well, top and bottom, added another 1/4 bottle of seafoam.

and....

still the same crap, she will start, she will go, she will even idle after warming up for a bit, no choke required, I can turn her off, and restart, but she will still die on me after running on the road, come to a stop, and she will drop the rpm's and stall....

I went out tonight about a 10 minute ride, stopped off at a coffee shop, met a friend there, shot the breeze with him for a bit (he loved the bike) by the way he has a nice BMW R1200 I think it was, all the gadgets, even the windshield goes up and down with the touch of a button...

so anyways, about an hour goes by, I am going to head home, get on the bike, no choke, hit the start button, she starts and more or less idles, I don't sit around too long, and drive off (30 seconds or so) ride her good down the road, 60-80 km per hour, and get a few green lights, then a red light, gear down, almost to a full stop, drop the bike into neutral and stop, feet on the ground, and she STALLS.......

Panic mode, as soon as she died the bloody light is changing to green.....

clutch in, hit the start button she fires up, drop her into first, and get going, bloody F150 behind me and crawling up my arse......

get home fine no issues the rest of the way as I had all greens, and when I had to stop or slow down, I kept blipping the throttle, get into the driveway put her in neutral, release the clutch side stand out, I have to open the garage, and she sits there idling with absolutely no issues.....

I will have to pull the plugs to see how they look as well, just no time right now, maybe take a run tomorrow and at lwast pull the 1 and 4 plug, 2 and 3 are a pain.....

I give up....

this is what I did earlier in the day...










sorry for the crappy pictures....

.

[Redman]

OK,,,,so I clipped one of the wires about a 1/4 inch, had a biatch of a time getting the boot back on, certainly is not easy to screw it back on, that is for sure.........

.

See how there is a little rubber boot on the plug cap?
Put that rubber boot on wire first and push it up a little bit out of the way, then push-screw the cap onto the wire, then pull the boot down onto the cap.

.

Good points Thanks....

I did see nice shiny bits on the one I cut, so that is a good thing, I finally did screw on, but it did take some twisting on and on and on....and it finally grabbed and it was OK.

By the way, I do think the seafoam is doing at least something, I can see some smoke out of the tail pipe, I did not have this before so something is happening, burning off, cleaning up etc....

.

After you clip it, you should see shiny bits in the core of the wire, this is fresh, clean, un-oxidized copper. If you do not see shiny bits, clip it a bit more. This is crucial. You must see shiny bits.
When you go to screw the cap back on, keep in mind the first thing you have to do is pierce the inside of the wire core with the point that is in the plug cap. Just a couple of hints, hope they help.

OK,,,,so I clipped one of the wires about a 1/4 inch, had a biatch of a time getting the boot back on, certainly is not easy to screw it back on, that is for sure....

too the bike out for a spin, noticed no difference, but tomorrow I will clip the other 3 and struggle putting the caps back on, but I will get it done, take a spin, and report back.

If no change, I will add a bit more seafoam, and run it a bit more, and see.....

Bike runs fine otherwise, however coming up to a stop sign or lights, the rpms will dip and a good chance of it dying, so I either hold in the clutch, or drop to neutral and blip the throttle ever so slightly to keep her going

I am not liking this......

ohhh I will take a few pics of the snipping of the wires tomorrow....

.

[BigD_83]

I believe that I have read several members stating that the OEM caps can also be unscrewed and a short section of wire trimmed and re-install the caps for better spark?
Is this a fact or just copying what has been written by a previous poster? (Here-say)

Eric

Done it. Helped immensely with a weak spark issue I had before I got new coils.

[Steve]

If you need corroboration, Eric, I have also done that to several bikes. About half of the bikes in my stable have had their wires trimmed a bit, and I have done it to several of the many that I have worked on in my travels.

By the way, the NGK caps screw on, just like the stock ones do.


Sedelen, I hope none of your caps have 500k ohm resistances. The resistance specification for a stock setup (which is from one cap to the other, through the coil) is only about 30k, and that includes both caps. Those caps should only be 5k, not 500k ohms.

.

Thanks Ed. Now, I KNOW it to be fact.
I have never messed with them myself... yet.

Eric

[Nessism]

Is this a fact or just copying what has been written by a previous poster? (Here-say)

Eric

Fact. There is a threaded post inside the cap.

I believe that I have read several members stating that the OEM caps can also be unscrewed and a short section of wire trimmed and re-install the caps for better spark?
Is this a fact or just copying what has been written by a previous poster? (Here-say)

Eric

[sedelen]

Those are resistor plugs. What kind of coils, plug wires, and plug caps are you using?

Ed made a very important point here, resistor plugs, if you have resistor plugs and resistor type caps (500K ohms stamped on the cap) that's allot of resistance and voltage drop. Surely could be affecting the spark which I think would me minimized somewhat at least.

Hey guys....

Sorry about the way I took the pictures, it was more of an after thought, and I should have taken care to pull them, mark them, and know which one was from what cylinder. I only pulled them, as they were the ones in since I parked the bike many years ago, and did not change them after I did the rebuild, I have been having a bit of trouble starting the bike, holding idle, and she will stall at times while out and about riding, unless I keep an an eye on things and blip the throttle a bit while at a light, or coming to a STOP sign etc,,,,while the bike is in motion there are no issues.

So I have changed the plugs, purchased new ones, hopefully I have the correct ones, and added about a 1/4 of a can of seafoam to a full tank of fresh gas, and will see if any of that helps and or gets things to a better state.

coils are original, caps and wires are original, and all seems to be in good condition, I did try to order new caps, but no one had the long ones as the originals so I had to stay with what I had unfortunately, and yes the caps are NGK marked

a few pics








if the combo of plugs and seafoam don't do anything to improve, well it's time for other avenues of diagnosing and trouble shooting, I will be all ears.....

Thanks

DAn

[Redman]

To emphasise a couple points that has been mentioned before:
- what folks will want to see is the color of the ceramic insulator that is around the center electrode. Will want to see the very end, and will want to see up into the plug a bit. SO position plugs and camera so that the light (Flash) can go up into the end of the spark plug, yah, like your next to last photo.
- and will want to know which plug is from which cyclinder, so keep them in some order, and maybe mark 1-2-3-4 nearby or something.

.