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    Well crap.....

    I spent the whole of last week getting my 81 850 ready for a local rally. Worked on the exhaust, new tire, painted some parts up, beefed up the clutch with some new springs, etc. Got everything packed on the bike, rode it 1.6 miles to the gas station, topped off the tank, headed out......for 2 seconds. The ignition died. Not one pop. I had a similar episode a week ago but after a minute it fired back up and didn't repeat with a couple hundred miles down. Parked it off to the side, went back home and drug out the XS650 trike. Swapped everything over, got maybe 10 miles, and the chain broke and literally exploded.. This is ruining my weekend. Ended up going in the damn car. As to the GS, after the rally today I took a trailer to pull it home, and it fired immediately and ran as if nothing was ever wrong. OK, now I'm finally ****ed. If it would stay broken I could find the problem and fix it, now I'm guessing. It never sputters or misses a single beat, it either runs or it doesn't. All other power is still there, just the ignition loss. If it were a loose or corroded connection I think I should see some intermittent sputtering and misfires, no? Electronic ignition doesn't recover like this, does it? It hadn't really warmed up enough to think it's heat related. 1 1/2 miles on the highway in low 60's weather, no rain or anything for moisture issues. Any ideas on where to begin with this, I can't trust it to take off and it's my DDD this year. (Designated daily driver).

    #2
    Originally posted by wymple View Post
    I spent the whole of last week getting my 81 850 ready for a local rally. Worked on the exhaust, new tire, painted some parts up, beefed up the clutch with some new springs, etc. Got everything packed on the bike, rode it 1.6 miles to the gas station, topped off the tank, headed out......for 2 seconds. The ignition died. Not one pop. I had a similar episode a week ago but after a minute it fired back up and didn't repeat with a couple hundred miles down. Parked it off to the side, went back home and drug out the XS650 trike. Swapped everything over, got maybe 10 miles, and the chain broke and literally exploded.. This is ruining my weekend. Ended up going in the damn car. As to the GS, after the rally today I took a trailer to pull it home, and it fired immediately and ran as if nothing was ever wrong. OK, now I'm finally ****ed. If it would stay broken I could find the problem and fix it, now I'm guessing. It never sputters or misses a single beat, it either runs or it doesn't. All other power is still there, just the ignition loss. If it were a loose or corroded connection I think I should see some intermittent sputtering and misfires, no? Electronic ignition doesn't recover like this, does it? It hadn't really warmed up enough to think it's heat related. 1 1/2 miles on the highway in low 60's weather, no rain or anything for moisture issues. Any ideas on where to begin with this, I can't trust it to take off and it's my DDD this year. (Designated daily driver).
    Check you kill switch terminals, happened to mine a while ago. They were JUST sitting on the contacts and a bump would short them out.

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      #3
      I think a bad contact in the kill switch would prevent the starter from working. The only thing I lose is ignition, and it's only died at engine speeds just off idle. Like you shut it off, then no start. Bumps & such have no effect. I rode it down a patchy piece of highway tonight and it ran perfectly, not a hiccup. I'd rather it went ahead and croaked so I could isolate the problem. I checked for petcock issues as well, tried the prime setting to be sure I had fuel to the carb bank. It will be a day or so before I sit down with it, I am just looking for clues.

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        #4
        In my mind would have to be either the ignitor, the pickup coil assembly or a bad connection somewhere going to the coils.

        Best guess is the ignitor.

        De-stinking Penelope http://thegsresources.com/_forum/sho...d.php?t=179245

        http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...35#post1625535

        Comment


          #5
          Now that sounds like a real possibility. I'll start with that. Thanks

          Comment


            #6
            "....a bad connection somewhere going to the coils."

            This is what I'd suspect -are you a killswitch user ?
            1981 gs650L

            "We are all born ignorant, but you have to work hard to stay stupid" Ben Franklin

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              #7
              Originally posted by tom203 View Post
              "....a bad connection somewhere going to the coils."

              This is what I'd suspect -are you a killswitch user ?

              No, almost never.

              Comment


                #8
                I had an issue crop up last year with cyl 1 & 4, found one of the orange wires on my coil had a bare spot and corrosion started to creep up in there... fixed it and the problem went away. If you saw my recent posts, i'm switching to a dyna set up.
                -Mark
                Boston, MA
                Suck Squeeze Bang Blow..
                sigpic
                1980 GS850G with 79 carbs.....

                Comment


                  #9
                  Check your fuse box and grounds.
                  '78 GS1000E, Dyna-S ignition, Dyna Green Coils, K&N pods, Delkevic SS 4-1 exhaust, Dynojet Stage 3 jet kit, Russell SS Brake Lines, Progressive suspension, Compu-Fire series Regulator 55402 and Advmonster cree LED headlight conversion.

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                    #10
                    Check the tension in the connectors on the coils.

                    I have seen some that looked good, but were loose enough to jiggle around at certain engine speeds.

                    .
                    sigpic
                    mine: 2000 Honda GoldWing GL1500SE and 1980 GS850G'K' "Junior"
                    hers: 1982 GS850GL - "Angel" and 1969 Suzuki T250 Scrambler
                    #1 son: 1986 Yamaha Venture Royale 1300 and 1982 GS650GL "Rat Bagger"
                    #2 son: 1980 GS1000G
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