only half the engine heats up?!?

[Anonymous]

Hey all,
I am new to the site and fairly new to the biking world. I have a '79 GS1000E that was given to me about two years ago. Before I got the bike it had been sitting for only god knows how long. When I picked it up it fired though and was running alright so I figured I could fix it up. I have done lots of work on the bike since I have bought it. I have put on new tires, cleaned all the caked on grease and dirt and put fresh grease where needed, rewired the front lighting system, new points, condencers, sparks, ignition coils and some fresh paint.

My problem is that for some reason the right side of my engine wont heat up. One side will be properly hot and the other ice cold. I thought mabe I had a screw up with the ignition coils so I cheacked the order and it is deff right. One of my friends said it may be the timing and suggested try reversing the order keeping opposits firing. Which in theory should work. So I did then the left side got cold and the right side got hot! 8O

Any one have any suggestions where to go from here? any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks All!

[SqDancerLynn1]

If you swapped the wires & the problem changed sides You probably have a bad coil, First Check the points If you open them manually you should see a small spark

[Anonymous]

Re: only half the engine heats up?!?

Hey all,
I am new to the site and fairly new to the biking world. I have a '79 GS1000E that was given to me about two years ago. Before I got the bike it had been sitting for only god knows how long. When I picked it up it fired though and was running alright so I figured I could fix it up. I have done lots of work on the bike since I have bought it. I have put on new tires, cleaned all the caked on grease and dirt and put fresh grease where needed, rewired the front lighting system, new points, condencers, sparks, ignition coils and some fresh paint.

My problem is that for some reason the right side of my engine wont heat up. One side will be properly hot and the other ice cold. I thought mabe I had a screw up with the ignition coils so I cheacked the order and it is deff right. One of my friends said it may be the timing and suggested try reversing the order keeping opposits firing. Which in theory should work. So I did then the left side got cold and the right side got hot! 8O

Any one have any suggestions where to go from here? any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks All!

"Death is curtin" I'll be thinking about that riddle all day :P

I hope you got the problem fixed.

[HiSPL]

Just to clarify, cylinders 1 and 4 should get fire from the same coil and cylinders 2 and 3 should get fire from the other coil. If you are having a problem with 1 and 2 not firing and you changed your plug wires around and got 3 and 4 not firing then I don't think your coils are bad. The plug boots or plug wires could be bad though.

Here's a trick, wait until nighttime and start the bike and get it to idle. Now get down on your hands and knees and look at the coils and plug wires and plug caps to see if you have any spark jumping to ground somewhere. If you have cracked and funky plug wires they could be leaking the current to ground before it reaches the spark plugs.

This is just a guess on my part but those ancient plug wires go south in a hurry and cause all sorts of havoc.

Good Luck,
-=Tim=-

[Anonymous]

No I am still having issues. I did have the firing order backwards so I did fix that. I checked the coils by completely switching the coils themselves and it didnt cause a change so I know they are ok but cylenders 1 and 2 are staying cold. It has go to be something before the coils. what comes before the coils other then the piont and condencers (I am gonna check the wires from the coils to the points )

[SqDancerLynn1]

Left coil feeds cyl 1&4 Go back and switch the wires. switch wire 1 with 4 also switch wires 2 with 3 IF cyl 1&2 are still cold you need to do some carb work

[Anonymous]

A compression test would be in order here to see what tree to bark up. There is also the possability that it is fuel or compression. Perhaps a blown head gasket between two cylinders or stuck valves or ect ect. Plugs?

[rodcwer]

PULL THE PLUGS IN THE COLD CYLINDERS AND SEE IF THEIR WET. IF THEY ARE THEN CHECK COMPRESSION.IF THE COMPRESSION IS OK THEN YOU ARE RUNNING WAY RICH IN THOSE 2 CARBS.SO YOU'LL HAVE TO PROBABLY PULL THEM AND FIND OUT WHATS GOING ON.IF IT SAT COULD BE BLOCKED PASSAGES. ALSO IF THE PLUGS ARE NOT NEW TRY NEW ONES. I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM WHEN I WAS REDOING MINE....

[Anonymous]

when I switch 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 so that the coil that fires 1 normaly is on 3 and the coil that normaly fires 3 is on 1 and the coil that fires 2 normaly is on 4 and the coil that normaly fires 4 is on 2, which should work because they fire 2 at a time and I am still firing opposits the side switches 8O which tells me it is not carb problems but electrical. But if my logic is ascuwed please corret me... Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous]

when I switch 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 so that the coil that fires 1 normaly is on 3 and the coil that normaly fires 3 is on 1 and the coil that fires 2 normaly is on 4 and the coil that normaly fires 4 is on 2, which should work because they fire 2 at a time and I am still firing opposits the side switches 8O which tells me it is not carb problems but electrical. But if my logic is ascuwed please corret me... Thanks for the help!

when I said "side switches" I mean the hot side and the cold side.

[earlfor]

When sitting on the bike, the cylinders are numbered 1,2,3,4 from left to right. The correct connections are: The coil on the left side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 1 and cylinder 4. The coil on the right side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 2 and cylinder 3.

When standing facing the right end of the crankshaft, the left crankshaft trigger's white wire should be connected to the left coil negative terminal.
The right crankshaft trigger should have its black wire connected to the negative terminal of the right coil.

If you have your spark plugs connected in the wrong pairs, you will always have a pair of cold cylinders, but the cold pair will move back and forth because youre 180 deg out of phase for 2 cylinders.

Make sure the plugs and ignition are connected correctly, then let me know what is cold.

Earl

when I switch 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 so that the coil that fires 1 normaly is on 3 and the coil that normaly fires 3 is on 1 and the coil that fires 2 normaly is on 4 and the coil that normaly fires 4 is on 2, which should work because they fire 2 at a time and I am still firing opposits the side switches 8O which tells me it is not carb problems but electrical. But if my logic is ascuwed please corret me... Thanks for the help!

when I said "side switches" I mean the hot side and the cold side.

[Anonymous]

When sitting on the bike, the cylinders are numbered 1,2,3,4 from left to right. The correct connections are: The coil on the left side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 1 and cylinder 4. The coil on the right side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 2 and cylinder 3.

Just checking, is that correct or did you state it backwards? If so I have mine backwards and thought they were correct.

[earlfor]

double post deleted

E

[earlfor]

That is correct. It does not matter which coil is where. The connections do matter. The left pointset or crankshaft sensor's white wire must be connected to the coil negative terminal. This coil for the left pointset must have its plug wires connected to the 1 and 4 cylinders.

The other coil has its negative terminal (black wire)connected to the right crankshaft trigger/pointset. This coil must fire cylinders 2 and 3. The coils can be located anyplace you wish, but normally, they are located as I said.
Thats the way the factory locates them.

Earl

When sitting on the bike, the cylinders are numbered 1,2,3,4 from left to right. The correct connections are: The coil on the left side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 1 and cylinder 4. The coil on the right side of the frame has its two spark plug wires connected to cylinder 2 and cylinder 3.

Just checking, is that correct or did you state it backwards? If so I have mine backwards and thought they were correct.

[Anonymous]

YAY IT RUNNS!!!!!!!


So I thought I would let everyone know that my bike has been running great now for a few weeks. once I figured out the firing order it ran beautifuly! With a few more aggustments I was sson getting stopped by guys that have been riding since before I was born to the greatings of "Is that what I think it is?!","How the hell did you ever get one of those running let alone sound like it just came off the floor?!?" the firing order ended up going like this: the left condencer fires pistons 1 and 4, and the right condencer #'s 2 and 3. When sitting on the bike frome left to right the piston firing order was 2,1,4,3 but it could also be any other of several combonations. the easeyest way of explaining it is this: each of the ignition coils fire two spark plugs at the same time, it doesnt matter that is sparking one on the wrong stroke because the engine is a 4 stroke engine, meaning when one piston is on the firing stroke another is on the exhaust, another power and another compreshon respectivly. so there for one coil ( the one going to the left condencer) fires all of pistons 'A' and the other ignition coil fires cylenders 'B' So as long as my firing order goes B,A,A,B it doesnt matter.

But thank you all so much for the help my bike is running great, I havent found its top out mark yet but that is because I sisy out. The fastest I have gotten up to is 110 mph and the bike still had plent of room to go! :twisted: