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GS850G #1 not firing

  • Thread starter Thread starter wolfleg
  • Start date Start date
W

wolfleg

Guest
I have a 1980 GS850G and I believe the #1 cylinder is not firing (pipe is relatively cool compared to the other three). Since #4 is firing, does this mean the coil is O.K.? Carburetor is good; getting gas; some spark when #1 plug is tested. Any help will be appreciated.
 
My 80 gs 850 g had the same problem in the number 4 then in the 2. I first took a plug from a hot cylinder and put in the suspect cylinder. In both cases it wound up being bad plugs. You also might inspect all of your plug boots for cracks in the elbow section at the seam. All four of mine provided quite a jolt when a finger was placed on the afore mentioned location. Be carefull or your wife or girlfriend might think you are going to a hair stylist. LOL!

Happy hunting.
 
I had a '81 650E that had a similar problem with the #2 cylinder. The plug wire had gotten damaged at the end of the boot. I repaired it and the problem was solved ~

JM
 
firstimer850 said:
My 80 gs 850 g had the same problem in the number 4 then in the 2. I first took a plug from a hot cylinder and put in the suspect cylinder. In both cases it wound up being bad plugs. You also might inspect all of your plug boots for cracks in the elbow section at the seam. All four of mine provided quite a jolt when a finger was placed on the afore mentioned location. Be carefull or your wife or girlfriend might think you are going to a hair stylist. LOL!

Happy hunting.
Click to expand...

I don't have to worry about the "hair stylist" problem :-)
 
the_journeyman said:
This is how I discovered the problem with my 650E. I had a "%#&@ that hurt" moment while checking for a spark ~

JM
Click to expand...

The wire looks good. Don't see any cracks or wear of any kind. Maybe I have a bad plug, but I have changed that plug several times. Either the plug keeps going bad or something else is the matter.
 
My problem was internal with the wire. The outer sheathing was fine, boot was fine, but the copper core was broken & only sometimes met & created fire ~

JM
 
the_journeyman said:
My problem was internal with the wire. The outer sheathing was fine, boot was fine, but the copper core was broken & only sometimes met & created fire ~

JM
Click to expand...

OOoh, I see. The spark plug wire looks like it is sealed into the coil. If the wire is bad, do I need to replace the coil along with the wire?

Thanks
 
I'm sure replacing the coil is the best fix, but not cheap. I simply repaired the broken wire because it was broken right where the wire entered the plug boot. The boots on mine would slide up the plug wire where you could get to the copper. Not the *best* solution, but it worked ~

JM
 
wolfleg said:
OOoh, I see. The spark plug wire looks like it is sealed into the coil. If the wire is bad, do I need to replace the coil along with the wire?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Well, the copper piece is o.k. and so is the resistor; at least the resistor measures the same resistance as the one for #4. Can the coil be bad only for #1 and not #4?
 
wolfleg said:
OOoh, I see. The spark plug wire looks like it is sealed into the coil. If the wire is bad, do I need to replace the coil along with the wire?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, unless you want to dig it out, which some people have done with success.

I think Journeman was talking about the wire connection at the boot, though, not at the coil. It's fairly common practice to unscrew the wire from the boot, snip off 1/8 of an inch and screw it back in. That exposes a bit of new wire "meat" for the boot screw to connect with.

Also check the resistance on those boots (search the archives for info on that). They often go bad with age even though they look great. New NGK boots are cheap at z1enterprises.com and are nice looking, too!
 
wolfleg said:
Well, the copper piece is o.k. and so is the resistor; at least the resistor measures the same resistance as the one for #4. Can the coil be bad only for #1 and not #4?
Click to expand...

Nope. If #4 is fine, only the wire, boot, or plug could be the culprit, if it is, indeed, an ignition problem. The same coil fires #1 and #4.
 
If everything in the ignition dept checks out, check for intake leaks and do a carb sync. People seldom realize that out-of-sync carbs can actually produce a cool pipe.

Also check your mixture screw on that cyl. Especially if the pipe warms up under more-than-idle throttle, the mixture screw could be out of adjustment. Of course that same symptom could apply to a sync problem.
 
Last edited:
t3rmin said:
If everything in the ignition dept checks out, check for intake leaks and do a carb sync. People seldom realize that out-of-sync carbs can actually produce a cool pipe.

Also check your mixture screw on that cyl. Especially if the pipe warms up under more-than-idle throttle, the mixture screw could be out of adjustment.
Click to expand...


Thanks everyone! You are great. I will have to do more checking. Will let you know what I find out.
 
Replaced the plug and it works now. Even though the original plug showed a spark upon testing. What is that about? The spark must have been too weak, huh? Lots of smoke billowed out, then cleared up. Pipe gets blue like the others now.

Thanks everyone for your help!
 
It's weird how sometimes a perfectly good looking plug can be fouled. Glad it's running for ya!

If your pipes are turning blue you're probably running lean & too hot... might want to deal with that before you burn something up!
 
t3rmin said:
It's weird how sometimes a perfectly good looking plug can be fouled. Glad it's running for ya!

If your pipes are turning blue you're probably running lean & too hot... might want to deal with that before you burn something up!
Click to expand...

Uh Oh. Always something, isn't there :-) How do I adjust the air/fuel ratio? I guess I better check the manual, huh. Thanks again :-)
 
Plugs can be a pain at times. Both of mine looked fine except for oil and gas on them. Depending on how long you ran the bike, you might want to change the oil and filter as you the possibility of gas in the oil. Might get rid of the blue pipes as well.

Happy hunting.
 
It is possible it is the coil, I woul recommend that you swap the cable and plugs between pot 1 and 4 and see if that changes anything, if pot 1 starts to work and pot 4 doesn't than the problem is either the plug or the cable, otherwise than I would replace the coil.
 
Ignition won't have anything to do with blue pipes. Neither will oil change/oil filter.

If your bike is stock as far as air filter/exhaust, then:
1) You have intake leak(s). If all your pipes are equally blue it's most likely in the air filter area but I suppose it could be the intake o-rings if they're ALL bad.
2) Somebody rejetted your carbs too lean.
3) Float levels are off.

Lean means HOT so it's not something to mess around with, especially in these summer months.
 
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