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help, my 850 is being a pain!

  • Thread starter Thread starter rpickle
  • Start date Start date
R

rpickle

Guest
Geezzz, I think I have had it "fixed" twice now. A little background, bought this in April as "road-ready". Carbs leaked badly. Rebuilt them. Ran great, but leaked oil a lot. Tore it down and replaced gaskets all the way down to the base. Afterwards, ran fine for a week. Began missin, no power. Replaced, points & condensers, new battery, new rectifier. Ran great for about 2 weeks (until yesterday). Filled it up with gas, on the way home noticed the same symptoms before the points etc. replacements! I'm going crazy.... I have gone through the point gap settings, the timing and today even took out the ATU. Clean and lubed it and stuck it back it in only to have the same thing, idles OK, when I put the power to it (popping it in gear and taking off) it misses, backfires, pops and hesitates! Arghh........ I'd pull my hair out if I had any to spare... My wife and kids get home from a 2 month vacation and I wanted to be able to give them rides, but...... help.....

Rick
 
Maybe bad gas ??? flush the carbs, drain & refill the gas tank
 
I thought of that. Just not crazy about doing it. May have to, because it didn't start until I filled up. Could I have put too much gas in? Normally I fill it with it on the side-stand, but this time I filled it on the center-stand. Just curious.

Thanks.

Rick
 
No, you have not overfilled the tank.
Have you tried running it with the petcock on prime?
 
Nope, I haven't. What would that be telling me? That is an easy try though. I plan on replacing the fuel filter today as well.

The bike was running so well too. Weird...

Rick
 
It can be something very simple, like the vacumn petcock playing up, diagphram not sealing ,dirt in part of it, vacumn hose from the carbs with a leak. The prime position bypasses all this .
Simple first , it often is.but the more we know the more we seem to over complicate thing's , after we have spent hundreds of dollar's( Don't we feel so good then )
 
Ahhh, you have a fuel filter. My experience with them is they are trouble waiting to happen. They clog, starve the engine, and you end up looking everywhere else for the problem. Try replacing the fuel line and omitting the inline filter..

Earl


rpickle said:
Nope, I haven't. What would that be telling me? That is an easy try though. I plan on replacing the fuel filter today as well.

The bike was running so well too. Weird...

Rick
Click to expand...
 
Ahhh, you have a fuel filter. My experience with them is they are trouble waiting to happen. They clog, starve the engine, and you end up looking everywhere else for the problem. Try replacing the fuel line and omitting the inline filter..
Click to expand...

Right-o Earl... Your bike doesn't need a 6th inline fuel filter.

Simple first , it often is.but the more we know the more we seem to over complicate thing's , after we have spent hundreds of dollar's( Don't we feel so good then )
Click to expand...

I did just this becasue of one fo those damn inline fuel filters. New coils, carb rebuild and hours and hours of wrenching- even jetting work- only to have it be the friggin' brand new inline fuel filter someone suggested I put in. Those things are poison, pure poison I SAY!!
 
All righty then, I'll just pop that filter out and leave it out. Appreciate the advice.

Rick
 
Well, poop! I replaced the old fuel line and filter with a fresh one piece fuel line. Also replaced the vac. line to the petcock. Still missing under power. While out testing, I reached down and turned the petcock to prime. No improvement. I re-re-re-checked the ignition timing and the points gaps. I'm calling it a day. One question about the ignition, should the final adjustment be close to the middle of the slotted areas? 1 & 4 set are near the middle, but 2 &3 set are to one end of the slot. Also, everytime I set the timing, it seems to be "right" in a different spot?!

I'm sure I am hosing this somehow. Anyway, it is time for bed.

Thanks.

Rick
 
Have you checked the ignition advance with a strobe light?
Are the carb vent lines open, not kinked?
 
No, I haven't strobed the timing. Will an automotive timing light work? I took the vent tubes off a couple of months ago.

If I use the automotive light, then would I put it on plug one for that set of points and then plug 2 for the other set?

Appreciate the help gspaul.

Rick
 
Yea, the auto timing light is fine, and there's no reason why you shouldnt check the timing on both sets, it's been a while since I have had a bike with point's.
I know this is a stupid question but you have set the timing to the right mark
( Sorry, had to ask )
 
Yes, you can put the timing light on plug 1 or plug 4 for the left point set and plug 2 or plug 3 for the right pointset. The timing position will change relative to the slots on the plates if the gaps are slightly different.

I usually set the main breaker plate centered in the 12 oclock slot, then set the gap on the left pointset. This way, when youre ready to time it, you will have equal adjustment in both rotational directions. I found that 14 thou on the points worked best on my 750E.

Earl


rpickle said:
No, I haven't strobed the timing. Will an automotive timing light work? I took the vent tubes off a couple of months ago.

If I use the automotive light, then would I put it on plug one for that set of points and then plug 2 for the other set?

Appreciate the help gspaul.

Rick
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Earl. I had researched previous posts here and had printed out posts from you on the subject of the points. So I did have the left side set to appr. 12 o'clock and did set the point gap to 14 thousandths. I do notice, while test riding with the points cover off, the left set of points are continuously spitting sparks and the other set emmits an occasional spark. Is this something I should look into?

I'll try the light soon. My wife and kids are due back from Korea Sunday after 2 months. I have a house to CLEAN up......

I'll keep you all posted on what I find out.

Thanks.

Rick
 
If you're points are sparking, you probably need new condensors. Had the same problem on my 79 850. Condensors did the trick. Maybe wait for another post or two on the subject.
 
Thanks Mark. It has new points and condensors. I was talking to a co-worker who had an 850 a long time ago. He said that I should try popping the gas cap. Said that if I filled the tank all of the way up and there is something amuck with the vent tube, then the bike would be starving for fuel. Easy enough to try.

Appreciate your insight.


Rick
 
If you are "spitting fire" out of one of the sets of points, you have a bad condensor. Before I got to the part about the spitting fire, I was going to mention that it is possible to get oil into the housing for the points through a bad seal which raises havoc with them. I was also going to mention that the vac hose to the fuel tap can get kinked as my one did the other day. Ya gotta love gs pauls remarks about knowing too much and going for the big problem instead of the simple ones, how true.
 
When I first read Marks suggestion about the condensor, I immediately related it to fixing my overall problem, not the sparking even though the sparking is what he was talking about. I will switch condensors between 1-4 and 2-3 and see if the spark spitting follows. I am in hopes the poor running can will be attributed to the tank breather. If not, it will be back to the head scratch?!

Thanks a lot folks.


Rick
 
I have tried riding it without the gas cap locked down. No change. I will dump the gas as soon as I get a chance. I am going to get another set of points and condensors too. Not sure what else would be giving me such a problem.

Just an update.

Rick
 
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