Running on two cylinders.

[jamesearthdrum]

Hi Folks,
          It's been awhile since I have visited the board. Life ya know. Well I find myself trying to finally get the '85 my son bought on the road and was getting damn close. I was able to get the bike running and carb sych done several months ago. I have installed the tank and when I start her up the #3 cylinder is not firing. Pulled the tank and plug, have fuel but no spark. I cleaned the contacts in the coil connectors, got spark on the plug lying on the head and thought okay got it. Started it back up again and now I have no spark on #1 and #3! Connectors seem to be okay and all wiring is intact. I did a search and found a lot about paired cylinders no working, but nothing about one from each coil. Ohm test shows 3ohms of primary resistance. I'm lookng for suggestions of where to go from here. Thanks.

[Dads_FJ]

How many miles on the bike?  sorta gives an idea of what may be worn or need replacing.  I would get all new plugs -gap them correctly - and be sure the battery has a fresh charge.  fresh gas too...?  my '84 w/50,000miles had a bad plug cap, so replaced them all...

[SlowOldGuy]

Since you've got fire from each coil, it's got to be forward of there.  Bad wires, caps, plugs?

Try the easy things first!

DavidR.

[fj1289]

James,

I'd suspect the floats/float needles sticking in those carbs - the usual problem is for them to stick "down" and fllood, but I've also seen some stick "up" and not allow any fuel in the float bowls.  Get it running on two and try squirting a LITTLE fuel into each of the other carbs and see if it runs for a moment on that cylinder. 

Of course, since it's been several months since it last ran, probably good to make a ritualistic sacrafice to the kookaloo gods/powers/spirits and clean the carbs (again)! 

Chris W

[andyb]

Swap the plug leads between 1 and 4, and 2 and 3.  Golly that sounds confusing   L-R sitting on the bike, mark the leads 1 2 3 4.  Swap them to read 4 3 2 1.  If that moves your cold cylinders, you have bad HT leads, if it doesn't, you have a couple bad plugs or a lack of fuel.

[Dads_FJ]

Also please report back with any findings and/or progress.  I need closure...

[jamesearthdrum]

Hi Guys,
          First thank you for the suggestions. Here's where we are;
One bad plug cylinder 1
One bad plug cap cylinder 3
Removed inline fuel filter from PO
I am getting fuel, as all plugs have been wet when I pull them.

Installed new plugs
New caps will be here tomorrow.
I am going to do the relay for the coils upgrade while I have everything open.

I will report again tomorrow.

[jamesearthdrum]

Hi Guys,
She running like a top now. As I previously posted I discovered 1 bad plug and one bad cap. I replaced all 4 plugs since I had a set and scavenged a cap from the basketcase '86 I have.
I also removed and cleaned the carbs, they were in very good shape with only a few little nasty's hanging about.

Here's what I did step by step;
Removed spark plugs and grounded each one, one at a time, on the head to check for spark. When I found one that didn't spark, I switched it with a plug that had spark to rule out it being the wire or cap.
Removed plug caps and tested resistance, found one completely dead.
Tested coils primary and secondary resistance, coils within spec.
Removed carbs and cleaned. Randy I will be ordering a couple screw kits for next time.
Removed inline fuel filter that PO had installed.
Put everything back together, still had a no start condition but it would back fire like mad.
Pulled tank back to discover that when I reconnected the coils to the loom I had reversed the connectors, 
Switched the connectors so  orange matched orange and gray matched gray, put the tank back in place, and vroooom, not a moment of hesitation in starting up 
Hoping for a test ride tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks again for the suggestions.