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82 850 ignition issues.

  • Thread starter Thread starter stoy75
  • Start date Start date
S

stoy75

Guest
Ok so here goes. I have an 82 gs850glz. The bike runs and idle what seems fine but runs horrible on the highway. It bogs and surges and bogged till it died today on the highway and would only restart with choke. Removing plug wires 1 2 and 4 will change the idle and kill the bike. Plug wire 3 being pulled has little change if any. Carbs were stripped and dipped twice replacing all o rings. New intake boots. Sealed airbox. I'm getting despetrate here. Please help.
 
Your plug cap pulling testing is good idea, but doesnt tell you everything.

Pulling #3 cap and it not making much difference causes you to suspect sometimg with #3, but doesnt tell you if problem is ignition related or fuel related.

Do you know about pulling out the sparkplug and laying it on head (or otherwize grounding the sparkplug) and looking at the spark...? Then will have better idea if that plug is sparking. If its not, try swapping it with another one to see if problem is the sparkplug itself.

Also keep in mind that the sparkplug caps can go bad. They just twist pull off the wire, and new ones are about $5 or less. Can aalso be checked with meter, should be about 5K ohm (when bad go to 20 -30 K ohms or complete open). You can try swapping those also. 1&4 cap are same and 2&3 are same only because they have to reach a different distance.

If plug is sparking, then suspect fuel. Also when remove plug, the color is of some improtance (but I am not guy to tell you about that.)

Your statement of "only restart on choke" (I presume engine was warm and would not need choke), does sound more like fuel/carb problem. So more of fuel/carb problem (and I am here only cause is posted in electrical section).

Tell us more what you find.

PS: Welcome to GSR. Dont know if I have seen you post before.
If I had, I would have said that my parents were from Johnstown PA area.
Dad from St Micheal up on what was area overlooking the South Fork backwaters, just a side of hill since 1889.
And I have cousins around there yet somewhere. Varner, Gramlin, Morrow.

.
 
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I have replaced the caps with ngk. The plug from that cylinder has more s
ooting than the others. I thought coil but only one cylinder and independent sort of rules that out. I did pull the plug and there is spark
 
Hi,

Are the float heights set properly? Petcock operating properly? Are you using an inline fuel filter? Is the gas cap venting properly?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
All good points from Basscliff on the fuel front. Being as number 3 seems a prime culprit float height, float needle etc would be my prime target but the fact the plug is crudded up would suggest fuel is getting through & not being burnt properly.

I have a known good set of coils going cheap in the For Sale section... might be an easy way to discount the coils totally.

I even have an odd one somewhere (you'll have to add wires & plug caps to it as I pulled the old split ones out) that is good that you can have for not much more than a beer....

I would also do the Ignitor tests to see if the box is bad. Fairly sure yours has the electronic advance on it. Not tested one of those (only the mechanical advance kind) but I assume there is a test for it (clymers listed a test for my 1000G).

I had an ignitor box go bad that would work completely fine up to 6k rpm & then just cr*p out.

I had a Dyna Green coil go bad on number 3 cylinder only - basically some loose connection where the plug wire entered the coil was "spark eroding" anything metal there until eventually it completely lost spark on that cylinder.

Out of interest have you checked the valves? If number 3 is way off it could affect the combustion process.

:)
 
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Yes the heights are fine. The petcock tested fine. Gas cap is venting. And there is no fuel filter.

BassCliff said:
Hi,

Are the float heights set properly? Petcock operating properly? Are you using an inline fuel filter? Is the gas cap venting properly?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

If the float height is too low the carb will starve that cylinder.

Have you replaced the spark plug caps after cutting back 1/4 inch of the spark plug wire to get to un-corroded copper? See: Spark Plug Cap Replacement

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
stoy75 said:
The plug from that cylinder has more s
ooting than the others.
Click to expand...
A cylinder which has no spark cannot develop soot on a spark plug. Soot requires combustion and that would not happen without spark.
 
Ok went out while at work, shhh lol, and warmed up the bike. Pulled plug wire 2 and no idle change. Pulled plug wire 3 and no idle change. 1 and 4 killed bike. Would a coil going be sporadic like this. That 2 works once in a while and 3 is a dead fish and me cleaning synching and adjusting carbs worked around it so that the bike runs.
 
2 & 3 are on the same coil... It sounds like something is wrong with that coil or the wiring to it (most likely) or possibly (unlikely) the trigger for that coil is not working properly or more likely (than the trigger) something wrong in the ignitor box.

Did you check the voltage at the coil with the bike running?
 
Ok. As sitting on bike left coil at connector 4.5ohms and spark plug leads 11.6 kohms. Right coil at connector 4.5 ohms and spark plug leads 12.51 kohms. This was taken cold. Will get voltages and warm impedence in the morning.
 
Alright further and more complete testing. Impedence stayed basically the.same on a readings hot. Voltage at coils 9.8 compared to battery of 11.8 while running. Re synched carbs and found #3 pilot screw makes no change. Took it apart to find I put it together wrong with spring below o ring and spacer. Oring was subsequently torn to shreds. Thinking this is my problem and with that carb being wrong and being #3 my psynch was bonked anyway. Guess ill have to order a whole new kit to get that one o ring. But until I do this is my suspect and there is no way to test further. Will be doing coil relay mod as well since ill have plenty of down time. Sound like this could be it?
 
11.8V while running seems quite low. Have you gone through the stator tests? You definitely have too much drop in voltage at the coils. Cleaning all electrical connections sounds like a good thing to do; go ahead and do the coil relay mod too. The idle screw could be a problem but doesn't really explain the bogging on the highway to me... Bad gas cap vent maybe?
 
I had been beating on the battery pretty bad starting and shutting down tuning the carbs.
 
stoy75 said:
...... Voltage at coils 9.8 compared to battery of 11.8 while running. ......?
Click to expand...

11.8v at battery when running NOT GOOD.
Did you check that at mid rpms, say 4000 or 4500?
Need to do complete check of charging system.

Also put on battery charger, see if it charges up to good voltage then, lie just over 12.

THen when running at mid rpms your bikes charging system should have battery voltage at somethinbg like 13.5 or 14.0 (depending if stock R/R or more recent aftermarket).

Ignition system may work, but not work well at less than 10 volts.
Maybe the ignition system is okay, just cant work well at less than 10 volts. ANd the problem is your charging system.

.
 
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