82 1100E plug wires.

[Guest]

I have a red 82 1100E that is my daily rider. It's mostly stock, with the exception of a header, carb rejeting, K&N oval pod filters, a forged aluimum fork brace, and a custom leather seat, that looks a lot like a corbin gunfighter. Anyway I need to replace my plug wires. I have a plug cap that is flaky, and I saw a wire arcing at night. It doesn't even act up unless the humidity is real high. But after all it is 30 years old, so fresh wires are in my short term plans. My question is what is the best bang for the buck for wires. It isn't that I am a cheap AZZ I just don't want to spend a lot of money if I don't have to, but I am willing to spend whatever it takes for a good fix. Also I have never even looked to see how these wires attach to the coils, can they be replaced without replacing the coils.

[salty_monk]

If they are like all the others... they are joined to the coils. You can pull them out & replace them but you may break them off in the coil whilst doing so.

If you don't want to attempt that (there is about an even chance in my experience that you'll get them out) you can but a "splice" & cut the wires short by the coils & splice new ones on.

http://www.z1enterprises.com/products01/NGK-Plug-Wire-Splicer.aspx

You can buy new fork caps from Z1 too.

The other very cheap option is to take the caps off & put heat shrink on the wires then put the caps back on. They are only arcing because the insulation has broken down. This is probably not a long term solution though.

I believe some Bandit coils fit.

A lot of people use Dyna or Accel coils if you want to go aftermarket.

[tkent02]

I have a plug cap that is flaky, and I saw a wire arcing at night.

Is it arcing at the plug cap, or farther up the wires? Usually the caps go bad, but the wire itself is fine. The caps are still available, cheap and easy to replace. The whole wire can be replaced but it takes a little more effort.

[Texasgs]

The wire is arcing near the plug cap on one cylinder. And then one plug cap is intermittent, on humid days. I pulled them off and looked at them, they all look amazing considering they are 30 years old. It was something I first noticed when my son wanted to learn to ride on this bike. I instantly pulled 2 plug wires and idled it up a bit. That is when I noticed moving a plug cap changed the idle. It was sort of a funny deal, but you just don't put a beginer on one if these. That NGK splice is cool, I have never seen one of those. I have 3 parts bikes, but I just wanted to put new stuff on this one because it is my daily driver when weather permits. I will tear into it this weekend. I think I will try to take the plug wires off of a set of coils hanging on a parts bike I have and see if I can get the wires out. Are these suppresor wires, or do they have a metal conductor.

[mike_of_bbg]

Stock wires are metal core; the plug caps provide the resistance. Stock caps are supposed to be ~10k ohms each. The recommended NGK caps are ~5k ohms each. Unscrew the old caps and put your DMM across them. When they go bad the resistance usually goes very high.