points wiring - kee-POWWW!

[Allie]

Yeah so, the bike's been running a little funny on an intermittent basis the last 2-3 runs, just enough to keep me on the lookout for symptoms. Two days ago I embarked on a ride with my Co-pilot and it seemed to not want to 'warm up'. Got half way across town and got a 'kee-POWWW!' on the decel, so I brought her about and put it in the garage.

Poking around the points the next day revealed excessively brittle and cracking wires, no wonder. All it takes sometimes is humidity to wreak havoc... Anyway the wiring appeared supple enough once beyond the hot confines of the points area, so I grafted new wires on and our ride yesterday was flawless and fancy free. I had to turn the idle down mid ride though, apparently performance was affected even without audible roughness.

Just curious, what route do those two wires take to get to the coils? The cloth jacket goes under the engine and disappears, and I didn't get on my back to look further.

[Steve]

The route probably goes back toward the back of the engine, might follow the frame rail up, then forward, along the upper frame tubes to the coils.

.

[Allie]

Thank you kindly.

[chuck hahn]

They run along the side ofm the engine, across the back of the oil pan, and plug into the harness uo by the battery...right with the 3 stator wires inside that big rubber wire bundler thingy.