Did I fry my igniter?

[Guest]

Hello all, newbie here so cut me some slack.

Ealier this year I had a crank but no start issue. I determined it to be the igniter and replaced it. My bike was running after that but still not well so I pulled the carbs off. During disassembly I dropped a wrench and it arced across the battery terminals. Today I put the carbs back in and had a crank no start symptom again, but I didn't try very long or hard to get it to run because the battery was low on juice.

Would the wrench arcing across the battery cause my igniter to fail, again?

[tkent02]

Nope .

[tom203]

Remember that you can boost the bike's battery from a NON running vehicle.
Did you use "PR" on petcock to refill your carb bowls? Might as well check for correct petcock operation too.

[XJlimitedx99]

Well that's good news! I didn't use prime, although in hindsight I should've. I'll report back after putting more effort into getting her to fire.

[Steve]

Can you remember the last time the valves were adjusted?

If not, it's past time to check them.

.

[XJlimitedx99]

Alrighty well she fired up! It took a long time of cranking and playing with the throttle before she did. When it finally started it shot right up to 5k rpm and stayed there. I suspected a vacuum leak so I grabbed some wd-40 and started spraying all the suspect spots but nothing changed. it ended up being my throttle cable was adjusted too tightly. So I backed it off and it idled where it was supposed to.

The bad part:
I took it for a little test ride and it's running exactly how it was before I cleaned the carbs. It acts like its only running on two cylinders but there is a sweet spot that if you catch just right it will run good until you change the throttle position or go up/down a hill or get a gust of wind. The sweet spot is very audible. When running on what I suspect is 2 cylinders and sounds like a dirt bike but when you catch the sweet spot it sounds like a street bike.

So far I've gone through the entire ignition system and determined it to be in full working order. I've also stripped and dipped the carbs with no change. I've also replaced all of the rubber boots around the carbs.

Would out of adjustment valves cause the conditions I'm trying to describe? If not, any other leads you guys can give me?

Thanks for the help in advance. I'm part of some forums for other things and you guys are very helpful and understanding in comparison.

[JTGS850GL]

Can you detail how you cleaned the carbs? Did you replace the intake O-rings? Did you bench sync the carbs first and then vacuum sync them once the engine was started? Did you adjust the idle screw?

[XJlimitedx99]

Can you detail how you cleaned the carbs? Did you replace the intake O-rings? Did you bench sync the carbs first and then vacuum sync them once the engine was started? Did you adjust the idle screw?

Yes I replaced the intake o-rings, as well as the little filters in there. I didn't sync them. I've never messed with anything with more than one carb so I asked a bunch of people I know and came back with "if I put everything back just where it was then I won't have to sync it." And no, I actually didn't touch the idle screw.

now that I'm typing this I'm realizing that perhaps the carbs were out of sync before I touched them.

i cleaned the carbs by removing all jets, slides, and needles. I dipped all the metal parts that fuel flow through for 24 hours and blew them out with compressed air. I didn't dip the carb bodies because they didn't fit in the jug of cleaner so I scrubed those with a tooth brush and carb cleaner.

[BigD_83]

I'm afraid you've fallen prey to the looks clean, must be clean syndrome. Unfortunately, it's a little like archaeology, or more appropriately, like minerology. You have to go a little deeper to find the treasure.

The carbs are an ant's nest of little tunnels that gunk up. All of the jets can be sparkling, but without dipping the bodies, fuel can't move properly out of the bowl, so you'll have throttle positions that work, like when you are transitioning to the main jet up around 3/4 throttle, and others that don't...like that hesitation or bucking you'll get just rolling on the throttle from idle.

Time to pull them again, find a bigger bucket, and dip away.

EDIT- once you've done that, you can start thinking about the electrical, as the symptoms you describe could also be caused by one coil dropping out. Less likely, but possible

[XJlimitedx99]

Shoot, not what I wanted to hear, but okay.

[60ratrod]

once you've redone the carbs and at the very least bench sync'd them, or at least have them soaking, I would look into your ignition system and see if you are falling victim to the notorious voltage drop at the coils and test to see if you have a weak coil due to heat saturation. nothing wrong with doing a second dip and passage chase, and this is a perfect time to see what your electrical system is doing. and since you haven't checked the valves, do that too. out of whack valves can cause a hard start issue as well.