83 1100GSe outside cylinders not firing.

[Guest]

Forgive me for my ignorance. I have not much experience with the GS. The outside cylinders are not firing, no spark. The inside 2 are working well. Any suggestions? It was a barn find, 36k miles

[tom203]

There are two ignition coils under gas tank. The one on left (as you sit) fires the two outside spark plugs- #1 plug is extreme left under clutch lever. and #4 is extreme right. Firing is trigered by a set of signal coils that tell an ignitor module which ignition coil to fire and when. Connectios between electrical stuff is often a problem

if you visit this link, you will see service manual and a similar wiring diagram to explain things somewhat.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

have you had experience with other bikes or gas powered toys?

[Wink]

There are two ignition coils under gas tank. The one on left (as you sit) fires the two outside spark plugs- #1 plug is extreme left under clutch lever. and #4 is extreme right. Firing is trigered by a set of signal coils that tell an ignitor module which ignition coil to fire and when. Connectios between electrical stuff is often a problem

if you visit this link, you will see service manual and a similar wiring diagram to explain things somewhat.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

have you had experience with other bikes or gas powered toys?

Yes mostly vintage BMW & Motoguzzi and an occasional metric bike. Thank you for your insight. I was just looking for a place to start. I thought it may be a common problem.

[tkent02]

A good place to start is to check the voltage at the coil, which is the orange and white wire at the coil. It needs to be somewhere around 12 Volts when the engine running, more importantly both coils should be about the same. If your non working coil is at a low voltage find out why..
The most common problem is corrosion in the wiring, if left unchecked expensive parts start to fry. Corroded connections make heat, the insulators melt, the wires short out and now you have a much bigger problem.
This is even more of a problem with the charging system. Please go through all of this electrical stuff before you start riding very far. These are extremely reliable machines, but only if things like this are taken care of.