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Think it might be electrical...?

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    Think it might be electrical...?

    Alright, here is the situation. The bike is a 1980 550L. I bought it last year and went through the carbs (complete rebuild i.e. dunking and new o-rings in carbs and intake boots along with new intake boots themselves). I then looked at the electrical and put on a used r/r because the wires from the previous one were fried. I soldered the new wires directly to the stator and added an extra ground wire from it to the - battery post. Although I never synched the carbs, or adjusted the valves as I should have, the bike seemed to run great for the most part. A little hesistation close to 5000 rpm but nothing severe. I put on probably around 2k miles or more with nothing wrong at all.

    Around October, this past year, I was finishing up a 150 mile ride and was getting on the freeway when all of a sudden I couldn't go above 6000 rpm anymore and the bike seemed to start losing power (i.e. no amount of throttle would pull the rpm's back up). As I was pulling onto the shoulder I stopped and blipped the throttle a couple times and all of sudden it seemed the power was back. I rev'ed it up to 5000 rpm a couple times and it seemed fine so I pulled back out. The power seemed definitely adequate in 1st, 2nd, and somewhat in 3rd never above 6000 though. Now 4th, 5th, and 6th were different stories in 4th and 5th it might have fluttered a little over 6000 but it seemed to sputter and then once in 6th it would go nowhere above 6000 and the whole bike losing power scenario would happen again if I kept it at 6000 for too long.

    What's weird is I tried starting it one morning after that and the battery was dead. I charged it overnight and the whole going up to 6k rpm thing happed all over again within the first 5 minutes of riding this time. I charged the battery full last night and got out the multimeter...battery was at 12.9v with the ignition off. A little over 13 with it at idle and 14.08 at 2500 and 14.05 at 5000. According to the stator papers the charging system is fine and I didn't have any need to proceed to Test B or C. When I would turn on the headlight at idle the volts would start dropping and then when I turned them off they went right back up to normal showing that everything was charging.

    All advice and or thoughts would be greatly appreciated? Maybe the coils are on the way out...possibly resistance at their connections? Maybe bad R/R?

    PS: I remember a couple of times out riding when I would stop and then try to start the bike I would have to turn the headlight on and off before I started or else the solenoid would just click. Kinda strange in itself.

    #2
    Nope, Doesnt sound like electrical problem limiting RPMs.

    And charging voltage is fairly good, so that is not the cause of your dead battery on that occassion.
    .
    Last edited by Redman; 12-29-2007, 08:50 PM.
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      #3
      Electircal?

      Something about your bike has changed. When you get down to the basics of troubleshooting, here's what you get.
      Ignition: coils and the current causing them to fire, points or electronic devices to time the firing and spark plugs. Any of these could cause your problem.
      Fuel: Petcock, fuel filter, air filter, carburetors and all the o-rings jets and moving parts involved. Fuel and air are mixed and delivered to the combustion chamber.
      Compression: Rings, valves and gaskets.
      You already know all that stuff and I am not trying to be a smartass, but when you look it all over trying to find the problem you consider all of it and hope for a lucky guess. Check the plugs. Are they all firing and how do they look. Lots of info about that in the forums. They will tell you if the fuel/air mix is bad and fouling them or if you are burning some oil indicating ring problems. go there first, then I'd suggest a look at the coils, wires and plug boots. I have four old bikes and love them all and keep them going by using that line of troubleshooting. I hope you find the gremlin. Let us know when you do!
      Lee

      Comment


        #4
        I would think fuel first. Petcock, Tank Vent, pinched line?
        If its not fuel maybe check timing advance is working, should explain how in manual.

        Comment


          #5
          Might check your floats on your carbs if they aren't keeping enough fuel in the bowls then one may be starving for fuel at high rpm's when it is under a load.

          Comment


            #6
            Odd about the battery, but i too am more inclined to think fuel. Is there a possibility of the carbies needing cleaned? How's your tank look inside? Any rust at all? could have started sucking up some sediment perhaps, and maybe check that petcock. Vac may be failing perhaps (dunno if this is possible, but seems fairly logical) and as it pulls hard under load, mayhaps sucking gas down the vac line overloading it?

            Comment


              #7
              Thanks for all the suggestions everyone as you have all given me at least a place in point to start. I am about to purchase the valve tool and finally check/make the long overdue valve adjustment(s) and then proceed to sync the carbs for once. Obviously I needed this tool a long time ago, even more so now, as I have caught the bug and purchased a GS1000L project a number of months ago, and will have that on my hands as well. So get ready for some more posts. \\/

              So let's see...the tank itself seems to be pretty clean on the inside. When I first purchased the bike I took the petcock apart and cleaned the little screen as there was some extremely fine sediment in there. Never had a problem with the petcock after that...not until now maybe. So the next step before the valve adj. and carb sync will be to go ahead and check that vacuum line and cut it down a bit so there isn't any question as to whether or not it is being pinched. I have looked at it before and it does seem to be a tad long and appears to be "squeezed" in the middle of the line when there is vacuum present. Hopefully I can find some time to go and donate some plasma this week and get a new petcock, change all the lines, and then not even worry about that end for another decade or so.

              I will post some updates as soon as I crank these options out. Maybe if I bribe JimCor he might be able to help me sometime seeing how he lives up in Lex Vegas :-\"
              Last edited by Guest; 12-31-2007, 07:17 PM.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by eastern View Post
                Thanks for all the suggestions everyone as you have all given me at least a place in point to start. I am about to purchase the valve tool and finally check/make the long overdue valve adjustment(s) and then proceed to sync the carbs for once. Obviously I needed this tool a long time ago, even more so now, as I have caught the bug and purchased a GS1000L project a number of months ago, and will have that on my hands as well. So get ready for some more posts. \\/

                So let's see...the tank itself seems to be pretty clean on the inside. When I first purchased the bike I took the petcock apart and cleaned the little screen as there was some extremely fine sediment in there. Never had a problem with the petcock after that...not until now maybe. So the next step before the valve adj. and carb sync will be to go ahead and check that vacuum line and cut it down a bit so there isn't any question as to whether or not it is being pinched. I have looked at it before and it does seem to be a tad long and appears to be "squeezed" in the middle of the line when there is vacuum present. Hopefully I can find some time to go and donate some plasma this week and get a new petcock, change all the lines, and then not even worry about that end for another decade or so.

                I will post some updates as soon as I crank these options out. Maybe if I bribe JimCor he might be able to help me sometime seeing how he lives up in Lex Vegas :-\"
                Do you guys get paid for your blood. We give ours for free over here. Different culture I guess. Or maybe we are cheap skates here in Oz.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Suzuki_Don View Post
                  Do you guys get paid for your blood. We give ours for free over here. Different culture I guess. Or maybe we are cheap skates here in Oz.
                  We dont get paid for blood. We donate blood. They pay for plasma over here.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Sorry. My bad. OOPS!!

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                      #11
                      S'all good my friend

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