Coil Issues..

[Anonymous]

Scotty, I have no idea why they fouled, but as soon as I changed all of them out it ran fine. To be honest with you I am pretty new to this plug fouling phenomenon, I was just about to surf the web to find out what exactly causes fouled plugs. I still think that I am having tuning problems and need to address them, I was hoping that getting more volts to the coils would give a more complete combustion and help lean out my plugs, but after yesterdays ride they are still black and sooty. I have the air screw turned out two and a half turns and will maybe try another half turn.

Scott

[Anonymous]

Please look at the plugs after each time you ride the bike ((starting right away))
and you may find that you are running rich. Let us know the color of each one the plugs ASAP and often. We all truly enjoy the learning experience.

[Anonymous]

You got it Scotty, here are the results of the plugs, I just checked em after another twenty miler, asd I turned the airscrews out a half turn on each carburetor, they all are at 3 turns out from bottom.

1 - Black sooty and a little wet, not dry and fluffy. This cyinder smells like gas more then the others upon removal of the plug
2 - Black, sooty, powdery but the insulator is now showing signs of going to a tan color (progress??)
3 - Black, sooty, same as number 2
4 - Black, not quite as sooty as other three, in fact the insulator is definetely showing signs of brown to tan in coloration.

Would a higher octane gas help? I am currently running 85
I am confident that the cylinders are carboned up, what is the best additive to remove this, I saw on an earlier post form a month ago but cannot find it now..

Let me now your thoughts on this. I am ruling out incomplete combustion from inadequate voltage to the coils, I am now at 11.4V at both coils.

Float height possibly?, I have not monkeyed with those, I did a full dip and replaced all o-rings in carbs. Synched them also. I did have the floats off but ws very careful when replacinf them and did not bend or disrupt the tang on the floats.

Scott

[Anonymous]

I always just fool with my needles but my carbs were originally set by an expert and all i do is tweak them from time to time.. you better get the advice of others on this one.
The one thing that comes to mind first is when were the carbs worked on last and what was done to them? Also has anything at all been done to the engine recently??? Do you drive too slowly((lug the engine))

[Anonymous]

Scotty

Nothing major done to the engine, in fact nothing done to it at all.., and I was the one who followed the carb cleaning series verbatim from this website (it was great), even used compressed air. As far as lugging the engine, I can, with confidence, say no, it is not as if I red line it either but I take it into the high rpms from time to time and usually shift at higher RPMs. The country around here, Jackson Hole Wyoming, is hilly and the passes are fun to drive in low gears and pushing it. 8) ,,,.. I will continue to work on this and keep you posted about plug colors, hopefully tomorrow will bring another nice day to ride, they are numbered around here...

The plug fouling thing blows me away, it came on suddenly like a heart attack. She is acting alright now albeit rich. Running out of ideas so if anyone is inclined please buzz in.


And Scotty, you had inquired about when and why they fouled, all I can say is that it started acting up after I cut the connector off and soldered the wires together at the coil, just before the coil actually, maybe this has something to do with it.

Thanks again for everyones input in advance

Earl.....are you there,,,come in Earl...... :roll: :roll:

Still Hopefull..... aka Scott

[Anonymous]

Hi All

On a semi related link.....when I rebuilt my carbs I did take the floats off, I did however not recheck the float height because I never messed with them, just put them back in place after cleaning carbs. All o-rings were removed and replaced with Robert Barr o-rings. Should I have checked the float height even if I did not mess with them?????

Scott

[Anonymous]

Hi All

On a semi related link.....when I rebuilt my carbs I did take the floats off, I did however not recheck the float height because I never messed with them, just put them back in place after cleaning carbs. All o-rings were removed and replaced with Robert Barr o-rings. Should I have checked the float height even if I did not mess with them?????

Scott

My first guess will be if you go that far you should always check the floats. You could have disrurbed them and some spacing when you did the o rings.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Scotty
I think that I will ride it in its current state and carry some extra plugs for the next couple of months, you see, summers are short here and one must take advantage of the weather while its here. This winter will see a removal of the carbs and a correct adjustment of the floats.

Scott

[Anonymous]

Thanks Scotty
I think that I will ride it in its current state and carry some extra plugs for the next couple of months, you see, summers are short here and one must take advantage of the weather while its here. This winter will see a removal of the carbs and a correct adjustment of the floats.

Scott

Keep the rpms up. Wind it up a little more that normal when going through the gears.


Do 6000 rpm launches from each stoplight. 8O 8O 8O

[Billy Ricks]

Would a higher octane gas help? I am currently running 85

Higher octane fuel will lean it out. It's less dense so it does lean carburation out some. As for getting rid of carbon some guys are pulling the filters of the carbs and giving the cylinders a misting of water to blast out the carbon. Sea-Foam in your gas is supposed to work too. And float level on CVs is important. Sounds like the pilots are too far out as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks you guys. Scotty, after the third stoplight I saw red lights flashing four blocks behind me, those 6000 rpm takeoffs draw attention....

Billy, I have the pilots seated all the way, this is how I found them and that is how I returned them, is this right???

I do notice that gas from one station in my truck makes a diiference, it runs better on Chevron then any other gas, I believe the past few tanksfuls have been Phillips 66 that I have put in my bike. My brother worked for Amoco a while back and insists that Chevron has the best consistency in gasoline octane, unfortunately there is not one for 50 miles near me.

On another note, we all should avoid filling up while the big truck is delivering gas to the station, this stirs up all kinds of crap in the bottom of the tanks which inevitably goes onto our tanks.

Scott

[Anonymous]

OK, I have been gone a week on a business trip, when I left the bike ran great, I had turned the airscrewas out a little and was finally getting some color on cylinders 2 and 3 spark plugs. Upon returning from my trip I started up the bike and she ran on two cylinders, 3 and 4. I removed the spark plugs and 1 was alittle wet wtih gas, 2 was black and little wet, 3 and 4 were black and sooty. What causes this to happen? it sat a week without running and now this plug fouling thing again...ARGHH

Scott

1980 GS 750E

[AOD]

my older 550 used to do that if it sat for over a week. i fouled two sets of plugs when i had the bike taken apart for a while. surprisingly i just picked the bike up from sitting for over a month, and it started up! it ran pig rich, so i figured i'd have to change plugs...boy was i happy.

try this, i dont know if your 80 uses the same plugs as my 79 550...but originally its supposed to use NGK B8ES plugs. the shop didn't have them one time, and sold be B8RES plugs, and said they'd work the same. i noticed they were colored a bit different then the B8ES. these plugs were what i had sitting in the bike for over a month without fouling.

maybe give the R type NGK plugs a try! worth a shot, right?

~Adam

[Anonymous]

Adam

Thanks for the reply, I will try them and see if it helps, but I got a feelin that the problem is deeper then that.... I am probably going to have to take the carbs off again and check the float level. I was also going to purchase Dyna ignition and coils in the near future. My spark is alittle anemic.

One thing of note: When I pull the plug on cylinder #1 (the biggest problem cylinder), the spark is non existent or very sporadic until I rev it to around 2000 RPM or more, then I have a little yellow spark. After replacing plugs it fires on all of them when I start it, then they eventually foul out after a while. I checked the coils and they check out, in fact cylinders 3 and 4 fire all the time and actually have a little tan color to the plugs.

hmmm

Scott

[AOD]

not enough spark will cause plugs to foul...that is a given. what you can try is changing the plug wires by swapping 1 and 4 then 2 and 3, and see if the problem continues on the swapped cylinders. if it doesn't change anything, then you know you have a problem with the carbs on those cylinders.

~Adam