Ignition Problem today.... 82 GS650

[Anonymous]

I was riding home and all of the sudden my number 1 and 4 (outside) pistons stopped firing. I could tell because the exhaust pipe quickly cooled.

When I giggled the spark plug wires (leads?), I got momentary spark and then nothing. Does this sound like my coil is burned out. Any other thought on why this might have happened, and better yet, how I can accuratly identify exactly what the problem is and how to resolve it.

Thanks for your help.
Aaron.

[Anonymous]

coils

pull the tank and check the connectors to the coils, if ok swap the coils around and see if the problem follows, could be the resistors in the end caps but unlikly that both would go bad at once

[Dark Jedi]

The wires from the ignition unit to the coils are... not Scottish.

Check the connectors and the wires. They may need replacing. An easy feat, and a good plan for a snowy day anyway.

[Anonymous]

OK, I have spark, but it isn't starting....

Thanks for your help. I tested out the ignition and it seems to be getting lots of spark....after pulling the plugs, I noticed the first cylinder (left most) was severely gummed up. I cleaned it up and put it back in. The other 3 spark plugs were clean and white.

However, I still can't get the darn thing to run. Could it just be flooded now? Argh....

Any help is greatly appreciated.
AR.

[Anonymous]

The horror, the horror.....

OK, I am more than a little embarrased to explain what happened, but since people are always more than willing to help out here, I'll be honest. It turns out that I ran out of gas, and my fuel gauge had stuck.

Also, when I was "jiggling" the leads, I seemed to get a burst of power. I guess I probably slowed down, allowing more fuel to accumulate and disperse to all cylinders. Also, when I ran out of fuel, the outside exhaust pipes were cool compared to the insider pipes. I thought this had to do with a coil burning out. I guess the fuel inlet disperses fuel inside to out.

Thanks for your help guys!
AR.

[RacingJake]

I've known a few folks that R/R carbs, injector racks, fuel pumps, boost pumps and even started to remove a turbine engine before they found out the first thing is to always check the fuel tank. It's something you can bragg about to the grand kids one day.

Even save a shop 10K when they where going to replace a -86 diesel engine that would not run right, problem was a stuck exhaust flapper valve. Those guys were working on the engine for days and took me 10 seconds to find the problem. They just needed a second set of eyes.

It's the simple things that are overlooked that cause most problems.