Jump to content
IGNORED

89 ignition problems only got good spark on 1 cyl

Vonwolf
 Share

Recommended Posts

Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm trying to get my bike going its been sitting for a long time, I've had a long running issue with the starting system its never been dependable so I pretty much gave up on it. Well another thread on another members starter switch problems got me looking at mine and long story short I jerry rigged it up so it now will dependably crank with no problems, its still not %100 correct but it works.

So now I'm trying to get it running, I had a heck of a time at first, needed to clean the carbs out some ether & its running, not good but it ran. I could tell it wasn't running on all cylinders but I thought it was just dirty fuel system so I let it run and run seafoam, carb cleaner the works. After a while I could tell it was more than the fuel system.

I pulled the plugs and only 1 cylinder look right, nice & dry with just a touch of brown on the ceramic.The rest were wet and covered in black suit. I check them for spark & no surprise only the 1 cylinder had a good spark, the rest nothing. I tried WD & checking the connections and got 2 of the cylinders showed a weak spark and the 4th didn't have enough spark to jump the gap on the plug just spark at the ground a little. I'm not real familiar with this type of ignition system so I was hoping some one here might have some suggestions.

 

Sorry this dragged out so long.

Thanks Pete

Edited by Vonwolf
Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Take a flat blade screwdriver and go inside the plug wire caps and remove ends and clean them. Be carefull and don't loose little parts and springs in there.

 

Thanks Dan I'll give it a shot 1st thing tomorrow

 

Pete

Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
Me thinks it's time to replace those 23 year old wires along with a new set of plugs...

 

Ya I agree I hope its something this simple but I'm usually not that Lucky.

Where can I get a set of wires, can I use regular Automotive 8mm wires?

 

Thanks Pete

Edited by Vonwolf
Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have NGK caps and there doesn't seem to be a slot for a screwdriver on the plug end? I checked for continuity and thats is a problem on 1 of the boots, I have infinite Resistance or if I mess with it I can get a reading but not good so these boots ether have to come apart or replaced, I hope I can at least get them apart to try to clean them. Can These NGK ends come apart or are they shot?

 

Thanks Pete

dingy

dingy

Posted
Posted
Ya I agree I hope its something this simple but I'm usually not that Lucky.

Where can I get a set of wires, can I use regular Automotive 8mm wires?

 

Thanks Pete

 

I think stock wires are 7mm. I know 8mm will fit in coil end caps, but it is a very snug fit. I don't have coil wires any more, so I can't verify.

 

In my opinion, you don't need resistor caps & resistor spark plugs, which stock plugs are.

 

Go to your favorite parts store and see what they have for a 4 cylinder car that is 7 or 8mm and boot fits spark plug. Make sure lengths are good.

 

If you take a razor blade & cut a crosscut on the coil end about an 1/8" deep it will help aftermarket wire slide on prong inside coil.

 

Gary

Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted
You can buy a nice ready to go set on Fleabay for around $50 that are of good quality and even come with a set of plugs!

 

I was looking there earlier is the $50 a good price with the coils or just the plug wires alone. I'm also a little worried I'm just buying more old plug wires like mine.

 

thanks Pete

twigg

twigg

Posted
Posted
I was looking there earlier is the $50 a good price with the coils or just the plug wires alone. I'm also a little worried I'm just buying more old plug wires like mine.

 

thanks Pete

 

That's not what he meant.

 

There is an eBay seller who sells brand new plug/wire combos. They are about $30 plus shipping and yes, the price is competitive.

Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Well the more I looked the worse it looked. Mike sent me some great suggestions and I've pretty much taken the whole bike a part it seems.. I removed the battery tray so I could get a good look at the TCI connections and it was a mess so I'm in the proses of relocating it to the top of the air cleaner and cleaning the whole thing up.

 

I'm sure I saw a thread on relocating the TCI box to the top of the air cleaner, if anyone remembers the thread that would be a big help I've done a few searches but I must not be wording it right.

 

I think I'll do as Gary suggested and pick up a 4 cylinder auto set and replace these old wires that I'm sure are junk. I guess I'll read up on testing the coils as I had to take the faring off to get to them and I don't want to do this again.

Pete

Edited by Vonwolf
Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted

 

Thanks Dan I found this set searching ebay and they look good but I want to get things going on this so I'm hoping I can find something like this locally but this will be my back up plan.

 

Thanks Pete

Venturous Randy

Venturous Randy

Posted
Posted

I'm sure I saw a thread on relocating the TCI box to the top of the air cleaner, if anyone remembers the thread that would be a big help I've done a few searches but I must not be wording it right.

 

 

I moved my TCI to the wall in the left fairing area. My bike is a standard and I had plenty of room.

RandyA

bongobobny

bongobobny

Posted
Posted

The TCI relocation is pretty much straight forward. There is enough lead length but you may have to reroute it slightly for extra room. You have to break off one of the "ears" to make it fit on top of the airbox and get the false tank cover on. A single self tapping screw and a washer is all that's needed to secure it to the top of the box.

jasonm.

jasonm.

Posted
Posted (edited)
I have NGK caps and there doesn't seem to be a slot for a screwdriver on the plug end? I checked for continuity and thats is a problem on 1 of the boots, I have infinite Resistance or if I mess with it I can get a reading but not good so these boots ether have to come apart or replaced, I hope I can at least get them apart to try to clean them. Can These NGK ends come apart or are they shot?

 

Thanks Pete

FIRST-NGK caps should have 5000 ohms. I personally had all 4 NGK caps on mine fail less than 2 years old...also infinite resistance. The OEM caps are much higher quality and the NEW price also high. You can get cheap NGKS again to get it running. Once running spend the money on OEMS caps. FYI- OEM caps are suppose to be 10k ohms. Do NOT use Automotive wires. 8mm will not properly fit the coils. Plus auto wires have the resistance built into the wires, rather than the caps. Plus auto-caps are not made for the "stud" contact like your NGK and OEMS. I see many new and old Venture coils on ebay with the spark caps and wires. Wires...a good Auto parts store will have the copper core type wire. Store by me sells "hypalon" 19 strand wire fore 36 cents / foot. It's good stuff. Dennis Kirk sells the same stuff for much more $$.

Edited by jasonm.
Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well I dug down to the TCI unit and it was quite a mess, I'm surprised it ran at all I really don't think it ever ran on all 4 cylinders. It was all kinds of fun getting the TCI out of there the screws securing the TCI were of coarse froze tight. oh boy. Well I got it off and cleaned it up and am now under taking the task of finding some plug wires that is proving to be more difficult as all the auto parts stores I went to acted like I wanted a flux capacitor for a Delonian, needless to say I had no luck so I guess I go the Fleaybay rout.

I really think this will work out great, the bike never was very dependable and was pretty much useless to me so if this gets the bike to be a dependable ride I'll be riding the tires off it as it was indented to to.

 

Pete

jasonm.

jasonm.

Posted
Posted

I also have an '87VR. I have run into the no spark issue due the caps...as described before. You need to go to a LOCAL not national parts store. Of the nation chans- NAPA may have the wire. IT'S ON A SPOOL "7mm Packard" is one brand. Not a set for specific cars. Sometimes power equipment shops may have the wire. Custom shops also shoul would have it for custom "hot rods", for the guys who make their own complete leads.But seriously...it's on a spool.They cut what you need. Do not use 8mm because it is resistive radio supression wire. These can have issues making a good contact at the coil.

Vonwolf

Vonwolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I also have an '87VR. I have run into the no spark issue due the caps...as described before. You need to go to a LOCAL not national parts store. Of the nation chans- NAPA may have the wire. IT'S ON A SPOOL "7mm Packard" is one brand. Not a set for specific cars. Sometimes power equipment shops may have the wire. Custom shops also shoul would have it for custom "hot rods", for the guys who make their own complete leads.But seriously...it's on a spool.They cut what you need. Do not use 8mm because it is resistive radio supression wire. These can have issues making a good contact at the coil.

 

I'll try a couple more places tomorrow I'm just kind of vehicular-ally challenged right now as my truck is in the shop, Earl(skydoc 17) just made me a great offer on some coils & a good TCI unit so I might just go the FleBay rout for the wires. I'll get this thing going one way or the other.

The biggest problem I'm having is getting the boots it just seems to bewilder the auto parts stores I'v been to so far.

Pete

jasonm.

jasonm.

Posted
Posted (edited)

do not assume...just because the wires are old....making them bad. I did not change my wires till the bike had over 70k miles on it, 6 years ago. Honestly made no diff on how it ran. The OEM wires are good copper core wires. Often all you need to is cut the end at the cap back 1/4". The twist the cap back on. But 1st check the resistance of the cap. You said yours are "open". So findiong good ones are key. Also the spark plugs can go bad too. I also had many NGK spark plugs go bad. Blow out the area around the spark plug and remove the spark plugs. Clean the tips. A few strokes with fine(600) sandpaper is good. Spark plugs also are to be 5000 ohms. But can vary as much as 2000 ohms from this. EX: had Autolites vary from 3300 to 7200 ohms. Denso 5000-6500 ohms. NGKs are usually the best at being closest to 5000 ohms. But with so many recent failures w/NGK I have moved to Denso. Note: the coils on Ventures are known to crack, but can still function ...to a point. FYI- cracking is caused by the spark energy having no where ot go...due to the spark plugs or caps being bad. TYhis causes the coil to over heat. Which I have also seen on cars for the same reasons (aka bad wire assy).So, in your case the coils could also be suspect. So, from my experiences, the usual problems or causes are the caps or plugs. Then move on to the coils.

Edited by jasonm.
jasonm.

jasonm.

Posted
Posted
Good one Jason. I replaced my wires just because they were 25 yrs old. The end caps fail a lot more than the wires do. Rick's on here keeps those in stock.

I agree and the OEM caps are cleanable. The only issue that cannot be fixed on OEM is if the resistoance is too high. Because the resistance goes UP as the resistor is shorter...go figure. So cleaning the resistor usually does not help....it hurts. So only clean w/#1500 or 2000 paper

twigg

twigg

Posted
Posted
Well I dug down to the TCI unit and it was quite a mess, I'm surprised it ran at all I really don't think it ever ran on all 4 cylinders. It was all kinds of fun getting the TCI out of there the screws securing the TCI were of coarse froze tight. oh boy. Well I got it off and cleaned it up and am now under taking the task of finding some plug wires that is proving to be more difficult as all the auto parts stores I went to acted like I wanted a flux capacitor for a Delonian, needless to say I had no luck so I guess I go the Fleaybay rout.

I really think this will work out great, the bike never was very dependable and was pretty much useless to me so if this gets the bike to be a dependable ride I'll be riding the tires off it as it was indented to to.

 

Pete

 

O'Reillys if you have one, has a Universal Fit set of wires and caps for $15.

 

The wires are enough to do at least two bikes and they are 7mm Tinned Copper Core, Silicone sheathed. They should be just fine.

 

Amazon has the NGK Caps ... You want the waterproof ones:

 

NGK 8641 and 8325

 

Should keep you going for a while.

 

I just got my wires off .... They are dated 1985 .... time for a change.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...