saddlebum

Coil pack failures are less common then you may think as are TCI's. Ninety percent of the time the issue can be traced back to faulty or corroded wires and/or connectors. Having said that my favorite means of diagnosing is to start out by keeping things simple , rather than trying to get overly sophisticated (which can be overwhelming for some). Pull the plug wire If you do not have a spark tester (which are cheaply purchased at most any auto parts sources) insert a small screwdriver that will stay in place and than holding the shaft of the screw driver about 1/2 to 5/8 of an inch away from the engine block crank the engine a good spark should jump from the shaft of the screwdriver to the engine block. If not go to step 2 Remove the plug caps from the plug wire and check resistance through the cap. Place one probe of the ohmmeter into the wire end and one into the plug end. You should get a reading of about 10k ohms. If not replace. Remove and inspect all the connectors involved with the ignition system, specially the ones going to the TCI.. Even barely noticeable corrosion can be a source of electrical issue. Heavy green corrosion is easily noticed but if you look closely at the terminals you may notice what looks like a thin white or light green powder like coating on the terminals (this is known as fretting ) which believe it or not can interfere with good electric conductivity. Clean this terminals up as best you can (thin slivers of sandpaper wrapped over the end of a tiny screw driver or other very thin and tiny metal object combined with a good electrical cleaner are most effective here. To prevent further corrosion spray with something like ACF50 (my personal favorite available through some bike shops and amazon) or thin coating of dielectric grease. If you still don't have spark than you need to get into checking voltages and coil resistance. Check the red black wire at each coil. With ign switch on you should have 12 volts follow the checks in the attached PDF ign system chk 96 -2001.pdf

getting back to your opening question Stay in bed don't get up

Rear end grinding noises can come be from several causes. Brakes worn to the metal can make one heck of a grinding noise failing u-joints in the drive tube failing bearings anywhere in the drive line Middle drive gear cam drive assembly in the middle drive gear section Try putting the bike on the center stand and while someone is manually rotating the the rear wheel try listening for the source. Keeping in mind that driveline noises can telegraph along the driveline make it sound like the source is coming from a different location than it actually is.

That is correct

Your are correct . though the wire threads into the plug boot it only pushes straight in to the coil and then held in place with the rubber grommet and nut. I also mentioned earlier about inspecting the removable parts of the plug boot. here is a pic of all pulled apart.

Just apply mine towards my membership fees.

I have seen times when we finally figured out a way to work around a nasty piece of engineering only to have them redesign it and toss in a new stumbling block......I swear they do this on purpose and then sit back and snicker at us.

So very true. Many times he would make the trip himself and deliver the parts in person. First time I met Bob in person was when my bike got run off the road in 2007. He PM'd me to see what parts I needed. Next thing I know he shows up at the truck shop I work at with some of the needed parts for my bike and refused to even take gas money for running them up. Bongo Bob was one of a kind and I am sure a special place was made for him when he left us behind RIP Brother we sure do miss you.

I have always been of the opinion that I would like to shake their hand. To screw up some of the things as bad as what I have seen over the years had to take some serious planning. No way could some of these screw ups happen by accident.

Looking good so far

I have the same regarding distance plus customs. It was great when I could place an order with him and then either meet him at a rally or arrange a chain of hand offs with other mmembers. The one incident that curbed my cross border orders was when thanks to our greedy Canadian Government plus shipping a $250.00 windshield cost me $460.00 . So even though I am not in the best position to always purchse from @skydoc_17. I will always vouch for him to those who are able to.

As long as the bike cranks over well, hot or cold, I would not be too concerned as to which starter it has. However if you do have a hot cranking issue than it would be a good idea to look into it and upgrade to a 4 brush if needed.

Glad to hear things are improving for you however slow it may be.

Something to keep in mind here, the reason passing lights (also referred to as road lights ) are wired to come on only with the high beams, is because in some States and Provinces, it is illegal to run passing/road lights during times when it is required to run low beams only. This is why in most cases it is required by law that these lights automatically switch off when switching to low beams. They also go so far in some States and Provinces to state it is illegal to run passing/road lights and/or fog lights by themselves without the appropriate low or high beam being on at the same time, another reason why they are wired the way they are. On vehicles that run both fog lights and road lights you will find that the fog lights come on when switching to low beam and switch over to passing/road lights when switching to high beams

Good to know @Dano

Man that really sucks I hope things turn around for you soon.

Bubbling is not a good sign, you are boiling your battery you may want to check your fluid level. This is usually an indication that you are over charging your battery (even at two amps the charger could be putting out too much voltage for the battery). The other cause of a boiling battery is that it is just no good, possibly internally shorted out due to sediment build up in the battery ( if it is just a lead acid battery you could try dropping an aspirin in each cell, Its an old trick but it does sometimes work I once got an extra year out of a car battery with this trick).

Before I got the battery tender I used a trickle charger in conjunction with a timer switch. I set the timer to turn the charger on for two hours every day, (i never remove the battery) cover the bike (it sits outside all winter) and left it until spring . Then when I got the 1.25 battery tender I just plug it into the bike and again forget about it until spring. Come spring the bike fired right up and the battery worked great. Not sure how old that battery was before I replaced it with the DEKA battery as it was in the bike when I bought it but I still got three years out of it plus whatever was on it prior my purchasing the bike. This is year 7 on my DECKA AGM battery and it is still working great. I still have never removed the battery and the bike still sits out under cover all winter hooked up to the battery tender, so I would say IMHO that its not necessary to remove it. you may however in the case of a regular lead acid battery want to check the water level every once in a while, though I must admit I never have.

Hope all works out.

When it comes to brake hoses I don't mess around. I had one aftermarket SS hose burst on me during a brake application. So my advice cheap out somewhere else but not on brake hoses. Nothing like loosing your brakes on a steep down hill sharp bend to drive that point home. I used to have a great head of hair until that happened.

This is very true and I myself have happily dealt with him on several occasions. However, though I may be wrong, I was under the impression that he only provided the de-link kits for !st Gens and he out sourced the manufacturing of the lines he used to put together these kits. It had not occurred to me that he may be able to provide custom lines for anything else. I guess this is were @skydoc_17should chime in and enlighten us or maybe just me.

Unfortunately I am grounded for a while. A small scrape on my shin ended up with an infection which turned into a severe case of cellulitis in my leg resulting in a 1-1/2 x 3 inch section of dead meat which had to be surgically removed. After eleven days of being hooked up to two portable IV units of two different antibiotics, I am now hooked up to a portable vacuum wound therapy unit. If I am lucky I may be able to squeeze a couple rides in near the end of the summer.

Welcome to the funny farm, You will pretty much find anything you need to know here and the help is always in big supply.

Welcome to the forum. It always good to see another Ontario rider join the nut house.

I have used a local shop by simply taking my old hoses in and having them make matching hoses out of stainless and the pricing was less than OEM. They have also made custom hoses for me from detailed drawings and spec's that I have provided. I would like to point out It is important to keep in mind that both the shop and their equipment must be government certified to make brake hoses. Not all shops equipped to make hydraulic hose are fully certified to make up brake hoses. Also check out some of the automotive performance shops, some of them are either certified or know of a place that is certified to make up stainless brake hoses. Some hose specialty shops may be certified or be able to refer you to a shop that is.