| Author |
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Cabuc
| | Posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 06:24 am: | 
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I'm trying to figure out why my 98 S1W keeps instantly fouling its spark plugs with gas. I followed all the procedures in my shop manual, and after a week of taking apart the carb, testing compression, messing with the ignition coil, gas line etc., I've finally found an anomaly.
It's the 3-pin connector between the cam position sensor and the ignition module. It's supposed to have 12 volts, but I'm getting only 4.8V at most. I checked for a spark as well, and though it did shock me, there was no obvious visible spark...I checked the ground strap and it appears fine and seems to be on tight. I tested the resistance of the module and there was none from what I could see. I replaced the ignition module anyways because it's the top suspect, but the voltage is still 4.8!
So my question is where do I go from here? Cause I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance guys!
Additional info: Correlating events that might have caused this was I replaced the battery a month before when it went bad, and when *sigh...* the bike was knocked over onto its right side 2 days before the problems occurred. |
Cabuc
| | Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 - 04:38 am: |
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I got a spark! Yay! Well. Not quite yay. It does start and warms up just fine, but when I let up on the choke and try the throttle, it starts coughing and vapors come out of the air intake. It does idle, though under 1000rpm and on the verge of stalling. So...what do I do about this? |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 - 12:00 pm: |
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Did you check the timing? |
Sparky
| | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2010 - 04:03 pm: |
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Most likely your idle jet is partially clogged or gummed up as idling with the choke (enrichener) pulled out would indicate.
The fix is to drop the float bowl, remove the idle jet and clean it with appropriate cleaners/solvents.
If you have it apart this far, I'd suggest cleaning the other jets in that jet cluster.
Have you done anything to verify the integrity of the carb manifold-to-heads seals? If either of those are leaking, even in the slightest, that can contribute to the problems you are having. |
Cabuc
| | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2010 - 02:16 am: |
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I did take apart the entire carb and cleaned every part. I also checked the float, which seemed well-adjusted. However when I put the idle jet back in, I screwed it in all the way. It's screwed 2 1/2 turns back now and it helped a little. I didn't check the seals you mentioned yet, but I'll try anything at this point.
Now I just tried testing its timing. While I spent 5-10 minutes squinting into a tiny hole with a strobe trying to figure out what I'm looking at, the timing light starting randomly cutting out, eventually cutting out completely. To make sure I didn't buy a bad timing light, I connected it to the rear spark plug and it was flashing like it should. I checked the spark plugs, and to my surprise they were dry.
Does this mean the ignition coil, one of the first things I checked, has gone bad? |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2010 - 09:03 am: |
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Its a single fire ignition, so if the back is working the front should be working, meaning the coil is happy... how does the spark plug wire look? |
Cabuc
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - 05:22 am: |
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The spark plug wire has a little rust on the plug end and is reading infinite ohms. So I'll be replacing that. Call me a pessimist, but I have a feeling that won't solve the last of the bike's problems. |
Cabuc
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 08:22 pm: |
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Yup. So I replaced the plug cable and the problems still persist. So...I give up. I've been at it for over a month with no positive results. So I'll just have it towed to shop. Like you guys said, it probably needs timing and/or jet adjustments or something else tiny and inexpensive, but I don't have much experience, time (or patience) left on this.
Thanks for the advice guys! I'll update you on what actually went wrong. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Thursday, November 04, 2010 - 11:43 am: |
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Well, worth a try! Good luck! |
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Gas-fouled spark plugs