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Coils (Dare I Say It?): A Resolution
So I'm one of the many people who have been suffering from poor running lately. It started one day: idles, but won't pull through the bottom end, stuttering through the midrange. I was taking the bike apart for some other work, so I consulted the Haynes manual. It said it could be spark.
I tested everything with an Ohmmeter. Everything checks out fine except for the crank pickup. A little more investigation finds that the wire is broken. Aha! I fix the wire by pulling apart the connector. It's a temporary "fix," but it should isolate that part. It doesn't fix the problem.
Finally, I go to the dealer. They charge be a bunch of dough for basically a tune-up and tell me that it was just running rich, and it now just "has a little stumble" off idle. I get it back, and it still runs like crap. After some more discussion, they suggest that the coils may be weak, and the real, underlying problem. They also suggest gapping the plugs down to .020" to make it easier for the spark to jump the gap.
So I do this, and the bike runs much better, for a few days, but starts to deteriorate quickly.
During this time, I've also been here, reading posts about coils. Someone on the TBird forum points me to Nology coils. About this time, KitNYC's bike takes a big dumper, and he offers me his used coils.
I agonize about buying used electrical parts. And agonize.
And then I buy them.
He shipped them when he said he would, and they arrived when he said they'd arrive. They arrived wrapped in several layers of foam, but in a Priority Mail pouch. Finally, I get them installed, and the plugs gapped back out to .030.
It runs fantastic! It's like having my old bike back!
Summary:
1.if you're having rough running problems, try gapping your plugs to .020". If that helps, it may indicate your coils are going.
2. Don't be afraid to buy from KitNYC. Although I'd have preferred a box, they were still very carefully wrapped, and didn't suffer from shipment. He's got a second set of Nology coils that he bought when he thought that was the issue.
3. What are you waiting for?
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"Perfection comes not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."
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