Triumphrat

Michael A

Hey all;
I'm pissed, frustrated, and need some advice:
03 T100, TOR, Uni Filter, 10K miles. 120 mains, 1 shim under needle. Here's the problem... it keeps fouling the left plug! Float level is checked, float needle and seat are good, no vacuum leaks, air injection stuff off by previous owner. All valves within specs. When it runs, it runs GREAT! But then, and getting oftener and oftener, it DIES. Left plug fouled! Right one fine!. Put in new plugs, runs like a champ for about 50 miles then BAM it dies again, same symptoms. I ohmed the coils, and got a suspiciously high reading or 256K across the plug lead caps. Each cap and wire ohms out OK and I even tried swapping them. When its dead and I'm cranking it over and stick a plug in the left lead, I do get a visual spark (as I do on the other side). Is it possible for "half" an OE coil to go bad? Is my ohm reading way out of line??? Arggggjhhhh.... I'm sick of pushing this thing back up the street!

Michael A

In my heated frustration I forgot to mention.... When I got the bike from the PO, the carbs were stock, but he had put on the TOR mufflers. It sill fouled its left plug and I chalked it up to original plugs. I added the jets as detailed in the above post, and reilled out the caps to get to the mixture screws. They were originally at 2.5 turns out, and you could smell the gas at idle. Seems to want to run best right at .75 to 1 turn out. I didn't check the pilot jets (kicking myself). Also I live at 3,000msl, bike previously lived at around 800msl.

bonnieblackinfl

It sounds like your pilots are too big if you are only .75 - 1 turn out. Check your jets, I bet you have 45 pilots in there. If you do, go with 42's.

Greg

edit: The main jet size does not factor in, idle or normal riding.

uzidzit

First I will say I hate electrical problems, like a ghost in the machine some times.
yes you can get periodic failure of only one side of the coil, seen it on harleys.
A lot of times a resistance check will be ok on a marginal component that is really just going bad. Seeing the spark in daylight will not tell you much as it looks ok even when it is weak!, this is because as the pressure in the cylinder goes up it gets harder to propagate the spark. Plug wires that are bad will often look good and test good out of the system, even when they are really not. Air cooled engines are really hard on wires at the plug end, and plugs
Now my stupid question did you check to see if the pilot screw has turned out, and have you removed the float to see if it really floats, I had a suzuki GSX 250 tscc 1979 that had the same problem and the float was sinking!

I can check the resistance on my plug wires tomorrow and let you know, Pm me if you would like me to do so.

just saw your added info +1 on the pilots being too large.

__________________
"Peter, It seems like you have been missing a lot of work recently, well Bob I wouldn't say that I've been missing it"
ENOUGH, go out and ride!

Stealth

This sounds like a pilot jet problem I would also check your air filter for the fun of it and see if its soaked with gas.

__________________
Put your arms and legs inside the ride at all times!

Stealth

125 main /42 pilot /Predators /K&N air/Mobil1 oil & filter

ohiorider

By gosh, you have been around bikes for a while, haven't you? Congrats for a well thought out response to this problem. Analytical, and it considers many potential problems.

Bob

__________________
2003 T100 (790cc) Lucifer Org and Silv: 122/42 jets, TORs, 17T, UNI filter, no AI, Polaris bellmouth, Metzeler ME880 tires, Progressive 440 shocks (105/150 springs),11-1126 fork springs, gaiters, MotoTwin low bars, 6024 lamp, htd grips, 12v outlet.

Michael A

Based on one of the above posts, I pulled my pilot jets. Surprise Surprise! They both be 45's!!!! Now how the heck did they get out of the factory like that? I am almost 100% certain the PO didn't ever mess with the carbs. Anybody got some 40's laying around they arn't using?????

uzidzit

Pm me an address and they are yours, I run 42 with my D&D's

__________________
"Peter, It seems like you have been missing a lot of work recently, well Bob I wouldn't say that I've been missing it"
ENOUGH, go out and ride!

bonnieblackinfl

If I remember correctly, when TOR's first came out the kit came w/45 pilots. The mech. that installed the cans probably installed the jets that came w/ the kit.

Greg

Michael A

First, a big THANK YOU to uzidzit for sending me his unused 40 pilot jets, I think I'm going to need them. I did an "all nighter" in the garage getting to the bottom of this, and I am closing in. It was a rough night, ran out of smokes at 2 am, then coffee at 3 am... oh well...
My initial suspicion was the coil, as we'll see - I don't think that is it...
1) Found a loose connection, left plug lead to coil. Crimped the metal thingy on the end of the cable so it got a better bite on the pin in the coil tower. Did the same on both sides. Lowered cap to cap resistance dramatically!
2) "Crossed" the plug leads to see if my fouling would swap sides (it didn't).
3) Put dielectric grease on the ecu connectors (hey, I'm desperate...)
4) Found float level on the suspect side a bit high - set to the lower end of the acceptable range. Did determine that the float really still does float.
5) "Borrowed" a set of 42 pilot jets from the local Harley shop and put them in. Found that bike idled pretty good with the screws turned all the way in! But running that way was helping to lean out my low speed running.
6) "borrowed" the dyno from the local Harley shop and found that my 120 mains are good all the way to redline AFTER I pulled out the one needle shim I was using. Only in the bottom 1/4 or so am I rich.
7) Hoping the 40 pilots will get me back to "adjustment range" with the pilot screws.
8) Oh, I pulled my air filter to see if there was a gas or oil puddle in the airbox. Bone dry.
I chalk all of this up to altitude (specifically, density altitude) which has been calculated out to be close to 5,000 feet given temp/humidity lately.
Crap, looks like I've lapped back almost to a stock configuration! Anybody have any high-altitude tuning advice they care to venture???