Triumphrat

ivar · 07-19-2008, 02:05 PM

Yesterday me & the girlfriend left for vacation, and after a lunch break, it was harder than usual to start. It ran rough and popped/backfired. And had short bursts of "normal power".

After some quick troubleshooting, I found that the right cyl. were dead. And probably ign related as I could smell raw gas coming from the pipe. Then the quest started to find a suitable 18mm spark plug wrench - which did prove very difficult- 16mm and 21mm wrenches were available in abundance at every gas station.

Limped away on one cyl. , thinking it would be easier to get proper help at our desination. Finally found a guy with a 18mm wrench, got the plug out and checked for spark. No visible spark at all. Tried a different plug , same result.
Then pulled the tank and swapped the HT leads coming from the coil. Got spark thru both leads, but only from the left connector on the coil.

Did a search, and did not find anyone with a similar experience, in most other cases the culprit seems to have been a faulty HT lead.

Then my other question - Is there any other readily available coils than can substitute the OEM? Like, e.g. from a jap cruiser or something? (No Triumph dealers in this area - think the closest is 800 miles away...)

Skull Crusher · 07-19-2008, 02:12 PM

There is a Nology Coil and HD wires or you can use your stock wires.

Cheers

Jeff

mikeinva · 07-19-2008, 07:30 PM

yep the coil is bad must be arking to ground on that side because theses motors fire both plugs together on a 360 motor.

PAAS · 07-20-2008, 05:26 PM

The Nology coil is manufactured by PVL in Germany and is the same coil they produce as a replacement for BMWs with the twin spark head (they use two but we use only one). This is a place in the UK that supplies them, but I would imagine you might get them from a BMW dealer or specialist in Norway - http://www.motobins.co.uk/displayfin...IGNITION+COILS

It's part number 70506 near the bottom of the page. Art. No. 356 1 00 is written on the coil. It's a direct "plug and play" replacement for the original Gill coil using the original HT leads, etc... I have one on my T100 and it works fine, it's also significantly cheaper than buying from a Triumph dealer.

Hope this helps you get back to your holiday. Have a good one!

ivar · 07-20-2008, 06:08 PM

Thanks Paul,
tomorrow we´ll embark on the "coastal express" with the bike, back to base - where I just had the bike serviced by the local BMW dealer. I´ll ask them if they have those in stock, or take long time to get.

bikebits · 07-20-2008, 08:25 PM

I had the exact same thing happen last week, started to misfire on the right cylinder. Only 3300 km on the bike, got it new in March. Dropped it at the dealer on Friday to get it fixed under warranty. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

NorthernThrux · 07-21-2008, 12:07 PM

I have the stock coil and Nology wires. Just switched from NGK stock plugs to the Iridiums. I noticed that the Nology wires, which were put on within 300 km of new, are already looking a little baked where they leave the coil and turn up over the frame before coming back down onto the plugs. I have only 1980 km on the bike. Checked this morning after a short ride and it sure is hot under there. I would not be surprised to see coil failures or lead failures given the temps these components are seeing. I'm thinking something nice and reflective might be in order for underneath the tank of these air cooled bikes.

Iceseven · 07-21-2008, 12:15 PM

Yeah the stock coils are notorious for failing, had one fail on my former Bonnie at only 700 miles. Triumph has drug it's heels with this issue then I found this that was issued by Triumph.

This seems to have come from Triumph.

"Affected Models: Bonneville/T100, America, Speedmaster, Thruxton and Scrambler.
Should a bike (see above) demonstrate faulty ignition coil type symptoms (most commonly an engine misfire), please initially check and adjust the ignition pick-up (IPU) air gap (we recommend an air gap of 0.8mm).
Since changing the IPU air gap in production to 0.8mm, we have had no ignition coil warranty claims."

So may be worth checking that gap when you get your new coil.

NorthernThrux · 07-21-2008, 12:34 PM

Interesting. The Haynes manual states 0.8 to 1.2 mm. Looks like the 1.2 was a bit generous. I wonder whether this is why some bikes occasionally cut out at idle or misfire (mine included). If the pickup coil is at it's furthest tolerance, it may be that there isn't enough inductance change to trigger the ignition coil. No problems at higher revs I can attest. I'm going to pull the alternator cover and check.

NorthernThrux · 07-21-2008, 02:19 PM

OK. I checked and indeed my gap was over 1 mm. Reset to 0.8. Didn't make any difference. My imagination tells me the idle is smoother, but take that FWIW. BTW, misfire went away with a 1/4 turn out of the fuel screws, so unrelated.

BTW: The Haynes manual says if the bike is on the side stand that you don't have to drain the oil to take off the right engine cover. That's a load of crap on the Thruxton. Fortunately (for once !) I was careful and had a mixing bowl at the ready. I'd guess about 500 ml came out.