This has turned into much more of a saga than it should have. Bike = 02 bonnie, no snorkel, paper filter, TORs, rejetted (see below).
I've had a plaguing miss since getting my 02 bonnie in 05. Tried all sorts of things to fix it, rejetting, idle adjustment, running a little rich, thinking that it was lean missing. Last june, I picked up a new coil after doing some reading here.
New battery and new coil seemed like it helped, but ultimately it was back to occasionally missing.
My intake boots were getting worn and cracked, so I picked up new ones and new plugs.
Prior to install of the above, bike is running great except for the idle miss. went for a ride with my girl on the back and the bike died on the freeway. Just died, no surging, no popping, just no get up and go. All the lights were on, all fuses good. Got a tow home (thank you AMA roadside).
No spark. Figured the new coil failed. Purchased a second coil. No fix. Still no spark.
Took this time in the garage to pull the carbs and replace the intake boots and spark plugs.
Read more. Learned about the know pick-up coil gap issue. The incorrect gap was probably causing my missing issue all these years. The pick-up coil resistance tested fine. But rather than throwing down $200 on a new ignitor, I figured the cheaper option of changing the pick-up coil was a better idea. Did the install, set the gap around .76mm. No fix and now own two good pick-up coils. (wasted $100, grr).
Purchased Procom ignitor. Installed Friday, now I have spark. Thought I was done. Put the bike back together (cut a hole in the seat pan). Nada, not even a sputter or a misfire pop.
Starter works great, strong turn over, but no start. as mentioned, new MotoBatt MBTX12U battery. keeping it on a Battery Tender Jr. during all the testing to keep it topped off.
Found this morning that the idle adjuster was no longer touching the throttle linkage, so it wasn't keeping the butterfly valves open at all during start up. adjusted to touching plus another couple of turns. no start.
Engine is acting as air pump, so the valves are opening and closing, so the timing chain isn't broken.
I get spark with both the old and new spark plugs.
The procom unit should be set to 1 for my stock part number. no good. tried all other numbers. no good. tried installing a couple of the downloadable procom maps and trying them on 0-9. no good.
thought perhaps fixing the intake boots sealed a possible air leak, so i'd be running rich with pilot jets size 45. i put in next size down pilot jets (42) with one turn out. no start. haven't tried smaller main jets, haven't looked back to see how much the main jet affects ignition (probably not much). don't remember which mains i have in there (120s?). stock bonnie needle.
i don't have smaller pilot jets than 42, so i tried starting with the air filter out to lean out the mixture. no change.
tried jumping the kickstand safety switch. no change.
no fuel filter to get clogged, fuel delivery is good, no kinked hose. bowls are filling, no indication that the floats are damaged or sinking. i'm not forgetting to turn the petcock on.
I can smell gas on the plugs, so fuel is getting into the cylinder. I think i've been able to flood it by opening the throttle while running the starter motor, so we've got fuel, air and spark.
I've tried starts with choke on or off. no change.
i don't have any friends with bonnies/thrux otherwise I would love to switch in a working ignitor to test whether the Procom unit i received is bad. Anyone in San Francisco feel like swinging by, I'd appreciate it.
took the top off one carb, slide, needle, etc. looked fine. didn't bother to look at the other.
Open to ideas. I feel like I've done everything right. Other than occasional miss at idle, bike was running great, ignitor failed, no spark = dead bike. Replaced ignitor, coil, pick-up coil, spark plugs, intake boots, got spark back = but no start.
Only possibilities I can think of:
(1) procom ignitor is bad and timing is off enough that ignition can't happen (brand new unit, not very probable, but impossible to test);
(2) some fix has drastically thrown off the A/F mixture and i'm either too rich or too lean to start;
(3) something got jostled loose in the carbs while off the bike, perhaps a port is clogged, or the choke is malfunctioning.
i really don't want to pull the carbs back off the bike for a cleaning as there was no fuel issue prior to the ignitor dying, but i feel like i'm out of other options. wasted three weeks of perfect riding weather. at the end of the line and am starting to fantasize about pulling her out on the street and torching her. get ignition one way or another. i'd rather no go to jail so i'm soliciting constructive input.
again, anyone in SF who wouldn't mind swinging by to let me try their working ignitor (pre-EFI years), i'd appreciate it.
Alec
I've had a plaguing miss since getting my 02 bonnie in 05. Tried all sorts of things to fix it, rejetting, idle adjustment, running a little rich, thinking that it was lean missing. Last june, I picked up a new coil after doing some reading here.
New battery and new coil seemed like it helped, but ultimately it was back to occasionally missing.
My intake boots were getting worn and cracked, so I picked up new ones and new plugs.
Prior to install of the above, bike is running great except for the idle miss. went for a ride with my girl on the back and the bike died on the freeway. Just died, no surging, no popping, just no get up and go. All the lights were on, all fuses good. Got a tow home (thank you AMA roadside).
No spark. Figured the new coil failed. Purchased a second coil. No fix. Still no spark.
Took this time in the garage to pull the carbs and replace the intake boots and spark plugs.
Read more. Learned about the know pick-up coil gap issue. The incorrect gap was probably causing my missing issue all these years. The pick-up coil resistance tested fine. But rather than throwing down $200 on a new ignitor, I figured the cheaper option of changing the pick-up coil was a better idea. Did the install, set the gap around .76mm. No fix and now own two good pick-up coils. (wasted $100, grr).
Purchased Procom ignitor. Installed Friday, now I have spark. Thought I was done. Put the bike back together (cut a hole in the seat pan). Nada, not even a sputter or a misfire pop.
Starter works great, strong turn over, but no start. as mentioned, new MotoBatt MBTX12U battery. keeping it on a Battery Tender Jr. during all the testing to keep it topped off.
Found this morning that the idle adjuster was no longer touching the throttle linkage, so it wasn't keeping the butterfly valves open at all during start up. adjusted to touching plus another couple of turns. no start.
Engine is acting as air pump, so the valves are opening and closing, so the timing chain isn't broken.
I get spark with both the old and new spark plugs.
The procom unit should be set to 1 for my stock part number. no good. tried all other numbers. no good. tried installing a couple of the downloadable procom maps and trying them on 0-9. no good.
thought perhaps fixing the intake boots sealed a possible air leak, so i'd be running rich with pilot jets size 45. i put in next size down pilot jets (42) with one turn out. no start. haven't tried smaller main jets, haven't looked back to see how much the main jet affects ignition (probably not much). don't remember which mains i have in there (120s?). stock bonnie needle.
i don't have smaller pilot jets than 42, so i tried starting with the air filter out to lean out the mixture. no change.
tried jumping the kickstand safety switch. no change.
no fuel filter to get clogged, fuel delivery is good, no kinked hose. bowls are filling, no indication that the floats are damaged or sinking. i'm not forgetting to turn the petcock on.
I can smell gas on the plugs, so fuel is getting into the cylinder. I think i've been able to flood it by opening the throttle while running the starter motor, so we've got fuel, air and spark.
I've tried starts with choke on or off. no change.
i don't have any friends with bonnies/thrux otherwise I would love to switch in a working ignitor to test whether the Procom unit i received is bad. Anyone in San Francisco feel like swinging by, I'd appreciate it.
took the top off one carb, slide, needle, etc. looked fine. didn't bother to look at the other.
Open to ideas. I feel like I've done everything right. Other than occasional miss at idle, bike was running great, ignitor failed, no spark = dead bike. Replaced ignitor, coil, pick-up coil, spark plugs, intake boots, got spark back = but no start.
Only possibilities I can think of:
(1) procom ignitor is bad and timing is off enough that ignition can't happen (brand new unit, not very probable, but impossible to test);
(2) some fix has drastically thrown off the A/F mixture and i'm either too rich or too lean to start;
(3) something got jostled loose in the carbs while off the bike, perhaps a port is clogged, or the choke is malfunctioning.
i really don't want to pull the carbs back off the bike for a cleaning as there was no fuel issue prior to the ignitor dying, but i feel like i'm out of other options. wasted three weeks of perfect riding weather. at the end of the line and am starting to fantasize about pulling her out on the street and torching her. get ignition one way or another. i'd rather no go to jail so i'm soliciting constructive input.
again, anyone in SF who wouldn't mind swinging by to let me try their working ignitor (pre-EFI years), i'd appreciate it.
Alec