Don't even know where to start with this one... road trip from hell

I'm sure we've all made some questionable judgements when it comes to motorcycles or women.

Well, this one involves both. I am in Alabama, working a short term contract here a few hours from home (in nashville). I loaded my new-to-me '82 KZ1000 CSR in my truck and brought it down here to work out some of it's kinks and make it rideable in the evenings after work.

After rewiring a lot of the ignition system and cleaning the carbs and petcock it SEEMED to be running alright. I was using it as local transportation no problem.

So, this is where the bad judgement comes in... I have a girlfriend at rhodes college in Memphis, about 2.5 hours from where I work.... ....and I had a day off.... ....you can see where this is going.

So she invites me to come see her, have dinner, and see some band play a club gig. In my infinite wisdom, I think I might save some money, taking an unproven bike with only a few dozen miles on it since I got it running on a long distance ride.

So I bleed the brakes, put new plug wires on, buy an extra plug, check the oil, and go!

an hour into rural mississippi, I hear an ominous popping noise from the tailpipe, pull over and find that my number one cylinder is dead. I check my wires , crank up, and go. Seems fine at first. After I make it through Corinth (the only town of any size on this route) and get back to hiway speed it starts again. I pull over, and swap out the #1 plug. The old one looks carbon fouled. Starting bnack up it hits on all four. Until I hit 60 mph again. Having no file, or any more plugs, and not knowing when the next town would be... I push on for at least 30-40 minutes on three (and sometimes two) cylinders until I reach Collierville (right outside memphis). I stop at a Napa, change out my inline filter (which was full of crap by this time) and put in a new plug. The old one looks oil fouled at this point. Hits on all four (kind of) when I get on the 385 expressway into memphis. two or three minutes later, It starts to sputter again. a couple minutes later, while trying to limp it on in...

BANG!!

the bike is dead. all lights out.

I coast to the shoulder in rush hour city traffic. My baffle has been blown out, my main fuse is toasted. Although I spend a good twenty minutes looking like a crazy person, poking around in the median in full leathers, dodging traffic, I can't find my baffle.

I put my trun signal fuse in for the main, and get it started. It runs on four for a minute... then three... then two. I make it to an off ramp. It dies at idle. I get it going again. It sounds like a sick cb350. I limp it into an autozone. the number #1 is oil fouled, the others are all leaned out and white (probably from running open piped). With new plugs, it runs ok on city streets. The girlfriend comes out and she follows me back to her house.

We have a good time and do the aforementioned eating and see the rock show.

Next morning, I take it back on the road (this time with a few plugs, a file and extra fuses) I make it a few miles on the highway and it screws up again. Feeling really frustrated, I switch the coils (by switching the lines coming from the igniter/points and switching the plug wires. It runs ok for most of the way home, but seems to be burning oil now (a puff of white when I rev) and still pops and crackles at 5000 or more rpm.

At least it got me home. I haven't ridden since then, or tinkered with it. I don't know what to do. I was in nashville this weekend and grabbed the coils and baffle off my 1100. A friend suggested I may have burned a valve or ring and that I should do a compression test. Not really sure where to go next. I really don't want to tear open the motor.

I suppose I learned my lesson about counting on a new bike to not leave me on the side of the road.

(this may be in the wrong forum, but I really didn't know where to put it. I guess a real road trip from hell would involve fireballs coming out the carbs, mexican dope runners and possibly royal canadian mounties)

Ouch.

Well, at least you got to see the show.

Offhand, the initial problem does indeed sound ignition-related. Coils, pickup coil, intermeittent short somewhere. Swapping coils and working backwards sounds like a decent plan to start.

Sorry to say it, but your friend may have a point. Blue smoke on wind-up is usually an indicator of a developing problem. Compression check is a good start there.

Hope it works out for you....

can running on less than four cylinders for an extended time cause damage to internal engine parts?

cary wrote:

can running on less than four cylinders for an extended time cause damage to internal engine parts?

It can - uneven heat distribution - hot pot/cold pot next to each other can stick a ring in the cold pot, pre-ignition/detonation can be tough on head gaskets and valves...

It's a little early to tell in your case. Start with the compression check...

I'll take the bike by autozone on my lunch and see if they can do one there (gotta save every penny if I'm gonna have to tear down the motor)

anyone know off the the top of his head what diameter the plug threads are on a kz? Before I buy a tester, it would be best to know which will fit

14 mm

Not enough power to the coils? Maybe a connection is resistive and heating up and not passing enough current. Have you checked out the coil power mod?

- Nate >>

Cary, before you get too much farther up the creek, take some time to diagnose the problem. It doesn't sound like it is very serious actually. Much of your problem is the plug fouling. When combustion quits due to the plug getting fouled you run on 3 or less cylinders. The main thing to determine is why. The why is VERY likely electrical. First you should rule out OTHER potential reasons like NON ADJUSTED VALVE CLEARANCES... most everyone who comes to me with a bike problem should first check their valve clearances. If a valve has no clearance, it sticks open some. Compression will be down but most importantly, so will combustion. OK... you have those valve clearances set? If so, then look at what the potential problem might be... first start with easy and cheap stuff. Are you plug wires and caps stock? What heat range plugs do you have in there?

Once I know that, I will have a bit of an idea how to troubleshoot this issue. Your problem really sounds like the wires are not seated in the coils or at least one of them bwhahahaha It also could be your voltage to the coils is low but I am thinking I would look at the plug wires. If they are not contacting the electrodes inside the coils, your spark will be weak. If you have low voltage at the coils, your spark will be weak. You have an electronic ignition but I have seen older bikes coils change impedence as they age and the spark will get weak... lots of things could be the problem.

Plug wires? Heat range (type of plug)? That is the start...

As far as IO know, this motor has never been opened up... and has only 8000 miles. Is this enough time for the stock clearances to get messed up? I'll check all the wire and cap stuff when I get home. It's stock everything, except copper core accel wires and non-resistor caps. I am running br8es plugs.