Strange Spark Issue /

I have a strange firing isseu with my number 1 cyclinder. Sometimes when I start the bike the #1 pipe does not get hot. If I take the wire off the plug and hold it close the plug, the pipe will get hot. I tried swapping #1 and #4 wires with no change. If I take the #1 plug out it is wet and smells like gas, so I know that it is getting fuel. I can get the bike to run correctly if I swap the plug with a spare plug that I have. When it happens again, I swap the plugs aroudn again. This issue has me stumped. Does any have any ideas ?

Put new plugs in properly gapped and run the bike normally til it starts to miss again. Then pull the plugs and see what condition they are in and post back with that. I suspect oil fouling on #1.

The plug is oily and smells like gas when it is pulled. I have not chedk the other 3 plugs yet. What would cause the plug to be oil fouled ?

BIGKEVIN wrote: The plug is oily and smells like gas when it is pulled. I have not chedk the other 3 plugs yet. What would cause the plug to be oil fouled ?

Worn or broken rings or bad valve stem seals and/or too much valve stem clearance. Does the exhaust smoke as the engine is decelerating? If so the high vacuum is sucking oil past the intake valve seals. Does it smoke pretty much all the time when running? If so then probably the rings or the exhaust valve seals are at fault. A leak down test will tell a lot about the internal condition of the engine. If the bike sat unused for a long time the rings may have rusted and stuck to the cylinder walls when re-started the rings can break causing problems like low compression and oil burning/consumption. Are the spark plugs the correct heat range? Too cold plugs will allow deposits to form on them. Could also be a leaky head gasket. There is an oil passage close the the outside cylinders along a head/cylinder bolt. Do the leak down test first, if that doesn't tell you something pull the head and look inside.

Other possibilities --

Plug might be getting fuel-fouled.

Might result from too rich pilot air screw adjustment.

Might result from too high fuel level.
Would perform clear-tube test.

Good Fortune!

Yet further possibilities ---

Weak spark;
Poor compression;
Valve clearances not within specs.

Would measure voltage being received at the coil, and compare against voltage measured between the battery posts. Should be the same.

Would remove the plug, hold it against engine, spin over the engine and look for fat blue sparks.

Good Fortune!

Still running points ignition?

Original coils?

Good Fortune!

sounds like it is fouling a plug out.

Edit to add:

all good suggestions above that did not appear when I first answered since the server here froze up again and did not display the thread replies.

Gas or oil fouling, a bad coil will also foul plugs.

The bike has B8ES plugs, with accel coils and Dyna electronic ignition. I did another carb synchronization on the carbs and will see how it runs tomorrow. I have already done the coil rewiring and I am getting 11.5 volts to the coils. Have not done a compression test or checked the valve clearances.

What shoudl the plug gap be with accel coil's and electronic ignition ? I think my plugs are gapped at .036'sh. What would happen if the electronic ignition was set right ?

Standard gap is usually 0.028" to 0.031". A few thousands of an inch should not make a big difference. Checked the sparkplug caps? they have a 5000 ohm resistor inside for RFI supression, and can become intermittent.

I am going to go through the carbs again and clean/bench sync them. In order to bench sync them, does the top cover of the carb have to come off ? I am going back through carbs again because I tried to sync the carbs today with my Motion Pro sync tool and could not get a reading on the #4 carb. I switched the #3 and #4 hoses and still nothing from the #4 carb. Any ideas on what could cause that ? I think I have the carbs clean.