The big bog

Had the same problem today. Found It was bad gas. Fresh gas and the problem went away.

Thanks for all the great feedback and suggestions!

Update. The battery was the culprit on the bog problem. There was a bonus ground wire connected to the neg terminal of the battery attached to the frame(don't know why). It had the green stuff all over it. I removed the wire and cleaned the neg cable and neg terminal and shazam. Bog be gone. I guess the spark was to weak. That was great...for a day. New problems arose.

An intermittent major power degradation reared its ugly head. I checked spark and did an ohm check on the coils and determined one of the coils is toast. It has infinite resistance on the secondary where the other coil has about 27k ohms on the secondary. So....since the coils are almost identical, and times are tough, I'm going to try the coils off of a 85 Ninja 600 since they appear to be the same (Mounting,etc.). Am I making a bad call? Thoughts anyone?

If the input and output impedances are the same then I'd expect it to work ok.

OK!

Coils worked. I used new Accell 8mm plug wires and also cut new wires to properly connect the coils negative and positive leads without butchering the wiring. Looks great and works great, for a few minutes.

The original bog is gone. I have this new issue that showed up once the battery was cleaned up and even with the coils replaced the bike has the same issue. It will rip the back tire off the rim if I twist the throttle. It really scoots and is very responsive and then IT happens.

It seems like I loose two cylinders and I can barely get the thing home. Its like a switch flips and the bike acts like its running on two cylinders. It's a repeatable event. I mess with the bike, go for a quick ride to the same store (grab beer) so it warms up. The bike will instantly lose power on the way back or, after I get home and let the bike sit for a few minutes. When it runs great on the way home. I let it sit for about 5 minutes clean up etc and when I start it half the time it will do its thing of running like it lost two cylinders.

Recap on what I've done so far:
No more bog while its running normal
The tank is squeaky clean on the inside. I have not removed the fuel valve yet to check for debris in the screen since fuel seems to flow pretty well.
Coils plugs and wires have been replaced.

OK folks, suffice to say I'm super bummed and wondering where to go from here.

Idle thought. dropping 2 cyls waves flags at points,coil. quick check. once problem happens, give it a minute, then spray headers w/windex or some other non flamable thing. (water is cleanest)evaporation rate will show dead cyl/s.if failure is 1-4 2-3, it narrows search to 1 set points, it's coil,& wiring to same. an asside, point's coils generally have 7-8 ohms resistance, pick-up/cdi's @ 3 ohms. Ala" Ninja if I'm not mistaken. a common coil failure is internal heat related, IE; a broken winding inside coil core seperates when body expands w/heat, & then resumes when housing cools. this dosen't eliminate a possible pinched /chaffed wire. hope this helps. G

The saga continues...

The bike won't run. No spark. I checked the ohms on the coils and they seem fine. Primary 2.7 ohms, secondary about 27K. The coils are off of a 85 Ninja 600 and worked fine for a couple of rides. I checked the original coil impedance. The primary read 1.8 ohms and the secondary is open, no resistance.

I checked power to the coils with the key on and there isn't any voltage there. The bike has some form of a pointless ignition but I don't know what brand or where to begin troubleshooting the device. I checked the wiring and everything seems fine. Thoughts?

With good charged and properly connected battery, turning the ignition switch to the "on" position is supposed to result in positive battery voltage reaching a primary terminal on each coil.

Perhaps the ignition switch is faulty. Or a loose connector or broken wire exists between the ignition switch > igniter > coil. Or positive battery voltage failing to reach the ignition switch.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the info! It smells like the igniter. Power to the coil power feed is there. I disconnected the red power feed that feeds both coils to test voltages.

When testing the main lead to the coils I get 12v if I ground the other side of the meter to anywhere on the bike. The negative side (the one green and one black wire)give different results. If I check the main red wire (the one that splits off) to the green I get a minuscule voltage reading. Connecting the split red to the black wire I get zero voltage reading. When the wiring is reconnected to the coils there is a 0.00 reading across each coil. I did check the main ground off the igniter and the ground appears to be working.

Gonna migrate to the electrical forum...

fredgarvin42 wrote:

... No spark... checked power to the coils with the key on and there isn't any voltage there....

... Power to the coil power feed is there... When testing the main lead to the coils I get 12v...

:huh: Am uncertain whether positive battery voltage is or is not reaching a primary winding terminal on each coil when the ignition switch is in the ON position. :S

If the tank has or doesn't have rust I would invest in a really good fuel filter and not the 4 dollar pos that is supposed to keep the carbs clear of debris. I found that NOT to work with my bike. I put a really good reusable filter on my bike of the machined aluminum grade. I think pingel has one. They cost around 30 dollars and although I was very skeptical of spending that kind of money I tell you it was the best investment I could have made in the the fuel line.They even have ones with magnets in them to grab the minute rust particles. Also the fuel line hoses of normal quality crack and go bad quite frequently I have this rubber that was expensive yet once again found it to be very flexible and has yet to crack.
Then get your carbs cleaned proper. They may be dirty and affecting the low idle circuit. Take them apart and look, hopefully a good thorough cleaning will set them right. When I got my 79 the bike had sat for sooo long I cleaned and cleaned like I can't tell you how many times and took them twice to get them done "right" and still they were just junk. You have 28 miks with pumpers. Probably the squirt valve diaphragm without a doubt is more than likely been shot for more than a few years although I doubt that would be the bog problem.
The coils and dyna s sound like a great idea considering the coils you said are shot. The coil mod is a given like said before. You will get great spark if you perform that. Right off the bat the engine will run smoother and you will have power that you will definitely notice when taking off. My friends bike had that problem and he got the mod done and it ran great after. You gotta be patient with her she is 29 years old and stuff like wires and that get corroded and don't pass electricity like they should and metal rusts or just pumping gas sometimes you get junk in the tank with a really good fuel filter you will notice that stuff will not affect the gas supply as much.

Power is there with the key on. If I check with my meter I get zero voltage across the positive and negative terminals. If I move the negative probe to the frame or any grounding point while leaving the positive probe on the positive coil terminal. I get a voltage meter right under 12v. Hopefully that was clearer than mud!