TOPIC:

I.m in a jam: driving cross country on an 82 KA1100. 
It’s dropping cylinders 2&3 randomly but ever more frequently. Generally major power loss

Also it will not start (push starts only) and headlight is out- could be unrelated. 

it used to drop #3 sporadically and the fix was pulsing (pick up ?) coils. Haven’t had the problem for a couple years. Now it’s 2 cylinders and drops frequently to the point that I am driving through the desert on 2 cylinders.

just replaced: 
-stator
-regulator
-battery

mayve a grounding issue?

I ordered a new ignition coil assuming that will be the fix but not sure if it could be fuel related. 

any help would be awesome. From Boston but stuck in Boise on my way to Cali 

 

Check the connections at the plug caps and at the coils.
Steve

If 2 and 3 are dropping it's probably the coil that feeds those cylinders. Hopefully it's just a loose connection. Happened that way to me once. 
Good luck

Since you recently did charging-system repairs, and the headlight is burned out, you will want to make sure the voltage is not going too high.  That could have damaged the 2-3 coil and burned out the headlight.  Make sure the voltage on the battery never goes higher than 15v and preferably maxes out around 14.2 to 14.5v.  

If the charging system becomes disconnected from the battery, that can cause a very high over-voltage problem.  So check for disconnected wires in the areas you previously worked on.  

Does it not start because the starter motor does not turn, or does it crank without firing up?  If the starter motor doesn't crank, then maybe it's a disconnected battery cable like I mentioned above.  It could also be a damaged battery if you have the over-voltage problem.

Thanks for the quick response!!

Starter doesn’t even crank- nothing. And then sometimes it will start normally- really strange.
Gonna check the connections now- cables from coils to plugs are extremely stiff - might just replace those anyway - not sure what’s going on inside 

Can you swap coils and see if the problem moves to the other 2 cylinders?  I had the same problem with my V65 magna a few years ago. At first it only happened in the rain. Later it started missing at low rpms. Until finally. all the time. I found a hairline crack in one of the coils that was allowing spark to jump from coil to frame. About 30 layers of duct tape over the crack solved he problem until I got a replacement coil. Also check for arcing at night or in a dark garage. You should be able to touch all along the plug wires and coils without getting jolted. .

I'd check the battery first.  No crank problems aren't the coils.

Battery is at 11.4 - not sure why because it’s brand new as is the stator and RR. 

cant even push start it right now- bringing it in to charge it up. 

coil for 2&3: lots of small cracks and stress cracks where the coil attaches to frame- not sure that makes a difference. Plug cable to cylinder #3 is in bad shape- almost no metal visible when I remove cable from coil. Green corrosion all over contact point on coil. Heavy green corrosion inside cable- cut back almost an inch and still struggling to find bare wire... 

cant measure voltage when it’s running because I can’t get it to start right now. 

thanks again for chiming in. I’ll update here when I have more info.  maybe this will be helpful for others(?) 

Looks like that secondary wire needs to be replaced. I bet the other three are the same age........
It is also very likely that the coil is shorting though those cracks.

The battery is weak, but that should be good enough to bump start if everything else is in good shape. Have the battery load tested. A bad battery can show 12+ volts at rest, but fall flat on its face as soon a a load is applied.

Yes, you were right on: wires all all very stiff and not in good shape. 
I replaced the coil today- from kawasaki but it’s smaller and a bit different. Wondering what bike these old coils
came off of. This coil had labeled: “r” (red) for the
negative post and “g” for the positive.... which is wrong. I’m wondering if that was part of the problem. Switched wires. 

charged the battery and had it tested. It’s good. 

started right up and ran well with the new coil, new plugs and charged battery. 
going to replace the other coil as well- it looks like it could be going down the same road.  

don’t feel like being stuck out in the desert. 

thanks again for the help! 

Hooray. 
Getting stuck anywhere can be a real fun-killer. Getting stuck in a remote place with no shade and the temperature hovering around 120F, could be dangerous. I hope that fiddling with the battery cables has cured the intermittent starter problem.

Put DC voltmeter across the battery and Rev engine to 5k.  There should be approx 14.5VDC.  I below 14 the charging system is weak.