Im a Newbie

[Poohman]

Hi my I live in florida and love to ride. Since I am in florida weather pretty much lets me ride all year round. But right now having a problem with 85 gl1200 aspencade not getting spark to the front two cylinders. i am thining it is my coils but not sure. Any suggestions out there How I can trouble shoot this problem? I am really please to have a site like this that I can get some other advise. I really don't want to spend over 400 at a shop unless i need to.

 

[AApple]

Welcome to the CGW Forums, Poohman!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Can't help with the firing problem, but you can post it also in the GL1200 forum/section, for more exposure. Someone will be able to help. :good:

 

[mcgovern61]

Welcome to the site from New Jersey! :clapping:

Switch the coils and see if the back cylinders stop firing...then you know it is a bad coil.

 

[danf]

Hello and welcome....Hope you get it figured out....

 

[detdrbuzzard]

hello poohman, welcome to CGW

 

[slabghost]

Could be as simple as a little corrosion in a connector. Have you removed the connectors and cleaned them? If not it would be a good idea to do so and pack the connectors with dielectric grease to prevent further corrosion. Have you trimmed the plug wires back just a bit and reinstalled the plug caps?
Welcome aboard.

 

[slabghost]

Are you certain you are not getting spark on the front cylinders or are they just not firing? What checks have you done? Is this a new to you bike? Have you been riding it up to now? Has it been sitting for an extended time? Does the exhaust reek of raw gas?

 

[dan filipi]

Yep, what the guys are saying is "not firing" on 2 cylinders can be caused by many things.
Systematic check of each possible cause working your way in will get it sorted out.

FYI, it's very rare for these coils to fail.
Keep in mind the way this ignition works is the 2 front cylinders and the 2 rear cylinders (each pair) share a coil.
When checking for spark, each plug needs to be grounded at the metal part to complete the circuit otherwise you might not see a spark at it's companion plug.

What I like to do is using a spray bottle with water, spray each header pipe lightly while running.
The sizzle will make it obvious which cylinders are firing good and which are not.
Once that's done you can narrow in on each trouble cylinder.

After spark is confirmed (or not) I'd do a compression check. A weak or dead cylinder won't fire.
Tune the plug wires and read the plug tips as suggested.

 

[danf]

On my 1100 I will feel the intakes as they get warmer and warmer after a start up...they should all feel the same...Maybe a test of the pulse generator.... Dan didn't you have an issue because of a bad plug once..didn't it shut off spark to your cylinder or something like that...??

 

[dan filipi]

On my 1100 I will feel the intakes as they get warmer and warmer after a start up...they should all feel the same...Maybe a test of the pulse generator.... Dan didn't you have an issue because of a bad plug once..didn't it shut off spark to your cylinder or something like that...??

Yep, I sure did!

I think on the 85 the pickups are in front where its on the rear 84 and earlier but certainly could be the problem.

 

[Poohman]

Here is what I have done so far. But first let me say that I was having a studdering problem in 1rst and 2nd then it would smooth out. I thought it was the carbs so I did some checking on the internet. I bought the wing in June and rode it since. almost everyday without a problem. Starting about a month ago or so, is when I started having this problem. When i looked on the internet i found out that maybe if i use the Sea Foam formula it might help my problem. Well, I used a can of Sea Foam with 2 tanks of Gas. Then on the last tank of Gas I was riding the wing for about 40 minutes or 25 miles and then stopped the engine and got off the wing to go into a store. When I started the wing back up everything seemed to be fine then once I started going that is when the problem started.

I have felt he exhaust and the two exhaust pipes for the front cylinders are a little warm ( i could hold my hand on them after a couple of minutes of thte bike running) the back two are hotter than getout.
So while the bike is running and running rough at Itle, I pulled the front plug wires off the plugs and nothing happened. Once I put them back on and Pulled one of the back wires off the wing quit. :beg:

 

[slabghost]

try this. Put plugs in the front wires and ground them. Start the bike and check for spark. It sounds to me like you might have gotten some bad gas. Or maybe some sediment from the tank has fouled a couple of the carbs.

 

[Poohman]

Ok here is what I did. I took 1 of the front spark plugs out grounded it hooked it up to the wire started up the wing and there was no spark that i could see. I did this in the dark, so I could see the blue arke, and there was nothing. :beg:

 

[Omega Man]

Welcome to the forums bro.

~O~

 

[ajclockga]

Ok here is what I did. I took 1 of the front spark plugs out grounded it hooked it up to the wire started up the wing and there was no spark that i could see. I did this in the dark, so I could see the blue arke, and there was nothing. :beg:

What brand of plugs are you running?

 

[dan filipi]

Try running those plugs in the other 2 cylinders, maybe they're fouled.

 

[slabghost]

try new plug wires to that coil.

 

[danf]

This guy down in Ga. is funny.. Loud Pipes... :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:

 

[54Greybeard]

Good luck with your miss, welcome from Maryland