Trouble with spark

[corwin]

Hi!

Thought to wake my V today, but found, that front cylinder has no spark! All the plugs seemed to be ok, but I didn?t have time to check anything else. What it might be? Corroded wirening, bad fuses or some deeper problem?

Thanks

[Lucky]

how do you know it was spark? lots of things seem like spark but are not.  normally in temps lower than say 45 degrees, my bike will barely fire the ft cyl untill it's fully warmed up.  you might also have a bad wire or plug resistor.

--Lucky

[corwin]

Rear cylinder has normal spark, tried with different spark-plugs, warmed them up so i couldn?t touch em, but nothing. It didn`t give any sign of fire. I`ll check all the wirening and connections then.

corwin

[Steve Beaverson]

I had a problem with my front cylinder cutting in and out for 2 years. It turned out to be a crack in the tach circuit board, it about drove me crazy. Chances are it is something else, but if it has ever been dropped it could be the tach. I tried changing coils, pickup coils, the tci box and bypassed the wiring harness. Fortunately, I had a spare bike to raid for parts.
Needless to say, I wish I had known about this resource when I was having problems.  Thanks to everyone that contributes their thoughts.  I have found the website to be invaluable since I found it five months ago.  It has helped me to get my bike running well.  It had been a pain in the neck for the past 13 years.  Hopefully, it will now run much better since I have made updates based on what I have read on this website.  

Good luck.
Steve

[bmeyer6472]

I chased my tail with a misfire for weeks - turned out to be a bad plug cap. At least it was cheap and easy to fix! :P

[silicon_toad2000]

front cylinder misfire can soemtimes be a dodgy rev limiter can't it? check lucky's site for the fix i forget which wires it is or search the old posts.

[ProfessorRex]

It's the Black/Yellow or Yellow/Black coming out of the TCI, don't worry, there's only one with those colors. (I hope I'm not wrong about this, I cut mine a while ago)

[Rick G]

The Black and Yellow wire should be cut on EVERY Vision , it will prevent problems like this.

[tremalzo]

Last season at some point thought to ride a V1 instead of a V2. After I cleaned the contacts of the TCI the problem was gone. Didn't cut the black and yellow wire. Is there a particular reason why I should?

Tremalzo

[ProfessorRex]

It's the rev limiter wire, cutting it eliminates the rev limiter and associated problems.

[silicon_toad2000]

Ha Ha, I think the rev limiter is only there to save the tacho, the engine's strong enough to handle whatever you can give it.
Just kidding
out of interest anyone know roughly what the weak point is in these motors as far as over revving the engine?

[ozian]

There is that many failsafes on these things ,it's easier to disconnect a few to eliminate that is where the problem is.
Silicon , How did you get on with the work you did on your bike
Ian (You know when you over rev it because there is a loud bang just under the fuel tank )

[Walt_M.]

There are many 'fun' things that can happen by overrevving the engine. Probably one of the most interesting was the tendency of early Kawasaki Z1s to spit the valve shims through the cam covers. The reason for disconnecting the Vision rev limiter is that the limiter is prone to fail and cut out the front cylinder at inopportune times. That is why I parked mine 7 yrs. ago, it would cut out and I could not figure why and basically said 'the h*ll with it'!

[silicon_toad2000]

Good Ian, I have done the carbs and got the thing started again, many things left to do but they can wait until the peak of winter. Still to go before riding is tighten the flywheel, and tune/synch the carbs. How you going with your project there, decided what to do with the enging yet?
I'm going to coober pedy soon, whats the tucker at spud's roadhouse like?

[ozian]

Food & grog still as good as ever at spuds(To you people over seas, Spuds is a little 24 h trader in the middle of nowhere) Race season has started up here so my projects have gone a little cold for the moment until we get the kids gear on track & sorted out plus works a bit flat out at the moment
Give us a bell when you know the dates of your travel & we might be able to catch up at spuds (only a 100k for me)
Ian

[silicon_toad2000]

redxzinoz. i sent you a message replying about the work ive done so far.
ozian, yeah i was thinking about catching up at spuds, didn't want to suggest it as its about $20 in fuel.
was going to be week before 17th april but ive postponed it a little it will probably be in early may.

[ozian]

It's obvious your thinking of city fuel prices ?
Red xz , how did you get on with the guard dogs idea of rewiring  Ian

[silicon_toad2000]

I was actually thinking LPG at country prices
It shits me to tears to think when you take the tax off petrol its actually cheaper than LPG, damn cpaitalist oil companies and money grubbing govt. Still we got to pay for horwards eyebrow thinning and downers fishnets somehow.

[redxz550inoz]

Darn dog decided my main bike needed some custom work done - particularly the front tyre guard and the seat.
He's nearly one. I'd forgotten about the chewing stage - doh!!
He has been punished (new seat cover will be rottweiller hide)  8)

have bought another wiring harness, just waiting for it to get here (thanks ProfessorRex)
Not that there's any great hurry for anything at the moment - with the sudden weather change we've been flat out with work.

Totally pulled apart carbs and gave em a good clean and put new jets etc in (up till 3am the other night coz it's the only time I seem to have any more). Have yet to tune/synch em tho. (silicontoad, you've inspired me :) )
Waiting to get her going again before I change radiator over. Can't wait to have enough child free time to get her all done.

[ozian]

Go to the butcher & get the big shoulder gristle out of a cow , it worked with all the pups we had on the farm I grew up on (Mum most probably gave them to us too)  Ian