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Hello everyone this is my forst real post. Im having an intermittent spark problem on 1 and 4. I have rread a thread about this problem and my bike is doing the exact same thing. Difference I have points. I have changed the points, condenser and plugs. Checked the coils physically and with an ohmeter. The wires are taylor 10.5mm they are almost new. After about 5 minutes the bike starts chugging and I have to limp to the side of the road on 2 cylinders.....its sucks. Then after a minute or two the bike will start and be screaming down the street. A few minutes and it starts again.
Problem 2 after changing the points and gapping them, I put the cover on and the points or condensers seem to be grounding on the cover. this didnt happen with the old points. the 1 4 problem was there before the points.
I rewired the whole bike myself , it has been running for 3 months with the new wiring, no problems.
suggestions?

It sounds a little like a bad coil Plugs 1 & 4 fire off the same coil & same points. Have you checked the resistance of the coil primary & secondary? You don't say what bike you have, but if you have a repair manual, it should specify the resistances. I also suggest setting the points with a dwell meter and a timing light. Have you checked the plugs? How do the plugs look? sooty? white? wet? How do they compare to 2 & 3? Have you set the valve clearances? Are the carbs sync'ed? And finally, how new is the fuel?

Welcome.

Somewhere your having a bad connection, or your coil is going bad. Try swaping the green and black coil feed wires and check for spark. If 2 & 3 do not spark, that coil may be toast. If your still gettng spark on all four, you could carefully remove the cam on the timing advancer and put it back on turning it 180 degrees. This will allow you to ride the bike with the green and black coil feed wires reversed, testing it all while riding.

Post edited by: rstnick, at: 2006/09/29 21:32

ok a few things happened here. First the heads of my point screws were stripped a bit I couldnt tighten them properly and they were moving out of adjustment. I got new screws and put a new fuel filter on it and she seems to be fine now. Screaming down the block.
I still have the problem of my points cover shorting the points out. when i put it on i can see the spark arcing across between the cover and the engine case. This happend after i changed the points. Has this happened to anyone?.