QuestionQUESTION: I have a 1998 intruder 1500, it back fires and misses on the front cylinder at half throttle and up. It also it was not charging so I installed a new stator and regulator, thinking it was running at to low a voltage (battery 14.6 volt fully charged, load test good, was pulling down below 12 volts under throttle). When I got it back together it is running better but now smokes (dark gray blue smoke) on front cylinder Any help would be great, thanks.
ANSWER: Allen,
-check your compression, if it is near the
same on both cylinders have a look at the
spark plug color, black=fuel mixture too rich,
whitish=fuel mixture too lean, tan color= okay.
-Gray/blue smoke is not a good sign as
it indicates leaking valve seals or piston rings.
A compression check should help here.
-At half throttle and up a good part
of your fuel delivery is through the carbs main jet.
The main jet may be loose or plugged up.
-Check the choke, air filters and plugs also.
-Maybe a timing light on the front cylinder
would show you if the spark is cutting out
at higher speed. The light won't flash.
-The spark plug color is a good indicator as to what's
happening in the cylinder and may help
in deciding what to check next.
-Maybe the fuel petcock is leaking fuel into
it's vacuum line and into the engine.
Is the vacuum line hooked to the front cylinder?
So many things, I know it's a pain.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Sorry should have included compression, it's 120psi front and 122psi rear. This bike has a set of pipes on it and a DYNA 3000 Performance Ignition. I checked the voltage leaving the box to each coil, the rear coil is 11.6 volts and front is only 6.6 volts. This looks to me as the ignition box has gone bad. Is there anyway to test it? By the way the bike was running fine, stopped for fuel and this started. Thought it had water in the fuel did all the normal stuff (drained tank, no water found, cleaned tank, cleaned carbs, changed fuel filter, etc.) still the same problem. Thanks again.
AnswerAllen,
I believe only DYNA could test those ignition units.
I don't have any information on what the
voltage should be at the coils but I imagine
close to 12 volts would be necessary.
The problem is the unit needs to supply
and switch the power to the coils to
create the spark. Can you switch the coil
wires and see if the problem switches to
the rear cylinder?
-You could try moving the
first 3 DYNA box dip switches up, this
increases the RPM limit to 8000. The other
dip switches are for changing the ignition
"curve" for different performance situations.
Other than this, you would have to replace the
unit or maybe contact DYNA for more info.
