[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=160187#p160187:2o62217u said:
ianstaley » Today, 4:05 pm[/url]":2o62217u]
So stop spending long bucks in the hope of dive-bombing a solution
Ian
Actually the things I bought this week (ignition module, igniters, wiring harness) totalled less than $200. As an electrician, I'm kind of inclined to believe this is an electircal problem being caused by water giving something an immediate path to ground. Some of your suggested possible problems I can cross off the list from recent events.
A coworker gave me a carburetor that he had sitting in his shop (he's a Harley mechanic who had no use for it and no idea where he got it from so it was free). As I've been tinkering with vacuum synching the carb that was on my bike, I decided last week to swap the carbs out and see if the other one was better or worse and I found the reason whoever had it before took it off their bike: the fuel input o-rings leaked. So yes, the fuel pump works...all over everything...
Also the clear and present smell of unburnt gas after spinning the starter for a few trying to get a sputter, and the fact that the fuel pump is mechanical not electric, and the fact that in all previous instances of this problem at least one cylinder remained firing.
When I first noticed the cylinders dropping out in the rain I wasn't sure if it was related to the not-yet-synched carbs or not, but since each coil supplies two cylinders and the cylinders went out two at a time I swapped the position of the ignition coils to see if the problem switched cylinders (it did not). Finding the ignition coils pretty easy to swap out and inexpensive to replace, I tried swapping them out with new ones. My standpoint on things like this is that when buying a replacement for a part that i'm not sure is faulty or not, the worst case scenario is that it doesn't help, I put the original part back on, and now I have a spare just in case. The only reason I didn't try swapping/replacing the igniters at that point is that I didn't know there was a separate one for each coil. I've also tried unwrapping sections of the wiring harness to check for nicks and/or water, as well as ohming out wires to see if anything other than light bulbs had a path to ground with the key off, but it's a rather tedious process and a replacement wiring harness is not very expensive. As before, if it doesn't solve the problem then at the very least it's now a spare part for later. "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it" as it were.
Also I do intend to replace the parts one at a time and attempt starting between each experiment so I know exactly what caused it, this is normal troubleshooting for electrical (I'm just not as familiar with the electrical system of a motorcycle as I am with office buildings, lighting controls, PLC's, etc, hence the question about other possible places water might cause a two-cylinder short).
EDIT: Almost forgot, I did also try disconnecting the electrical connection to the right-hand controls and plugging in my spare right-hand control to confirm that the problem is not coming from the starter button or kill switch (this is why I love having spare parts lying around).
brianinpa":2o62217u said:
What is the condition of your sparkplug wires? The "boots" that keep both plug wires together at the head can contribute to hiding a lot of cracks and also keep in moisture.
The wires I initially had on it were aftermarket and fairly new. I swapped them out for a used OEM set because it had that boot which I thought would reduce the chance of water pooling around the plugs (this was after I first noticed the problem and at the same time that I cleared out the #1 cylinder weep hole). I did check them thoroughly before installing them, though, and saw no problems. Just for the sake of prudence, though, when I go to swap in the igniters, module, and wiring harness I'll swap the other wires back in with a dry set of plugs before replacing the other parts just in case, I actually hadn't considered the possibility of those retaining moisture or slowing the dry-out.