Ignition Fault

[Thom]

I've just gotten back from the lakes for a week, arriving home with the Xj600s Diversion on the back of a flatbed.

The bike was kept outside in torrential rain all week and when i went to run it it was very hesitant, constantly cut out and wouldnt rev cleanly under load. Its as if its only running on 3 cylinders some of the time rather than 4. Other symptoms are alot of popping coming from the exhaust.

I left the bike on the side stand during all the crap weather, im thinking perhaps water has gotten into the coil on the right hand side as it would be fairly exposed, does this sound right?

Ive tried wd40 on everything but very little improvment, should i just go buy a new coil?

any other advice?
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Vincent]

Does the Divvy have 4 or 2 coils? I would have thought the problem is more likely the plug or plug cap. You could always try swapping the leads/coils over and see if the problem transfers to another cylinder. Has the problem persisted since the bikes dried out?
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Space Is Deep

[Thom]

the divvy has 2 coils. one of which feeds the 1 and 4 cylinder and the other which feedes 2 and 3.

Its not as if a single cylinder is not firing completely, its more as if its not firing efficiently, and i cant seem to trace the problem to an individual coil or cylinder, the downpipes all get to similar temperatures and the plugs all look about the same. sparks appear strong outside the cylinders.

Tried plugs that are known to work also to see if that cured the problem but it didnt.

How can i test to see if its the coils/caps/leads or similar?
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Gawain]

If its sparking fine then its probably fuel, drain the float bowls and see if that helps.

[Thom]

I severely doubt its fuel, it was a fresh tank full from a BP garage in Keswick. Its almost certainly an ignition flaw rather than a fuelling fault although i had previously considered this myself.
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[tutton]

Possible soaked air filter?
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Past: '05 Peugeot XPS '99 Aprillia RS125 '94 FZR600R
Current: '02 ZX636 A1P '51 CCM R30

[Thom]

Its impossible to get the air filter wet unless you leave the cover and tank off.

Can someone with an actual knowlege of motorcycle electrics please help a little?
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Gawain]

Your right. It cant possibly be anything other than electric. Even a week in pouring rain couldnt contaminate the fuel or air filter.

Best course of action is to replace all electrics pertaining to the ignition, twice just to be sure. If that still doesnt work then check the other basics.

[Ariel Badger]

90% of all ignition problems are caused by carburation and 90% of carburation problems are caused by ignition.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[finpos]

It'll be the HT leads - once they get affected by damp they will start shorting out to the engine casing (usually deep down the plug wells where you can't see it) causing intermittent misfires. You'll need to bake them in an oven to get them dry again. You can then slaver them in sealant - that may fix it short term but you may need to replace them entirely.

f.

[ZaphodBeeble]

Drain your damn carbs and run the bike on a remote tank. It could be a blocked fuel spill drain pipe causing rainwater to seep into and sit in the bottom of your tank (yes fuel floats on water).
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[Thom]

cheers for the help lads, finally three posts i can actually rely on!

Ariel, that was a problem that i saw myself, however due to the sheer volume of water around and the fact the carbs are in good nick/clean i can pretty much say its electrics.

finpos, im heating the oven as we speak to actually dry out the coils etc, only to 60 or so degrees mind. I've heard of that solution before but forgot of it until now!

Zaphodbeeble, i've drained the carbs to be on the safe side and have tried a temporary tank with no difference unfortunately.
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[iooi]

Give all the connectors a good clean. There are a couple under the fairing and under the tank. That collect water and start to rot.
There are also some at the rear which suffer the same fate.

It could also be that the drain holes in the cylinders have got blocked up and the water has been sitting around the plugs and has managed to get inside the leads and is shorting out.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[Ichy]

These can sometimes be useful to diagnose the fault.
Spark test

Aldi did have them for £2.99 for a set of four.
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