Screwed by NGK - again - Was Electrical gurus - Yamaha gurus

[The Buddha]

OK the Virago 1100 ... ~5-6 miles after riding it, it runs like a bear ... but the 5-6 miles are total hell, it runs only on the front cylinder ... What gives.
Its also had some weird sorta fuel leak issues, but this seems to be non fuel related. I thought it was too rich in summer, but that means it should run great in winter ... nope its worse ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[Blueknyt]

trade you an 82 650 maxim worn out engine with papers and a 83 xj seca 650 turbo  (ran)  without title for the virago  turbo doesnt chatter but carbs need cleaning, engine sounded tight and was sloted to go into the maxim but i really didnt want to go welding tabs every where for all the nasty rattle can sprayed body work from the seca

[The Buddha]

Oy vey ... Its not like we have a shortage of problems between the 2 of us ... I have a maxim as well ... whihc is in fact in only semi busted shape ... anyway ... need virago for a while, I suspect a valve adjustment may do the required trick ... tommorow ... BTW the rear cyl has a weird dinky little spark ... much worse than front if I recall. But that was that same way 3K ago ... doubt its anything more than the fact that front has lots of crap sheilding the light ... rear doesn't ... so optical illusion ... yea I did it in broad daylight too ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[starwalt]

Could be electrical. Temperature related problems are common with "vintage" systems. After the valve adjustments, let me know. I don't have any cycle specific diagnostic tools though I am sure they can't be too hard to make or adapt from the automotive world.

[The Buddha]

Valves are set right. They were to begin with, and I still got 1 cyl only. Now I am not ruling out fuel since the thing seems to always be accompanied by fuel out the exhaust or fuel under the thing ... and plug 0 the resr one comes out wet ... I mean soaking wet ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[Blueknyt]

swap coils from front to rear see if it changes if it doesnt then its trigger or igniter box related

[The Buddha]

OK I am sorta leaning towards carbs ... the rear will not stop leaking, whihc is the cylinder it doesn't run on ... BTW the carbs had a busted float when I got them, instead of forking out $36 for a float assy, I yanked some off a GS550 and swapped them in. They were nothing like the ones for the Yamaha, but they fit and worked beautifully ... for 3K miles ... The problem is ... I dont remember whihc carb has that float in it. May be the front, and the original float in the rear may be the one acting up ... It also had progressively gotten worse ... as well as intermittently run well ... till now ... I found the GS550 float extremely hard to bend the tang on ... sorta almost un adjustable ... That makes me think the front is likely to have that, the rear has the original and its bending into a point where it is leting the fuel level get too high ... I may swap the yamaha one with the GS550 one. Yea I'll pull it and see what it was like.
Cool.
Srinath.

[The Buddha]

OK leaky carbs were fixed. Were never the problem BTW, new O orings when  I ripped one of them ... and checking and double checking everything ... $36 for floats and sheite, another $15 for O rings (Yea Yamaha was just $3.65 each and $6 shipping whoo hoo a whopping $2 cheaper - but I bought 40 2 different sizes of 20 each for $15 including shipping from a power supply place)    ... and the bike still didn't start, ran the battery down and put it on the jump starter and burnt down 300 KW trying to start the bloody thing. Then out of the blue ... I decide to buy spark plugs ... WTF ... the ones in there are barely 3 months old. OK I put in new sparkies and hit start and the bike barely cranks over ... and fires to life ... WTF ... NGK spark plugs only last 3 months ... WTF ... The old ones look nice and clean and one doesn't spark when tested and the other does but somehow it still didn't fire up the bike. Anyway I have champions on order so no more smart alec comments ... Duh why keep buying NGK's if you dont like them ... BTW autolite plugs have somehow stopped coating the firing tip and the hook electrode black, just threads are black ...    ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[94suzuki500]

i know how to fix your problem.  

step 1:  remove handbars from yamaha
step 2:  attach handlebars to a suzuki

problem solved  :lol:

[Blueknyt]

if you have little bit of rust/rustywater in fuel, ive found with my katana the little bits of metal fuse themselves to the ceramic insulator in the middle of the spark plug and it shorts the plug down inside,where you cant clean it well.

[The Buddha]

Prolly not have any rust I think, I coated the tank. But I will do a fuel filter and check.
Cool.
Srinath.

[makenzie71]

bu high dollar plugs for your yami.  V-Twins foul plugs like it's an integrated feature...especially carbed bikes.  My XV750 does the same thing.

[The Buddha]

High dollar - as in what ... platinum Iridium types. What else ... basically I just ahve a problem with NGK's ... Champions were fine in it ... worked like a   charm.
Cool.
Srinath.

[makenzie71]

I use Bosch Platinum 4 plugs

[The Buddha]

OH ... they are available ... what number ... cross check chark at NAPA shows it BTW I run 1 step hotter, cos the stockers foul quick with my rich mix ...  Well they clear up fine at high revs, at low revs they suck.
Cool.
Srinath.

[makenzie71]

I'll take a look once I get home...I can't remember if it was for this bike or my CB900 that I had to just try a bunch til I found one that'd fit.  I think that was my CB900 though...