Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech bike died

Riding home from work tonight in the rain, the bike died. Pulled to the side of I-279. Cold and wet I was pi$$ed. Hit the starter, it fired but sounded strange both sides not firing equally. Back on I 279 not even a half mile and it died again, rolled back to the side of the road. Turned the petcock to res. tank just for the heck of it fired back up and rode another half mile running rough died, back fired, died. Pulled the choke fired up and back on the road only six miles to the house. died once again and fired again. Maybe the rain got something wet, never had a problem before in the rain. The only change I made was new NGK I-plugs. Pulled the plugs when I got home right side black and sooty left side nice color. I changed back to the reg. ngk plugs and will try to ride tomorrow.

Marko,
Make sure the coil end of your plug wires are plugged in all the way. Somtimes they come off when you move your plug wires around.

I can second fishercat's advice. I had one side go out and after I took a look I found that one of the plug wires had come loose from the the box under the tank. I made the connector hole a little more snug with some pliers and it's been holding on tight ever since.

I had that problem once. It was hard starting and ended up pushing bike home 2 miles. It was still under warranty Took it to dealer had a bad stator. Warranty took care of it. Found out had roadside assist on insurance and would not have had to push bike. Felt like Curly of the Three Stooges

I had a probelem with the bike running rough. Ran real jerky. Almost threw me off the bike!! I had been doing some playing around under the tank. Ended up just reseating all of my electrical connections and all was fine. Though, I think it was simply that I hadn't reseated one of the plug wires in the coil correctly. Ran like a charm after I did that.

ditto all with the plug wires!!

ditto the ditto, especially check the right one.

Get a nice big tube (looks like a toothpaste toob) of dielectric grease. Unplug everything, one plug at a time, apply grease to every electrical connection on the bike. This will help prevent 99.999999999% of electrical faults in rain, monsoons, hurricanes, but probably not tornadoes.

I second the dielectric grease route. I've been using it on my Spit (AKA "Little Clown Car") and it's eliminated most of the cheezy Lucas connector headaches as I've been tearing into the thing. You can get it at NAPA, but be careful to ask for the inexpensive stuff. Should cost you around 2 bucks for a lifetime supply.

I absolutely agree with everything that's been said re: your problem...but if you find you are still firing on only one cylinder, swap your coils from side to side...if the same side is still not firing, you may very well have a defective ignitor...if the other side doesn't fire, then you can pretty much be sure it's a bad coil...having had the misfortune to experience coil and ignitor problems, maybe I'm a little paranoid now...I sure hope it's just a bad coil wire connection (unless it's under warranty, then your dealer will take care of it)...good luck!

I forgot to add that I have a couple spare stock plug wires, since I just installed some nice new red ones from Brent. PM me if that turns out to be the issue, and if you want me to send you one or both, I'll put them in the mail. I'll be gone all next week, so let me know before the weekend (if you need them quickly).

Rode to work today ran OK. I put the radium plugs back in and will give her A go again tomorrow AM. I will try the grease over the weekend. I think the plug wire are OK, double checked to make sure they were seated good. I pulled the plugs tonite and they look much better than last night.
THANKS everyone.

Pat, grease question. Do you have to worry about shorting between pins with that stuff or can you just gob it on?

it's non-conductive as far as i know.

Pack it in there man.. it won't hurt a thing. I've been using it for years.
Oh , and it's good for the weatherstrips on your cars as well.

Just bought a tube, $8.68 at the local auto parts store.

have the same problem in wet weather or big moisture condensation in air yesterday I could not start bike in the morning popin and odher strange noises after work when came home started from first moment this morning was the sameand almost killed battery sometimes sounds like only 1 cylinder working in dry runs like a clock no problems