Electronic Advice

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

I spent a little time with the Battle Cruiser this morning and paid some attention to the TCI. I pulled the connectors and burnished the contacts on both the Unit and the Connectors. MAN! What difference!! I was having trouble with spark knock when I'd roll on halfway hard at anything over 4000. It's gone! I checked the timing before the run and it was spot on. My guess is the TCI was getting some mixed signals because of minor corrosion.

One thing I did notice was that with the timing light on # 1, there was some dark spots where there should be firing. I also notice that in damp weather, I am getting misfire. What would be the most likely culprit? I am leaning towards a weak coil(s) or bad plug wires. I had changed the plugs two weeks ago and they still look good and tan.

Next, get some carb Stix and get those straightened out.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Gino,

The coils may not be bad, but the wires can develop rain water residue on their outer surface which can then cause a short to ground, which sounds like it's showing up more during rain like you said when it gets wet. You'll want to check the coil wires for chaffing, as well as buildup of residue contacting frame. You may want to replace the high tension leads, and check your plug caps for Xsive resistance.

Probably a good idea to put dielectric grease around the primary wire plugs as well, as has been reported that this is a common place for them to short out also across the plug when they get wet, causing the coil to drop out and not fire, since the power is running across the short instead of thru the primary windings!
T.C.

[Geezer]

Now that you have cleaned some connectors, coat them with dielectric grease to keep them from corroding again.

Also go and do likewise to the rest of the electrical connections on the bike. It's a lot of work but well worth it.

Geezer

[HobbyMan]

I believe it. Before, when I would hit about 80 and let off the throttle a bit, I would loose all power for a second. Yesterday I replaced the connectors that plug into the TCI box with an old plug from a junk harness. The terminals were fine but the old plastic was breaking apart, so I made a tool to remove the terminals from the plastic and switched the plug out. In the process I used some electronic parts cleaner on the terminals. To my suprise, when I got up to speed the problem was gone.

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

Yesterday, I took alonger ride and noticed that a problem I had assumed was normal had disappeared as weell. In days of old, when I would hit a fair sized bumped the engine would stumble a bit. I chalked that up to the XS' sensitive throttle. Not so, it was evidently causing the TCI to miss a signal or two.

I think the engine is also running about 150 to 200 RPM lower at 70 than it was before as well, but OLTIMER's disease may be a factor there...