more questions

[oldyam80sg]

I cleaned out the carbs and did the bread tie pre sync.I installed the carbs today and have some questions.All cylinders are hot,i pulled #1 spark plug- a little bit of carbon was on this plug all other were dry and slightly darkish Grey.What causes that? and is the Grey color normal?Also i went to replace the main harness because i had a spare laying around.I noticed halfway through the install- no ballast resistor wires and no wires that matched the coil wires.Can i run it without a ballast resistor without damage?Also what color should the coil wires be?Thanks for any input.Bike started up and warmed up rather fast.I forgot to readjust the big knob that controls the idle and saw this was the only thing i did wrong.I feel the bike is at 90% complete!

[bikerphil]

plugs

Carbon= rich condition or weak spark. If you're running stock coils + wires, unscrew that spark plug cap & cut 1/4" off the wire and re-attach cap. If that doesn't help, try turning in the idle mixture screw 1/4 - 1/2 turn. What year is your bike? The earlier models you must run a ballast resistor if you have the stock 1.5 ohm coils. The later years used no ballast (3 ohms). Stock coil wires are black. HTH

[oldyam80sg]

I have a 1980 SG.I did not see black wires.I looked at the harness and did not see anything cut.I did see two wires brown and pink that had 2 female connectors.Do i need to use the ballast resistor.I have Accel coil wires that I'm using.

[John]

The pink and brown wires are the horn circuit. The wire for the coil should be gray to one coil, and orange to another, with a red/white wire in common to both coils, coming from the resistor to supply the power to the coils.

[oldyam80sg]

Could i tap into a wire or 2 for the resistor?Also i don't have gauge lights and the oil light switch works when it wants to.Turn signals work fine for the left side and make a buzzing noise in the flasher unit and wont flash when i switch to the right side.Also when i use the 4 way flashers the neutral light flashes.No high beam or headlight either.Horn and neutral light work and start button.

[John]

The bike is an SG, right? That's what I ride. The resistor is enclosed in a silver, metal housing and is bolted to the frame, on the left side, just above the valve cover. You should be able to find two red/white wires in that area of the harness. They should be plugged into the resistor. If the resistor has been removed/bypassed, then they should at least be plugged into each other to complete the circuit to power the coils. The other lighting problems are all ground related it sounds like.

[oldyam80sg]

The harness that i was going to replace it with did not have the red white combo for the ballast.I have to check it out more tomorrow.I did manage to ride the bike around my storage shed compound and it rode better than it had been.