Help if you can, or trip is cancelled...

[Ivan]

I believe the TCI gives up ataround 10.5V, actually. If it gave up at 12, it would die after idling for 30 seconds at a stop light, since the charging system kinda sucks on these bikes.

So, the TCI works on another bike and the coils both spark. Are you certain you aren't fighting a fuel starvation issue? If you're getting spark, and the TCI tested good, I am starting to think its something else.

Might even be worth it to pop the valve cover and check cam timing. And a compression check might be in order.

Of course it may be the turbo encabulator, you never know.

[CA]

Haha no Randy I haven't been running the tci without a cover, but at 175 lbs maybe my weight is getting to much for the seat But once running I will look at how such rubbing got there.

I will also try and post good pictures of the tci board regardless if it is working or not...the rubbing is wierd.

jmnjrpa i am not sure the intermittent problem is related to the battery going down, i was just doing quite a bit of cranking the past two days on the thing. But your right, it is an intermittent electrical problem we are looking for I believe.

But Ivan you voice what I am afraid of, perhaps the batery was already too weak when I swapped carbs, as I was just going by the sound of the starter. I am going to verify carbs one more time with a fresh battery to see if I can get some response and what that response will be. Then I will swap tci's one more time. after these tests I will report back.

Actually I heard that turbo encabulator acting up just the other day...

[latexeses]

but at 175 lbs maybe my weight is getting to much for the seat

Brother am I in for trouble!

[psycoreefer]

+1 on that, I'm quite a bit over 175 and my tci doesn't get crushed, ya know there is supposed to be a hard plastic box around that board, even if you sat directly on the TCI I don't think you could make it rub the board inside. Maybe yours has some sort of molding defect?

[randy]

Damn. I haven't seen 175 since I was like 15.

[MindWebs]

stupid question time....

what are you running for spark plugs and spark plug caps.

i did the whoops of running resistor plugs with resistor caps.....

it chokes your spark down to almost nothing..

after a 3-700 miles i just kept loosing more and more power.
till i swapped in new plugs.

i'm a bit flustered with my sf as well...
it has had it's fair share of electrical short comings...

i'm still not up to full power, but time will tell

[b.walker5]

Just a left field thought. Was your rev counter working correctly before you had trouble? Your problem may be related to the alternator. If the battery voltage drops below the TCI threshold level then your going to have ignition troubles. Check the integrity of the alternator plug on the three white wires behind the fuse box, charge the battery and start the engine. Measure the battery voltage across the battery while you rev the engine. It should climb to around 14.5v and if it doesnt you may have an alternator or feild coil issue.

[CA]

well I charged the battery all night, came in this morning and verified both sets of carbs I have are working perfectly on the 'good bike'. Put a set of the carbs on the 'bad bike' and installed 12v fresh battery and got nothing. I then took the suspect tci over to the good bike and it ran fine. So for now we have ruled out carbs, tci box, pickup wires.

when trying to start I would crack the throttle and I would get a loud backfire followed by a weird bellowing sucking noise. I am getting 10.9 volts at the coils should be enough.

I will await further possibilities while playing around on my voltmeter!!

[psycoreefer]

check your compression!

[Ivan]

+1 on compression. Sounds like the cams might have slipped time.

[CA]

150-124-148-152 basically.

the number are cylinder obviously concerns me but not sure how bad that is.

I got spark on 2 3 and 4 but not 1...

[psycoreefer]

missing spark on #1... I'd look at your HT lead, the plug and the plug boot. Gotta be one of those, otherwise you wouldn't have spark on #4. You can test the lead and boot, but its easiest to just replace the plug.

[CA]

got spark off of #1 now. I think I was grounding it on a bad spot on the head. I just switched my leads to the coils to fiftieth check and I blew my carbs outta the holders! Ha. I didn't have them secured in.

so I have spark, I have fuel, I have compression, I have air.

watch it be something dumb lets hope.

the voltage at the coils will drop when cranking correct? It drops to about f volts when turning the starter. Makes sense.

[psycoreefer]

got spark off of #1 now. I think I was grounding it on a bad spot on the head. I just switched my leads to the coils to fiftieth check and I blew my carbs outta the holders! Ha. I didn't have them secured in.

so I have spark, I have fuel, I have compression, I have air.

watch it be something dumb lets hope.

the voltage at the coils will drop when cranking correct? It drops to about f volts when turning the starter. Makes sense.

I'll assume your speaking hex, hex (f) = Dec (15) I'd say 15 volts should be more then enough!

BTW if you have fuel, spark, compression and air then your timing must be off...

[CA]

ha, I have never heard of hex. Sorry I am on my phone and forgot to press shift. I have 5 volts at the coils while cranking. At full battery I have 10.9.

what is to make of cylinder 2's compression? Could it be a valve adjustment issue? I just did thw adjustment a couple monthsago, maybe I calculated poorly.

can you change the timing if it not running? Just by turning the starter?