Big Problem

[BossHogg]

Hi Guys, hope yalls day is going better than mine is , allright this is the problem..........

About 2 weeks ago my exaust craked and broke off on both sides, inner rust well i couldnt afford a new exaust so i customized the one i still had, being as the headers seemed to still be in good shape i just figured clean off the rust and the hole and weld a new exaust on......... hmmmmm muffelers are expensive ill just make it straight pipe. Well all seemed well after id finished with that i noticed that the #3 header was loose, it appears as though a nut- bolt (are those allen bolts or allen nuts, the reason i ask is because theres a stud but nothing on the end of it, this could have been done by a PO.) However still being broke and this bike being my only transportation to work which is 80 miles 1 way - 800 miles a week, i needed it to go and since i had no previous problem i kept going.

Well this morning the problem came, half way to work i was coming to a stop and she cut off (not normal) i pulled over gave her a quick glance over everything seemed normal and tried to start her again she started right up but within 2-3 seconds died
along with a good bit of smoke coming from the front of the engine. hmmmmmmm. im gana be late to work ive got to go.
started out and imediatly began noticing a jolting, kinda of like a backfire and lose of power for an instance and then fine again until it would do it again which was to long later
pop..pop..pop........pop.pop.pop.pop.............. ......................pop.(you get the picture) i hope) anyway i made it to work and havent looked at it since, after a while it started only doing it in fifth, and then it stoped trying to die at idle. please help

What could the problem be, what could have gone wrong, what other damage can i expect

Thanx Guys

[Artic_rider]

straight pipes dude, I think that says it all. Bike isn't jetted for the flow exhaust if I'm not mistaken. I know I will be corected here sooner or later ( when everyone drags their butts out of bed) I know the PO of my tank had the baffels taken out of the pipes, and it ran like ****. I would recomend putting the baffels back in if you have them...ASAP. If you don't have them, head down to your local dealer, and buy some, and if all else fails, you could fab up a baffel out of one inch hollow tubing, find a way to secure it in the pipe, and pack it with steal wool (It works because my new set of pipes took three weeks to get here, and my home make baffel did the trick) As far as the post...I believe there should be a stud comming off the engine, and the allens your talking about are nuts. Hope you get er rolling soon bro

[BossHogg]

Its been running fine till now, perhaps has something been slowing failing because of the pipes and now completly gone. Thanx for the info on the bolt.

[randy]

I don't think this has anything to do with your pipe change, but your problem sounds like the pickup coil wires are broken.

[DiverRay]

I had a simular problem with my '79. The PO had R&R'd the pipes, and did not use new gaskets. #2 started to make noise, and I thought it had cracked at the head. I put in a new gasket, and that fixed it.
I did install the new one over the old one, as if you look, there are "blocks" on the head that keep you from crushing the gaskets too hard. The stud should have an Allen type nut on it, but I think any nut that will fit should help.
I just hope you didn't burn a valve.

[beechfront]

sounds like pickup coil wires to me as well.

[BossHogg]

hmmmmmmmmm......sounds like ive got some work to do. correct me if im wrong but arnt the pickup coils the same as Coils

[garyrc]

pick up coils should be on the right side of the bike under the metal case if i am correct. please someone correct me if i am wrong.

[randy]

Uuuhhh....No.

Pickup coils are under the left crank cover, the other coils are the ignition coils that fire the spark plugs. They're under the tank.


The pickups ' pick up ' the timing signal from the crank, feed it to the TCI Ignition Box, then the TCI box feeds the Ignition Coils.

[garyrc]

i guess it would depend on if you sitting on the bike or standing in front of it.

[pggg]

For baffles, bung some wire netting up the pipes.

[chevy45412001]

left or right

Almost always as sitting on the bike, only different if noted.

[BossHogg]

Hi guys, pulled the left side cover off i see 4 wires, 1 spliced twice, but other than that everything looks okay, is there anyway you guys know of checking those wires, thanx

[TopCatGr58]

Hey BossHogg,

According to the tech tip, you pull on the wires, and if the insulation 'hourglasses'....stretches and gets thin where it stretches, then the wires are broken. With finding 1 already spliced 2 times in a pretty good sign that that's the problem, but instead of splicing it persae`, you'll want to get some new leads, like test meter leads, and totally replace the sections, then you should be running as strong as ever!
T.C.

[xssiveone]

Ken Talbot has a very nice description of diagnosis and repair on his web page. Pickup wire repair