electrical problems

[barryboru]

i'm told one of my coils isn't working properly but the mechanic wasn't sure what coil it was. cyclinder one and three aren't firing properly and my bike is sputtering and/or backfiring.
the mechanic said he wasn't sure what is was just that I had an electrical problem and perhaps he thought it was the coils, where do I go from here xs1100 1980 owner
barry
cornwall ontario

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Barry,

Well, first of all, get your bike out of that shop and take it home!!! The XS11's coils fire cylinders 1-4 and 2-3, so if you've got #1 and #3 not firing, then it's NOT NECESSARILY electrical, but could be, but more likely it's the carbs.

What's the history of the bike, had it been running, or was it sitting for a long time, months or years? What other work has been done to it?

Could be the spark plug caps for those cylinders? Each pair of wires fire at the same time when the coils fire, so if one of the wires in the linked pair are firing, then the coil is working, but there could be a problem in the plug wire or cap!?

More info please!
T.C.