Stranded on my R80RT

[johnlt]

At least until my neighbor brought my trailer. I was riding around Green Valley AZ when the bike died at a stop sign. Tried to start it again to no avail. There was 180 miles on the tank so switched to reserve and still no easy start. Finally got it started again but would not idle and had to run it at high RPM. Got to a gas station and filled it up but wouldn't start again no matter what I did. Float bowls are full of fuel. It didn't even try to start on one cylinder so probably not plugs. Did "back fire" a couple times so my thinking is coil or something electrical that affects both cylinders. I'll look at it tomorrow at half time and if nothing obvious, take it in to Iron Horse.

[notacop]

I had a wire pull out of the coils. Makes for no go.

[JimD]

I do not know how any miles you have on your R80 & am not sure it really matters, but I have seen alot of defective coils on the bikes with the dual output coil. Most of them have had cracks in them and were firing to ground. One or two were shorted out internally. Could also be the ignition canister, but they are usually very reliable.

[johnlt]

I might be able check the coil by pulling the tank then under reduced illumination, try to start it. If it's cracked, I should be able to see it arc to ground. Sound reasonable?

[notacop]

Too bad you don't have one of those light sticks to see if the spark is getting to the plug, They were kinda neat.

Pull the plugs and pit them back in the wires and lay them on the head and see is you have spark. That's a quick test.

 

It's really moving some dust around in the old bean to think of solutions.

[JimD]

The low light method is worth a try. Pulling the plugs and laying them on the cylinder to see if they are firing could work also. I prefer putting a timing light on the plug wires and see if you are actually getting fire under load. You might turn it over a few times with the carbs in the choke mode then pull a plug to see if they are wet to be sure you are getting fuel.