I noticed, while working on my new toy, that there are two coils. While troubleshooting some stuff when I first go the bike I found out that if I unplug on plug wire, the engine dies. If I plug it back up and unplug the other plug wire on that coil, the engine stays running. I can't even tell a difference just by listening.
On the other coil, the same thing. I unplug one and the motor dies. plug it back up and unplug the other and it keeps running.

If I unplug one on each coil, the engine dies.

Does this sound strange or are there possibly some mind-altering chemicals floating around in my garage?[8D]

 

I'm Just gussing here .

If you unplug one of the (+), you kill lose 2 cylinders and kill the engine
If you unplug one of the (-), nothing, but unplug both (-), engine dies.
Therefore the (-) are shared and when you unplug one (-), the other takes over

what sort of mind-altering chemicals are floating around inyour garage?

 

I'm wondering which of you have the happy tobacco in the garage................??
Please send me some, it's winter here and my supply has dwindled.....he he
You unplug a coil lead and the bike runs as before..................????
How's that plug getting spark then (unless I'm missing something)
It's coz I'm old, I know.........[X(]

 

Shadow,
I know that the plug is getting fire 'cause I can put a spare plug in the wire and lay it on the engine and see the fire. Now keep in mind that I said that I can unplug one wire from each coil (one at a time)and there is no NOTICEABLE difference. Nothing that I can tell anyway. If I plug that wire back up and unplug the other wire from the coil, the engine dies immediately. It exhibits this behaviour on both coils.
Should then engine die no matter which wire I unplug or is this normal?
This is my first sport(ish) bike so I am not real sure if it's affecting the power or not, but I know that it's not missing or running rough. I also know that, no matter what I do, I can't get it to power into a wheelie either.[:@]
Is not being able to power wheelie a symptom? With that said, I haven't adjusted the valves or synced the carbs since I did all of that carb work on it either. That could be stealing some power. I'm not a mechanic, but I can do a few things and I could definitely tell if a 4 cylinder was running on 2 cylinders.
I'm at a loss. It may not be a problem at all. Maybe I should wait until I get all of the work done and then go from there.

My next step in the transformation is that I am going to get 2 new shoes put on her today on lunch I hope.
Once I do that, I am going to put my cruiser in my garage and change out all of the fluids and flush the radiator and brake lines. When I get that done, I can put the Intruder back on the road and put the CBR back into my garage for valve adjustment and carb sync.
Thanks guys.

 

Heres how it works....Like on distributorless cars the ignition system is sending the current to the sparkplug from the coil to both cylinders at the same time. 1-3 and 2 and 4. The voltage comes from the coil to both cylindes at once. One however is on the power cycle and the other is on exhaust cycle (therefore a dead usless spark) If you pull the wire off the supply cylinder before it gets to the plug the engine dies. If you pull the other plug wire the engine stays running as the returning plug wire has its ground supplied by a different ground, say another plug ( by the way it is NOT good practice to pull plugwires of our bikes while the engine in running as it may fire from another cyilder causing damage...food for thought). Think of it this way. voltage goes out one plug wire and through the plug then using the engine head goes to the other plug, jumps the plug gap and returns back through the other wire on the coil. Here is an explaination from the web that is probably more clear.....and no drugs involved....DAM!!

From the web.......

Some popular systems use one ignition coil per two cylinders. This type of system is often known as the waste spark distribution method. In this system, each cylinder is paired with the cylinder opposite it in the firing order (usually 1-4, 2-3 on 4-cylinder engines or 1-4, 2-5, 3-6 on V6 engines). The ends of each coil secondary leads are attached to spark plugs for the paired opposites. These two plugs are on companion cylinders, cylinders that are at Top Dead Center (TDC) at the same time. But, they are paired opposites, because they are always at opposing ends of the 4 stroke engine cycle. When one is at TDC of the compression stroke, the other is at TDC of the exhaust stroke. The one that is on compression is said to be the event cylinder and one on the exhaust stroke, the waste cylinder. When the coil discharges, both plugs fire at the same time to complete the series circuit.
Since the polarity of the primary and the secondary windings are fixed, one plug always fires in a forward direction and the other in reverse. This is different than a conventional system firing all plugs the same direction each time. Because of the demand for additional energy; the coil design, saturation time and primary current flow are also different. This redesign of the system allows higher energy to be available from the distributorless coils, greater than 40 kilovolts at all rpm ranges.

 

Gill,
Cool. Thanks. So - No problem. I like that. It's easier on the wallet.

Thanks for the head-up about unplugging wires while it's running. Actually the first time was an accident. Then I noticed that the engine did die, I started investigating.

 

Power wheelie a 1000F ?- not likely ! They're about 70Kg's heavier than you average sports bike (150 lbs) so unless you "clutch it" power wheelies are not an option. I did notice however that the last time I tried a quick pull away, I smoked the back tyre for a good distance, which was a lot more fun (to me) than a wheelie.....Front end on these bikes is heavy.......
Each to his own.I guess........

 

That's what I thought. I figured that the front end was too heavy. But I also figured that bringing the front up on a bike that heavy couldn't be good for the fork seals.

So I thought that since I was going to go ahead and replace the fork seals anyway, I would go ahead and have my fun until then.

If I blow a fork seal, it wouldn't matter and this would be my last opportunity for a while. Oh well, nothing ventured - nothing gained.

 

[sm=exactly.gif][sm=icon_ladiesman.gif]Great post Gill!

 

+1 Gill,

Also, I think that if the coils found ground through the attachment bolts, the ground wires would not be needed. They are there to assure ground.
Both wires come off a single wire and split ("Y") to the coils. From there (in your case) they share ground through the mounting plate.