I am starting to think I have some problems with my ignition. My plugs keep failing. I pull them out and the plugs spark to the side. It is wierd to explain. It seems they make these small sparks from the center electrode to the ceramic insulator(I know it makes no sence). They are not old at all. I got them last year. I checked the gap also. If I put another plug in, everything works. My carb does not leak one bit.
I am thinking my coils could be faulty. The spark itself seems much weaker compared to a car. I dont want to shell out $200 for two new coils for a problem that I might not really have. I am wondering if any one atempted to install a different coil on their bikes. Considering Ford has EDIS(wasted spark system) I dont see any major problems in wiring that system to an F2. The EDIS coils should be much stronger therefore they should fire much better even with wet/crappy plugs. Am I on to something here or should I sell my tools on EBAY and take my bike to a mechanic ?[/align]

 

Yeah! That sounds weird...Even though it would be a "weak" spark, the shortest path for a spark is still from the center insulator to the ground electrode. Is it possible to have some kind of "grounding" issue somewhere?
Good Luck!
RB

 

The plug is grounded to the block. I doubt you can have grounding problems with that. If I am not mistaking only NGK makes plugs for us. Did anyone else experience these tip to insulator kind of sparks. I had this happen on over 4 plugs.

 

Test your coils and wires. I picked up the Actron CP7677 Automotive TroubleShooter (Digital Multimeter and Engine Analyzer).for about $40 at autozone ($35+shipping on Amazon). I picked this one, because I can also use it to read the RPMs for tuning. The service manual has detailed information on testing the electrical system, including specific information on testing the coil and wires. I will add, if your wire(s) do not return the proper reading...then take apart the head (not sure of the proper term) of the wire. Basically, if you look inside the end of the wire that hooks onto your sparkplug, you will see a flathead screw cap. Remove that cap and there will be a resistor. Normally, this will just fall out on it's own. If it doesn't, then it is stuck, which is probably causing it not to make contact . Remove the resistor with tweezers or something similiar. Test all of the resistors and make sure you are getting a consistent reading from all 4 wires. Reassemble wires and redo original tests.

 

I did the tests and my cooils check out by the bookperfectly but I still think something is wrong with it. Coils can be pretty wierd sometimes. As soon as you put voltage through them stuff can change. I had this happen to me before. I had a coil in a firebird that checked out but it was still weak.
I have a spark tester. It is basically a spark plug with a very long jump. I don't get a spark with that.
Thanks for the wire head tip. I will look into that, but now I am heading for the scrap yard to get myself a EDIS system.