[JasperST4]

My saga continues with the engine stumbling. I thought I had it fixed with putting the old plugs back in but when I got everything back together it returned. The common factor with good and bad performance is the tank up and down respectively. I reached for the key and touched the bracket bolted to the front of the tank. ZAP!

The only thing that could cause that is the ignition wire shorting to the tank. These are about 5 month old Magnecors. I even have plastic wire harness wrap where it goes over the head.

That would explain the engine missing. I bought this bike used Is there supposed to be something to protect the wires? There isn't much room under there at all. I'm going to put the stock wires back on, these must be faulty!

 

[JasperST4]

Well, the plot thickens. The mystery is revealed. And the end is near. Turns out the vertical Magnecor lead has two small cuts in it right under the tank. I'm not sure how they got there snce there's nothing that sharp under there. Pinched maybe but cut?

So it was arcing to the tank. Tank up, no problem, tank down and it would intermittently act up. Good thing I didn't have a simutaneous fuel leak or the mission would have quickly gone from "how do I fix this thing" to "OMG, how do I get this flaming bastard out of the garage before my house burns down"?

But I keep fire extinguishers handy however the damage would have gotten ugly pretty quick.

The moral of the story is ...I'll always use wire protectors there.

 

[Kramer]

Wow. Good find.

 

[JasperST4]

Yeah, I got lucky there, wouldn't have found it if I hadn't went to turn the key off with the engine running, which I usually don't. Couldn't see the breaks in the wire until I took it off and bent it to inspect. Weird.