Crap, bike died on me, shorted spark plug wire?

[XS650D]

After much work I finally got the bike running great, went for a ride and it died, felt like gas starvation
but unfortunately not that easy. I traced back my work and the last thing I did was retorque the head.
Well it looks like when I was tightening the the top engine mount I nipped or caught the spark plug wire
in behind the mount and it must have been shorting out to the frame. I changed the wire but now the bike wont fire. It cranks over great.
If I can get it to fire it dies rite away. I checked spark on both plugs and ive got spark. Any ideas
I have the Pamco Electronic ignition and advance with the high output coil, could I have fried another electrical component. Thx

 

[650Skull]

Can't catch a beak...........

 

[XS650D]

im getting close to letting it go.....

 

[XS650D]

Well I slept on it and decided to pursue fixing ,my own fault , just frustrated I guess.
I m thinkin if I grounded the Plug wire on the frame were it wore thru it damaged something in the Ignition
portion of the system and not the charging which I just fixed. (But I could be wrong) . So the problem is either the Coil,Electronic ignition
or Electronic Advance , am I heading in the right direction. I have a coil of a 83 special with wires and caps.
Can that be exchanged for the High output coil that that came with my Pamco Electronic Ignition kit. That would eliminate
that. I have no idea how to test the other parts as of yet. The ground connection from the Coil on the upper frame mount was where I had
nipped it thru. Trying to tuck the wire in to the frame ,not careful enough and rushing to get the bike runnin.

 

[mrtwowheel]

I would think that a grounded out sparkplug wire would do NO DAMAGE because it would be no different than the grounding at the sparkplug that causes spark for the bike to run.

Scott

 

[Jim]

After much work I finally got the bike running great, went for a ride and it died, felt like gas starvation
but unfortunately not that easy. I traced back my work and the last thing I did was retorque the head.
Well it looks like when I was tightening the the top engine mount I nipped or caught the spark plug wire
in behind the mount and it must have been shorting out to the frame. I changed the wire but now the bike wont fire. It cranks over great.
If I can get it to fire it dies rite away. I checked spark on both plugs and ive got spark. Any ideas
I have the Pamco Electronic ignition and advance with the high output coil, could I have fried another electrical component. Thx

So... you're saying you have spark on both plugs. That suggests the iggy system is working. Thinking this through... you had to remove the tank to do the head retorque. I think I'd be looking for a pinched fuel line or something such as that. Could even be some crud in the tank that broke loose from handling and is blocking the petcock.

 

[XS650D]

Pet cocks flowing great. I checked that first as the symptoms felt like running out of fuel.
I have the screen filters in the petcocks also. I only run fresh 91 (no ethenol) Could the electronic Ignition
have fried from all the Electrical testing while having the Iggy switch on without bike running. Some pretty long durations!
I have read that can fry it. My plugs looked golden brown when I pulled them, no signs of leanness or flooding.
Im stumped! Is there any way to test the Pamco Electronic Ignition other than installing a replacement?
I cant get the motor to run for more than a 2 seconds to check timing in case its way off.

 

[Jim]

Well I'm not a Pamco expert but I'm pretty sure you can run the 83 coil with it (edit: just checked Pete's website and he sez yes... you can run 80-83 coil) . Like Scott said, shorting out the coil secondary shouldn't necessarily hurt anything but who knows. Throw the 83 coil in there and see what happens.

 

[gggGary]

Open and check BOTH cam covers make sure "timing" pins are in place.
Don't ask why I know to do this.

 

[XS650D]

Im out here working on it now, found Petes site and coil testing procedure, looks like coil ok.
only readings that I get that aren't bang on are he states that I should have between 2.5 and 4.5 ohms and
I get 2.4 on my cheap meter. I tested the old original and get 2.5. Im no expert but thats pretty close.
All other readings for infinite resistance are good. The test for one plug to other plug
states to have between 15000 to 20000 ohms. My meter only goes to 2000 so not sure how to get that reading plus not sure if he means
from plug itself or from inside cap? I did compare to old coil and reading is close. I think the coil is ok.
It may be the Electronic ignition may be the culprit !

 

[gggGary]

But you say the plugs spark, right?

 

[XS650D]

Yes get strong spark on both plugs Gary

 

[gggGary]

All the ignition is fine then. As above, timing is the issue.

 

[gggGary]

Or like Jim sez there's no gas...........

 

[XS650D]

Gary,can I test timing without the motor running with Electronic ignition?

 

[gggGary]

yes e-start or kick start, plugs out, timing light.
Be sure to have plugs on the coil wires and grounded.

 

[Jim]

got the bike running great, went for a ride and it died, felt like gas starvation

Gas starvation... as in went back and forth between running and sputtering? Reason I ask is if you had moments of normal running in between the sputters... timing is prolly OK. It won't go out of whack and suddenly back in time. If it never ran right, after the very first sputter... then yeah, could be timing.

 

[MaxPete]

I won’t contribute D - except to say that you’ve got two of the best trouble shooters around working with you....so be methodical.

 

[XS650D]

Believe me Peter ,I appreciate all the help, I may not make it apparent but I probably would have
sold this bike long ago if it wasn't for the fantastic help on this board and yes I figured I got the
best working with me!!. Back to task at hand.I cant get my timing light to work this way for some reason.
Im ordering a new Pamco Electronic Ignition, I think I baked it. Thinking back I may have ran the motor
with the left side wire off for maybe 10 seconds after I changed out the bad spark wire and it did run on
right cylinder for the 10 seconds and then quit. Im not sure how sensitive these parts are but theres no real way to test them other than
replacement.I may have damaged the Electronic advance also. But I have the old mechanical unit if needed. Jim ,worth mentioning, is that when it started break-in up ,I let of throttle and it lessoned some but then continued.Had to push it Home,Dam that was hard on me,gettin older guys.Probably pushed it 1/4 mile!

 

[Jim]

Timing light with dual coil. Try taking the clamp off the wire, flip it upside down and try it again. Or.... switch to the other plug lead. You said plugs are sparking.... if so, one way or another you can get the timing light to work.