TeeCat
One-Mik Wonder
Hi, guys -
Some of you may recall that, last weekend, I re-torqued my '73's head according to the recommended procedure/specs, but I didn't have an opportunity to fire it up until today. The bike won't fire, however. The voltmeter is showing a tad under 12 volts with the headlight on (comes on with ignition), which is always more than sufficient; this is a bike that fires on the first or second hot kick, like clockwork. Today... no sign of life. I put the battery on the tender just in case, and the tender went into maintenance mode almost immediately, so I'm pretty much ruling that out.
When I was taking off the upper engine mounts to access the acorns, however, I distinctly recall having "pinched" the gray-encased PAMCO wire (from the unit to the coil/ground) between my socket the the frame. I didn't cut the gray casing, but the edge of the socket put a little depression in it, and I recall being concerned that I may have crushed or cut one of the internal wires. I kind of dismissed that possibility, but find it curious that the bike will not fire now.
Some time ago, I prepared a test plug to check for spark without damaging the PAMCO or coil, but have not used it in a while, so I'll have to refresh my memory (I'm an electrical/electronics moron). The bike ran beautifully up until now and has no history of fuel delivery problems since the one-carb conversion last fall.
I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for a fairly definitive tests in addition to the spark test, which I'll have to perform when I get some time off. Also, do you agree that I could have crushed one of the small wires coming from the PAMCO, and if so, can that be fixed by me, or am I looking at another unit?
Thoughts welcome. Might go have a little chat with Captain Morgan in the meantime. I normally don't visit him during the week...
TC
Edit: Just remembered to look for this, so I suppose I'll try that first when I get time. Strongly suspect I screwed something up, cut/damaged something, or disconnected something.
Some of you may recall that, last weekend, I re-torqued my '73's head according to the recommended procedure/specs, but I didn't have an opportunity to fire it up until today. The bike won't fire, however. The voltmeter is showing a tad under 12 volts with the headlight on (comes on with ignition), which is always more than sufficient; this is a bike that fires on the first or second hot kick, like clockwork. Today... no sign of life. I put the battery on the tender just in case, and the tender went into maintenance mode almost immediately, so I'm pretty much ruling that out.
When I was taking off the upper engine mounts to access the acorns, however, I distinctly recall having "pinched" the gray-encased PAMCO wire (from the unit to the coil/ground) between my socket the the frame. I didn't cut the gray casing, but the edge of the socket put a little depression in it, and I recall being concerned that I may have crushed or cut one of the internal wires. I kind of dismissed that possibility, but find it curious that the bike will not fire now.
Some time ago, I prepared a test plug to check for spark without damaging the PAMCO or coil, but have not used it in a while, so I'll have to refresh my memory (I'm an electrical/electronics moron). The bike ran beautifully up until now and has no history of fuel delivery problems since the one-carb conversion last fall.
I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for a fairly definitive tests in addition to the spark test, which I'll have to perform when I get some time off. Also, do you agree that I could have crushed one of the small wires coming from the PAMCO, and if so, can that be fixed by me, or am I looking at another unit?
Thoughts welcome. Might go have a little chat with Captain Morgan in the meantime. I normally don't visit him during the week...
TC
Edit: Just remembered to look for this, so I suppose I'll try that first when I get time. Strongly suspect I screwed something up, cut/damaged something, or disconnected something.
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