Weak Tramp

The fucking Kawasaki GT750 again.

What would cause feeble sparks - and I mean feeble.

Oddly it starts first press of the button and runs ok but the spark is
pitiful. Really, really pitiful as in can't see or hear it except in my
darkened lockup, and then it's only a tiny yellow flicker.

Coils are good, caps new, HT leads new, plugs new - all of these were
substituted at some point today and the spark remained the same.

Is the igniter box a prime suspect? Connections were all broken and
remade, all were shiny.

Is the Turbo's igniter box the same? (I've only just thought of it).

Any ideas?

 

http://www.skiphireuk.co.uk/

 

Are the sparks equally weak on all plugs?

 

Yes - I should have said, with intermittent no shows on any one of the
four. Which makes it run a bit crap but it'll idle and still be
rideable, just "a bit crap".

....and hellishly thirsty, which makes me think the poor spark may be part
of the problem.

 

So it's not the plugs, leads, coils etc, unless they're all equally duff,
which is unlikely. I'd check that the battery connections are clean and
beautiful, and that there's no significant resistance in the earth circuit
from the cylinder head back to the battery terminal, using a meter.

Yep. Fix the spark problem, then see if you still have the fuel consumption
problem.

 

*ding*

use a jump lead to provide a temporary earth

 

Had the same problem on a FJ12 once. In my case it turned out to be a flat
battery and bad battery earth.

 

Are you sure about the coils ?

It would be my first port of call. Could you have subsituted another
duff one in ?

P.

 

They are fuckers with bad batteries. Mine refused to start even after
being jumpstarted and powered directly from a fully charged battery in
my diesel 4x4.

Turned out to be the battery after all, after me suspecting solenoid/
starter et al ..

P.

 

Indeedly, that's a result of crap sparks. If you've gone over all the
wiring and all the connections are good - HT and LT - then the ignitor
box is prime suspect, especially with the intermittency. Thinks... have
a bloody good look at the pickup coils - they live in a very hostile
environment and it's certainly not unknown for them to give exactly this
symptom when they're on the way out - also, it might just be a duff
connection down there. Out of sight, etc.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

No, I had the known good pair off the turbo and it made no difference.

 

The battery is only six weeks old and it spins over fine.

I'll go through and check the earths just to make sure.

 

http://www.wgcarbs.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26

Thanks, very interesting. All my symptoms and nearly everything [1] I've
done to try and correct it.

Looks like tomorrow's little job.


[1] I took the exhaust off it for reasons that will become clear at
a later date.