[Mirage]

Hi everbody, I have a 2001 Bandit 1200s and it has run flawlessly until last weekend

I went to start it and the battery was dead (I had taken it out for a 2 hour ride a few days before and it ran perfect). I jump started it and it wasn't running right at all, and I determined that only cylinder #4 was firing! I inspected the plugs and they were all okay, and fuel was being delivered. I checked for spark and there was absolutely nothing on cylinders 1, 2, or 3.

So something happened while the bike was parked in my garage for a few days that caused the battery to discharge and the ignition to fail on 3 cylinders! I am pretty perplexed right now.

Any ideas??

 

[87gsxrnut]

You jumped the bike. That might have scrambled the CDI. You should NEVER jump your bike unless it is an emergency situation. Normally the bike either fires on 1/4 or 2/3. Not just one cylinder. That leads to coil connections, etc.

You need to recheck and make sure that #1 definitely is not firing. Sometimes a new set of plugs will cure the problem. If plugs get fouled, sometimes they won't work. Don't ask me why, but I have seen it a hundred times. Plugs looked OK too when they didn't work.

Sometimes the crank trigger is to blame, but I don't think that is the situation here.

- Nut

 

[icekillah]

yea Nut is right usually the ignition coils run in pairs of cylindars 1&4 and 2&3 it maybe possible that one of your coils went bad, or an electrical short is interfering with the ignition did you check the fuses? a multimeter would be a great investment at this point and are extremly cheap i bought 3 of them for about $12 shipped on ebay.


you really should get a manual for your bike but according to my manual for a suzuki katana 1100 the specs are:

ignition coils:


Primary resistance(where wiring harness meets ignition coil):

3 to 5 ohms


Secondary resistance(where ignition coil meets spark plug caps):

25,000 to 40,000 ohms



and if you do decide to do the work your self please draw a picture of the ignition coils showing which color wires go into which slots as well as which cylindars which coils head to

 

[Mirage]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Nut - Yes I did think it was strange that only #4 was firing beacuse it shares the same ignition coil as #1. I will follow your suggestion about the plugs and pick up a new set today at lunch. I really hope it is something as simple as that!

Ice - I did check the fuses and they were all fine. I also do have a multimeter so if new plugs don't do the trick I'll start trying to trace back the electrical problem.

 

[Mirage]

Alright Nut, you were correct! It was the plugs. They really looked okay but wouldn't spark!

The next problem then is to figure out why the plugs got so fouled in 3000 miles! My first hunch is that the bike was optimized for sea level and I am at 4500 feet and the jets are too big so it's running rich. How hard is it to replace the jets? Or maybe I'm way off base.

 

[87gsxrnut]

Get w/ Dale Walker at:

http://www.holeshot.com

He knows the carb settings on Bandits inside and out.

Tell him Ross told you to call. You might have done something w/the choke at some point. Or, just maybe, you flooded it at some point. Who knows. Maybe the plugs were bad in the first place. I've seen that too.

I would run it for a while. You most likely will be OK, because you still have the CV carbs on there. If you were running the RS-Series carbs, that is where the finicky altitude/tuning stuff comes in.

- Nut

 

[87gsxrnut]

BTW: Jetting is not that hard to switch. Talk to Dale first.

- Nut

 

[87gsxrnut]

BTW: Jetting is not that hard to switch. Talk to Dale first.

- Nut

 

[themeatmanlandry]

Echo

 

[themeatmanlandry]

Echo