nuber five and six cylinders cold

[big bear craig]

Bike is running very poorly, the exhaust on no's 5 & 6 cylinders is cold while the others get hot.  Pulled # 5 plug an it appeared to be wet with fuel, pulled another plug and it was fine.  When bike is running, the exhaust has the smell of unburned gas.  Plugs have less than a 1000 miles on them, and fresh fuel has been added.  No kinks in vacuum or tank line vents.  Fuel filter inside tank came out spotless too.    I'm thinking  maybe a bad coil or ICM, but this seems rare from what I've heard.  It seems most issues result from bad or old gas, but this bike is never stored and is used all year long with fresh gas added often.  Any Ideas?

[Chattanooga Mark]

I kept watching your other thread hoping for a conclusion/resolution to the problem your Valkyrie is having. If your plug isn't firing, the easiest thing to do is replace the plug. But IMHO, it's unlikely to be a bad plug. But you may have a coil wire that came lose or simply a failed coil.

Please keep us up to date on this,

Mark

[Bone]

Sounds like you added more gas to the gas in question. If so the bad gas is still there just diluted some. I've never been around your "Bad Smell" situation. Could the gas be that contaminated and if so do you need to remove it completely from the fuel supply system ?

[big bear craig]

No I dumped the fuel completly before adding new.  Two cylinders are not firing and they are linked so that is where I'm focusing now.

[Chattanooga Mark]

6 cyliders and 3 coils. Trace back to the pair not working and check for voltage.

Mark

[larswlvs]

It sounds like you have a coil with a bad ground,therefor not delivering any fire to the plugs

[Black Dog]

Craig,

Had a similar issue last spring...  Thought I had a bad coil, but turned out to be a bad ICM.  Very rare, I know, but after everything I went through, it may be worth a look see on your part.

Here is a link to the thread, and the ultimate 'fix'.

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,28413.0.html

I still have the replacement coil I ordered from Pinwall if you want to try it.  Maybe someone near you has an ICM you can try too. Otherwise, check Pinwall or Valkyrie Bling (Mike Terry), and see if they have an ICM for sale.

Black Dog

[big bear craig]

I have ordered a set of coils just in case.  With the bike getting older I don't mind having some spare parts on hand.  I'm also going to order an ICM for the same reason.  If this turns out to be the problem that's ,and if not, I have spare parts for the futures, especially long trips.  Honda dealers seldom have parts on hand, or at least the ones near me.  Thanks for the help everyone.

[Ricky-D]

Being number 5 and number 6 cylinders are seeming to be the problem you can surmise it is not the coil because it would actually be two coils since cylinder number 5 is using a different coil than cylinder number 6.

Getting all the gas out of the tank because it may be bad gas is not addressing the fact that there is still "bad" gas remaining in the carburetor float bowls. Each carburetor has a float bowl drain and is located at the bottom of the bowl and is a flat blade screw driver slotted screw.

***

[Gear Jammer]

Being number 5 and number 6 cylinders are seeming to be the problem you can surmise it is not the coil because it would actually be two coils since cylinder number 5 is using a different coil than cylinder number 6.

***

Hmm, my Honda Manual on page 17-0 shows #5 and #6 cylinders using the same coil, unless I'm misreading something... ???

[Patrick]

My 'Bible' is 1600 miles from me, but, I'm pretty sure the rear coil fires both 5 and 6..
So, how did you determine that there is no fire to either of these sparklers ?? Since these holes aren't working this won't hurt anything.. Take out the 2 offending plugs, attach the wires, ground both plugs, and start the monster.. What happens ?? Or, just swap a couple coils and see if your misfire moves with the coil.. I'm just having a bit of a hard time thinking you have an ignition problem until a few things are checked..

[big bear craig]

Patrick,  I'm not at all certain it's an ignition problem.  I have checked and replaced all fuel lines, checked and or replaced all vacuum lines, checked for kinks, blew out the tank vent, and replaced the oem fuel rooster with a pingel.  I have drained the carbs, both checking for fuel and to make sure each one has fresh fuel.  I replaced the battery, did a recheck on the new battery, and I have checked all connections including the one at ICU.  The problem started about 80 miles in to a ride.  The bike never missed a beat and then started losing power to the point I had to exit the freeway.  I pulled in to a gas station, filled up and let the bike cool down.  I then started the bike, it seemed to run better, and I headed for home.  I then rode another 10 miles,  the performance again dropped off to the point I had to pull over.  I checked everything I could ,I opened the gas cap and ran the bike with the cap open too.  No luck.  I was able to limp home, but as I approached my house, the bike quit running and I had to push it in to the garage.  It would not restart until the next day and when the engine started to warm up the problem intensified again.  I then shut it off, let it cool down, and then restarted it.  While the headers were cool enough I started checking each one for heat and number 5 and 6 remained cool while the others got to hot to touch.  I pulled 5 and 6 plugs, they both smelled like raw gas, and were dark in color compared to the other four plugs.  I'm making progress, but don't have the answer yet.

[wild6]

Just thinking out loud here:

Take off the wire to #5, start it and see if #6 now gets hot.
Do the same the other way around.

If you had a shorted plug, wouldn't it kill both holes?

[Old Geezer Richard]

 Hey Craig , I had a similar problem with my Fat Lady , where she was running great and then she took a dump ...  well I was going thru my mind what could it be and checked every possible reason WHY is it not firing , well it turned out that those two pkugs were like yours , sooty and wet from gas ... I got a fresh set of plugs and SHAZAM !!!  ,my baby was back on the road ...  I'm finding out that when we have mechanical problems , we seem to think for the worst and it turns out to be the simplest thing or part that caused the problem ... try a fresh set of plugs and see what happens Craig  ....  Thanks the Geezer

[big bear craig]

Thanks for the response Geezer.  The plugs are new, but if it were just one of them I would suspect a bad plug, but two and both fired from the same coil?

[98valk]

the end of each plug wire that attaches to the plug has a resistor/fuse in it. remove the r/f and check if its good. rare, but they do go bad. a member about 5 yrs ago had one go bad.
looking into the wire end u will see a brass plug with a slot in it. I think there also is a spring in there also.

[big bear craig]

I'll ck them.  Thanks.

[Hoser]

I think it's the rear coil.  Hoser

[Gear Jammer]

I think it's the rear coil.  Hoser

I'm with the Hoser,,,

[Ricky-D]

I think it's the rear coil.  Hoser

I'm with the Hoser,,,

Yes, Me too.   I was way wrong saying they were involving two different coils.  5 & 6 are on the same coil.

***

[Bigwolf]

Craig, if one plug or one plug wire or one resistor goes bad, neither plug attached to that coil will fire.  If the plugs you have are now fouled, you need to replace both of them at the same time to get a spark.

Bigwolf

[big bear craig]

Thanks for all your input.  I really appreciate it.

[larswlvs]

Cylinders  1 and 2 ,3 and 4 and 5 and 6 are each fired by their own coil...5 ad 6 is fired by one coil

[fordmano]

Voting for bad or discconected coil.

[big bear craig]

Pulled the gas tank and located the number 5 and 6 coil.  Spark  plug wires from the coil were connected and tight, but after looking closely at the top of the coil, I found one of the two wires that plug in to the coil was loose.  Connected the wire and checked for spark at # 5 plug.  The plug was firing a nice hot spark, so I put the bike back together and took her for a short ride.  The bike seems to be running normal, but I'm going to take a longer ride tomorrow to make sure.  Keeping my fingers crossed on this.

Thanks to all of you who responded to my numerous post.  All the suggestions really helped me narrow my search for what could be possibly be wrong.  I really appreciate the help.

[Patrick]

Good, glad it was something easy.. I'm pretty confident you found the problem.. These monsters are pretty bulletproof and coils very rarely fail.. I'm wondering how the coil connector became loose..

[big bear craig]

I was surprised at how loose the connector fit the coil.  It sure played havoc with the motor.  I will take her for a longer ride today,  keeping my fingers crossed that the problem has been solved.

[Hoser]

That would be the igniter circuit, had it happen on a JD lawn tractor, found it after I installed a new igniter, dammit.    Hoser