Need help again.

[goatman]

Here's the story so far. I have a 91 with Morleys muscle kit, Marks 4-2 and a dyna ignition. It ran pretty good after installing the Morleys kit, not perfect-needed some fine tuning, but perfectly ridable. I changed the plugs
to factory spec NGK's and it ran like crap. Put in a set of Champion to see if
the plugs were the problem, no difference. It idles fine, but runs very uneven and pops a lot from the left side exhaust, not ridable. I did the shotgun twice, no difference. Yesterday I took the carbs off and found the needles shimmed with lock washers! The float settings were also off, set rich. I took out the shims and corrected the float setting with high hopes. Synced the carbs, and guess what, runs exactly the same crappy way. The fact that it changed dramatically after just installing new plugs has me stumped. I am no good with electric problems, but I did put the multimeter up the boot of each plug wire and got the same number on the meter(18.3, I am not sure what that means or what to set the multimeter on). I am broke at the moment, so can't afford to start replacing parts. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.:confused2:

 

[Buster Hymen]

How do the plugs look when you pull them out? Are they wet?

 

[goatman]

No, not wet, but they are new, so they don't give a lot of clues yet.

 

[Buster Hymen]

It's weird that changing plugs suddenly made it run bad. Check for spark from each plug as that would seem to the more logical place to start. Maybe one of the leads has come out from the coil when you changed plugs.

 

[naughtyG]

+1 to the leads getting dislodged either at the boot end or the coil end.

Also, did you keep your old plugs? What were they? Have you tried simply putting them back in to see what happens?

 

[goatman]

No, I didn't keep the old plugs, but they were Champions. I won't have time to work on
it until this weekend, but I did make sure the wires weren't dislodged. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[goatman]

Well I replaced the wires and boots (original and crusty) with new ones. Again I had
high hopes, but no difference. Runs like crap and backfires out of left exhaust something terrible. At least my Magna runs like a sewing machine. Any other ideas?

 

[Jayhawk]

Is it possible that while changing plugs you dislodged a piece of carbon or something, and it's stuck under an exhaust valve?

 

[satariel666]

Maybe you connect the front wires wrong?
The front ones are crisscroses/opposite?
Just an idea.

 

[goatman]

The wires aren't crossed, did them one at a time, the carbon being dislodged could be a possibility. What would I do about that? Thanks for the replies.

 

[satariel666]

Another idea is that champions you've get rided my had diffrent heat value.
Maybe try some ajustment to AF screw? :ummm:

 

[Jayhawk]

The wires aren't crossed, did them one at a time, the carbon being dislodged could be a possibility. What would I do about that? Thanks for the replies.

After googling a bit, I saw some solutions using valve cleaners, including Seafoam. But, I'm in way over my head here to suggest a solution for you if that turns out to be the issue. :ummm:

 

[goatman]

Maybe a little seafoam down the spark plug hole and let it sit overnight? I have tried both NGK and Champion plugs and every A/F setting from 1 turn out to 4 turns out
with no luck. Carbs are in sync also. I guess seafoam should go down carb throat, not spark plug hole.

 

[jfeagins]

It's imperative that you get all four of those leads seated deeply into the coils! It is very easy to put a lead into the hole, tighten the screw cap down and still not have the wire deep enough into that coil. If you do that, and it runs like crap, most likely you would be able to see spark running around and jumping from the wire to the valve cover somewhere, or even jumping out of a coil and directly onto the frame nearby, but there's no guarantee it'll be visible especially in daylight.

Happened to me.

 

[goatman]

Thanks jfeagins, I'll check that.

 

[goatman]

Making some progress. While checking for spark at all plug caps, I noticed #2 cylinder was just warm, not hot. That didn't make sense to me, since I was getting spark thru all
the new wires, and the plugs are new. I removed the plug, and found the ceramic insulator had broke loose and fallen over the electrode, so no spark was getting thru.
I put the NGK's back in, and the worst of it is cured, I still need to get the tuning right,
but I'm back on track. Thanks for the help. Not buying Champions again.

 

[Jayhawk]

Making some progress. While checking for spark at all plug caps, I noticed #2 cylinder was just warm, not hot. That didn't make sense to me, since I was getting spark thru all
the new wires, and the plugs are new. I removed the plug, and found the ceramic insulator had broke loose and fallen over the electrode, so no spark was getting thru.
I put the NGK's back in, and the worst of it is cured, I still need to get the tuning right,
but I'm back on track. Thanks for the help. Not buying Champions again.

Glad you found it. ullhair: