'95 885 just,well, quits?

[mhutch]

Yep,  1995 885 with 46000 miles.  Just adjusted the valves, cleaned the K&N, and general maintenance stuff.  Rode to work this morning (15 miles) with no problems.  On the way home she just, dies. Lights work, starter turns the engine over, everything works but she will not start.  Call a friend with a truck to come get me, and by the time he gets there (30 minutes later), she starts up like nothing is wrong.  Load her up and to the house, ride around the block for 10 minutes and she dies again.  Into the garage then.  The previous owner used the switched power to the coils to activate some relays, maybe one of those connections is bad so I take the relays off and hook the coils up properly.  Drive around the block and ten minutes later (after she gets warm) I am coasting into the driveway with a dead bike.  Pull the spark plugs and no spark...  I am going to do some more troubleshooting tomorrow.  In the meantime I thought that I would throw this out and see what comes back...  Any ideas what the problem might be?

[London_Phil]

Hi there.

Just a thought, but does the tacho die when the engine dies? There are a number of sales on ebay.uk selling ingnition pickup coils, which is apparently prone to failure. One symptom (I read when I googled this,) was that the tacho would drop to zero, as no pulses were being picked up.

Another site also mentions that the "safety cutout " system that kills the engine if you engage gear with side stand down, is also prone to getting dirty contacts, and failing.

Just a couple of possibles for you. Hope it helps.

Phil

[mhutch]

Looks like it is the ignition coil.  Checked it when cold and it was 570 ohms.  Warmed the bike up until it died and the circuit went open.  Back to 570 ohms when it cooled down and would start again.  Ordered one and should be back on the road next weekend.  Thanks for the reply.



Mike

[GrantR]

I had exactly the same problem and it was the crankshank ignition sensor. Cost anbout £25 for a new one and 30 mins to change.

Apparently it is a farly common problem on older triples.

it gets progressively worse and the ratio of 'run time' to 'broke time' gradually decreases.

[apache]

Coil or coils?. There are 3 total and Ive heard they tend to go weak on the steamers. My 97 had 22K and would like to upgrade before im stuck somewhere. I was checking out the Dynas etc but unsure of what ohm value I need to swap.

[mhutch]

Still waiting on the crankshaft pick up coil to verify that this is, in fact, the problem.  This coil is mounted behind the crankshaft cover on the right side of the bike.  I sent Dyna coil an email on the coils to see if they have them.  The spec in the book is 0.63 +-10% ohms on the primary and 10.5kohms +- 10% on the secondary.

[TigerTrax]

I think the earlier ( 93-97 ) Steamers had more than their share of

iginiter coil problems.



On my '98 I had a sparkplug wire that was pulling loose..... I re-routed it and solved the problem.



Finally..... the NEW daytona coils are super if you can find a wrecked bike and get the coils. Check with your dealer .

[klrbill]

I had the briefest of incendents on my '01 955i this past weekend.  I rode about 70 miles out to Hermy's, and then about half way home after riding between 70 and 80 mph for about 45 minutes on the PA turnpike, just for literally under 1 second the bike shut off and it looked like the engine and gas lights came on.  It happened so quickly that I don't know for sure if the other lights came on, but I didn't think they did.  Gas gauge was at half tank; plenty of gas left.



Then the bike kicked back on just that fast and I never had the issue again.  Engine Temp looked fine.  Oil was recently changed and I'm sure levels are fine.  Just enough to make me worry a little about going on long trips...though otherwise the bike has run flawlessly and would totally instill confidence.  Being a computer programmer I was wondering if it might be a glitch in the ECM program or something.  It was that brief and seemingly for no good reason.



Anyone else ever seen this?  As some had suggested...if it were one of the sensors can I expect it might happen more often?  Should I still ride the freakin' thing??  All I know is: "my Honda Civic don't do this."  

[acollbpse]

Did you happen to hit a large bump in the road?  Sometimes relay contacts can bounce open if jarred sufficiently.  If the EFI power relay glitched, the ECU may have reset on you.

[mhutch]

Definitely the pick up coil.  Replaced it and have run around in the Houston heat a couple of times now with no problems.  Thanks for the replys.



Mike