Sick Steamer

[Beernard]

Hi All,
My Steamer played up the other day. Coming home from a 500k ride, she was running great. Then, started missing like when you need to switch to Reserve. So I switched to Reserve and no change. Weirdly, I quickly noticed that when I got the engine to around 4000 rpm, it ran perfectly again (yeah, I know, "stop riding like a pansy!"). After getting home, I sprayed the headers with water out of a mister and could see that, at idle, No1 cylinder was out.
I imagine that this is an electrical problem. The coil is my main suspect, but does anyone have a different take on this?
Thanks in advance.

[Mustang]

thats the classic symptom of coil  failure.................especially if they are gill coils


what happens is the internal windings get breaks in them and the spark is too weak to jump the gap of the broken winding , but at higher rpms the spark can jump the gap becauxe the system produces more electrical juice at higher rpms

you are correct you need new coil on #1
personally i would replace all 3 with pvl's or nology's
your triumph dealer is going to sell you gill coils .............and they suck

[JayDub]

  Wot he said ↑

[Beernard]

Thanks Mustang and JayDub. I will replace with a spare PVL for the moment and look into a nice new set of Nologys. I assume the existing PVL's are from the factory.
Interestingly, each of my 92 Trophy, 93 Tiger and 94 Tiger have PVL coils. Perhaps they were replaced early or Australia only got PVL's? Maybe just dumb luck!
Anyway, thanks again for your replies, as well as all the other invaluable info you have shared.

[Beernard]

Well, here's a further report. I tried a spare PVL coil and all is good again. Gotta be happy with such an easy fix!
Once again, Mustang and JayDub's opinions are proved correct. Thanks.

[ssevy]

I'll add something obvious that probably doesn't need to be mentioned, but might help someone with similar symptoms:
If you don't have a spare coil around to swap in, you can still confirm a bad coil by switching two of your coils to see if the problem moves with the suspected coil. Do this by physically swapping the coils.
Swapping the wires between coils will provide the same elimination for the wires themselves.
Ditto for the spark plugs when trying to diagnose those.
Glad you cured it. Most of us have at least two old coils in a drawer somewhere because we have heeded the Nology call😆

[Nick Calne]

New coils - It's the best upgrade to a steamer.

[bemusedinsojo]

New coils - It's the best upgrade to a steamer.

Yep. I did it to mine with t600 coils. Unrelated-3 stock coils for sale. 

[London_Phil]

I did TT600 coils too. Good upgrade.

[Beernard]

Hi All.
Thanks for all the input. I have an update and a question for those that have deployed the TT600 items.
A month after the coil died, another one died! I have thus lost faith in the ageing coils in my collection.
I found a set of TT600 coils at a good price and purchased them as replacements. I don't, however, have the original TT600 connectors and have made connecting wires of my own.  I am unsure of the final connection.
My question is "Which coil terminal does the red wire connect to?"( A red wire being common to all 3 coils). As you look at these, there is a left and a right.
Hope that's enough info. Thanks in advance.

[threepot]

I've done the stick coil upgrade. Not sure how I connected to coils? There is no polarity connection according to Haynes

[GavD]

I seem to remember just plugging them in any old way and firing it up to see if it ran ok, all was good so just left it as it was.

[Mustang]

as long as all three are wired the same you are "good to go ".........

[Beernard]

Thanks All.
I will relax, hook them all up the same and hit the starter!

[threepot]

Good luck It is a good 'mod' to make.
I had a nice surprise yesterday. I was planning a trip up to Snowdonia again this weekend. So I went down to prep the Steamer,because I hadn't used it for a couple of months. I just pressed the starter..no choke,and it instantly fired up! I can never remember any engine start so quickly! Then I woke up :icon_wink:  Oh,this must be what Honda ownership is like?  Lol. But seriously,I've been playing around with the idle mix screws,and maybe I've found the 'magic' setting?
I can just about get my hand under the carbs to make adjustments. But not advisable with a 'hot' engine.
Also,I've gone thru every connector block,cleaned,sprayed with acf50,and covered in 'dialectric'grease,and I'm convinced this contributes??