Coils

[SuzukiJoeDirt]

I ahve a question about the coils on my 1991 Kat 1100fm. As stupid as it may sound I was riding around in the rain the other day and the bike seemed to flood and die. Now it have spent the night outside in the rain and been ridin pretty hard the next day in the rain also. I think that it was coils thoght that had gotten wet. The air filters were dry and no water in the carbs. Three plugs were bad and I can't say that it was neccasarily for that day as I had not changed them after getting the bike. Now with placement of where the coils are located in the old 1100's am I right in thinking that would be a good sourc of issues???

[rexazz2]

not really the coils because they are encased in hard plastic , usually it is the casing on the wire that starts breaking down allowing moisture in
you could try spraying them down with WD40 to displace the moisture

[SuzukiJoeDirt]

Alright. Now I have no front fairings and was thinking of mounting them complace else. Has anybody moved them before? does the mounting holes go all the way throught the frame so it somebody so wished they could mount the coils on the inside under the tank kind of?

[80GS1100ET]

Alright. Now I have no front fairings and was thinking of mounting them complace else. Has anybody moved them before? does the mounting holes go all the way throught the frame so it somebody so wished they could mount the coils on the inside under the tank kind of?

IMHO, you'd be better off finding out what the problem is and fixing it rather than masking it by hiding the coils. If it turns out to be a crack in the coil housing or cap issues, you may just want to consider buying a set of Dyna 3 ohm coils (the green ones) and a set of Dyna 8mm wires, especially if you're still running the original set of coils. The set costs about $125 and the guys at this site: http://www.z1enterprises.com/ are excellent to work with.

Here's the coils: http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=210

and the wires: http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=1310

If you do this, no more coil worries and you'll probably notice a performance increase because you'll be getting a better spark.

Good luck.

[KYOTE1]

My experience with coils.
More than likely the coils are okay, there is a simple test to check them. Get a multimeter and check the resistance on the primary and secondary. The values are in the manual posted as sticky in this forum. Simple stuff.
My experience with wires
these are high voltage wires and the insulation on them breaks down after awhile, this happens in cars lawnmowers....... To be sure replace the wires to rule it out, good idea anyways as they are old. As a quick solution take out the coils remove the wires from the connector and spark plug cap and snip off a little on each and put back together, you will notice the wire you are cutting off is hard and is usually the problem area as this is broken down insulation. This happens as there is more electrical resistance at these connections and heat is generated and hardens the insulation over time.

Don't spend any money till you have done these two things

[SuzukiJoeDirt]

There are no cracks in the coil housing or cap issues. I wasn't sure if the connections on the outside had gotten some moisture on them if that could effect me at all. Since that day the bike has been runnin just as good as it ever has.

IMHO, you'd be better off finding out what the problem is and fixing it rather than masking it by hiding the coils. If it turns out to be a crack in the coil housing or cap issues, you may just want to consider buying a set of Dyna 3 ohm coils (the green ones) and a set of Dyna 8mm wires, especially if you're still running the original set of coils. The set costs about $125 and the guys at this site: http://www.z1enterprises.com/ are excellent to work with.

Here's the coils: http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=210

and the wires: http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=1310

If you do this, no more coil worries and you'll probably notice a performance increase because you'll be getting a better spark.

Good luck.

[cameron]

my old 92 750 hated the rain no matter what. i baught new coils wires ect tried like the devil to get it water tight but to no avail. i know i missed somthin like a ground wire or somthing.

[80GS1100ET]

Hmmm, well maybe you could set a hose sprayer on the light setting and with the bike running in neutral on the center stand, carefully spray the coils and see if there's any effect? And then start hitting other areas with the water until you get to the spot that is effected. Then at least you can focus your attention to that specific area for what may be causing you this headache.

That's just the first idea that popped up in my head. Maybe someone else has a better idea to try to track down where this gremlin is.

Good luck !!!

[SuzukiJoeDirt]

I have concluded that it's not the coils. I rode the bike 140 miles home and it was pretty wet and crappy out saturday and it had set over night in the rain friday and it gave me no issues. I tried to ride it across town today in the rain and it gave me hell. I do know that with the jets I have now it get's just a touch too much fuel. Could there be water getting sucked in from somewhere and the combonation of that and too much fuel just be drowning it out? Once I got it started again today it ran fine only if I kept it over 3000 RPM. If trying too idle it would simply die and when being kept alive at low RPM with the throttle it would cackle and backfire and such. Any suggestions?