Pantah 500sl no spark Verticle cylinder

fightingpantah · Post by **fightingpantah** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:59 am

Hi Guys

My Pantah has decide to only run on one cylinder - but I am not happy with a 250 Ducati :-)

I hae the manual and have a few things to check with the multimeter etc.

Any one hae some common things that may cause this issue. I hae been mucking around with the wiring arund the area of the connections so I suppose a disconnect reconnect of all wiring may help but are there any usual suspects for this sort of fault.
Any help appreciated.

Regards

Shane

baddean · Post by **baddean** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:26 am

Hey Shane,
We need more info. Do you have spark? (remove the plug, reinstall wire, ground and crank. Does it spark.)
Is your battery up to full charge and holding it? Is the plug itself good? (did you try a different plug?) Have you pulled the case to make sure your pick up wires are still in good shape and don't have cracked insulation?
Are the pickup gaps correct? Did you swap the coils to see if the problem moves to the other cylinder?
Are you sure that it is electrical and not carb related?
For some more info check the link below and scroll down to the "electrics" section.
Do easy stuff first.
Let us know more,
Dean

http://www.desmo.org.uk/21603/28603.html

fightingpantah · Post by **fightingpantah** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:30 pm

checked for a spark by holding the lead just off the spark plug and nothing. they are new spark plugs which have been working.

Sprayed some Start Ya Bastard http://www.startyabastard.com/

down the throat of the carby and if that doesnt kick it in the guts there is no spark.

Will get out the multimeter and do some comparitive measurements, and then some swaps of componenets side to side and see what I can come up with. Because I have been mucking around with wiring I suspect it is a loose connection so hopefully a reconnect and maybe some contact cleaner spray will fix.

Hopefully have a bit of time tonight.

Catch ya and thanks for the help.

Shane

baddean · Post by **baddean** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:59 pm

Hey Shane,
You'll probably get around to checking the wires from the pickups. Deteriorating insulation is a common problem caused by the hot oil they are in and could cause what you have going on.
Keep us updated.
Dean

fightingpantah · Post by **fightingpantah** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:22 am

Hi Dean

Managed to check the resistance of the pickups, which should be around 220 ohms, both looked good.

That was when my multimeter decided to catch "Ducati Disease" and stopped working - bugger.

Tomorrow is another day and another multimeter.

CAtch ya

Shane

wdietz186 · Post by **wdietz186** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:09 am

When checking the pickups test between the wires and ground and also between the wires of the pickups[one wire of one pickup to one wire of the other pickup].What can happen is the insulation goes away and shorts between the pickups and you lose the signal pulse.You should have no resistance readings to ground or between the wires.

fightingpantah · Post by **fightingpantah** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:38 pm

Hi Guys

Bit of an update. checked some resistance measurements and all looked o.k.

hooked up in voltmeter mode to the coil red wire and all cool around the 8 volt mark (after resistor).

hooked up to the black/other wire on the coil and started the engine. BOTH coils showed a varying voltage on the input side of the coil.

Did another check on the spark but this time agianst the cylinder head and there was a spark :-)

So clogged/badly gapped spark plug was the cause. Getting some new ones tomorrow for a bit of a test ride on Saturday.

CAtch ya and thanks for the suggestions.

Shane

wdietz186 · Post by **wdietz186** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:07 pm

I think you should have more than 8v at the coils.[ unless there is a ballast resistor in the system].I remember the owners manual or shop man. stating it needs at least 10v to run.When the voltage gets low it will drop a cyl. or shut off if the brake light or other load is applied. Test the battery voltage with the ign. on and see what you get.If you have a weak or bad cell you can have what seems to be sufficent voltage that goes away with a load.If the battery really is good then make sure all the grounding points are clean and secure,high resistances there will cause all sorts of seemingly mysterious problems.

fightingpantah · Post by **fightingpantah** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:20 pm

Thanks Mate.

Yes there is a ballast resistor in place. I have a new battery which I bought when I got the bike back in March.

My Father In law reminded me the other night, when I was talking to him, that unless you re-gap spark plugs when you put them in they will never be the right gap, and while they may work initially, they will clog/stop working fairly soon after install.

So new correctly gapped plugs will hopefully mean the bike is ready to go.

Now I just need to deal with the culture shock of a riding position compared to the Cruiser I have been getting around on.

Catch ya

Shane