Bonneville America Forums: My bike is falling apart (electrical and chain)

I had the perfect week from he||. The worst is detailed here. But leading up to it I had electrical problems and my chain is dying I think.

First, I rode in the rain most of the day on Monday from Helena to Freedom's house. During a stop in Missoula, a bit over half way, it wouldn't start for several minutes. After that it ran without fail the rest of the way to John's.

Tuesday morning after gassing and loading up, it would die, it would miss and pop through the carbs and exhaust then die. It would run ballz out for 10 minute and just shut down, then not restart for about another 10 minutes. Mind you, we were leaving Freedom's house for a little (?) tour of British Columbia. I couldn't trust it.

So we trucked it over to Empire Cycles in Spokane (Tingley's in Missoula didn't have a mechanic on duty all day). We left it for them and they got right on it (I'm pretty impressed overall with Empire), but we returned to T-Falls. The mechanic started tracing out and testing every circuit. He found "a resistance" and repaired some corroded connections in the neutral light and/or kickstand kill switch circuits. He said he noticed that the neutral light was now much brighter. Early Wednesday morning we went back to Spokane and I rode it back to Freedom's so we could load up and salvage some of vacation. We made it to Nelson without any problems.

Thursday morning on the way to do some laundry it ran like crap. Right cylinder wasn't firing at all. Exhaust was dead cold. I was freaking out by now. Thinking it was the coil I started calling all the dealerships in the NW that could've had people coming to Nelson for the Raid. They insisted that the coils generally don't go bad and they don't even stock them. After fiddling with it and trying to swap coils (at the laundromat) to test it and having no joy, I put everything back and limped it back to the hotel and started poking around some more. A new friend from Wyoming started helping me and wonder of wonders, he found the right coil wire wouldn't stay in the coil. So that was fixed. Zmilin said this happened on Karen's bike. Bike ran great after that.

Also, I ran without my fog lights turned on because they keep blowing fuses.

The last electrical problem manifested itself today on the way home from Spokane. The tach needle is going CRAZY. It's bouncing around all over the place. Nothing else seems wrong.

Next, my friggin chain keeps stretching. I kept adjusting it, probably 3-4 times in the last week. It's sagging a ton right now. I'm assuming that means it's worn out and the o-rings are toast. One guy in Nelson said I should've dropped it in a can of oil when I put it away in 2003 after installing my belt drive kit. Thing has less than 10k miles on it total.

Anyone care to comment on any of this? I'm amazed, after the week we've had, that it got me home. The upside is that the engine is running like a bat out of he||. Basically I'm going to tear the bike apart and go through everything if I ever want to take it out of town again. Probably get a new chain and sprocket set and Nology coils and wires just to be sure.

Eff Lucas.

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