• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

08 TE450 Fouling Plugs?

Went up to Rockwell Saturday. Nick said it wasn't too bad but actually lean according to the exhaust gas analyzer. He reset the tps and tuned it in to about 13:1 or so (where has had success). The co's are now over 110 but it ran well on the dyno. Took it out today and she started out great but as I rode more and more, the "just off idle" range was bogging. Idled good and ran good past 1/4 throttle but still bogged (a lot) when I was in the tight stuff just off idle to 1/4 throttle. It seemed to happen when I let off the throttle and got back on the most. It stalled twice but started right back up (which it would not before). Still driving me crazy. The plug looks fouled again. Im wondering if I have a different problem (like ignition) which is slowly fouling the plug and once it gets fouled, it starts acting up Driving me crazy. I can try Power commander, etc. but if the problem is not with the injection than Ill just be spending more money for nothing. UGH! The stator is oil filled so there is no rust like some other bikes would get.
 
That's frustrating. Again, there are wiser heads than mine here re EFI but I would say that there are loads of bikes, the same spec as yours running good without a Power Commander. It sounds like your problem is elsewhere.. Doesn't ibeat show up any fault codes (?) ie when you took it to the dyno shop? Air filter clean? Air blockage? Apologies, only guesses here
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Gonna go back to basics this week. Clipped the spark plug wire end. Gonna flush the tank and put some fresh gas in it and double check the air intake. Valves are perfect.
 
That's what I'd do. At least you know the things you can work on are good. If there's still a problem then it's going to need diagnostics to sort it. I'm new to EFI and dreading having any problems so watching these posts keenly! Hope you get it sorted
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huskyte310 said:
You can try to check the ground wire that conects to the coil. Some people had that come loose.
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Definately!
I'd look at the basics. Inspect everything- Plan on going as far a completely taking the coil off the bike. Clean the grounds to the frame- check all connections. Clean and prep. I would verify you have no arching from the spark plug cap to cylinder. Get a new spark plug. Concider getting a new spark plug cap. Ensure the Cap wire is secured in coil properly/ inspect and if needed cut off 1/4 " and reinstall....

I have had a bad ground at the coil, and had the spark plug cap fail and arch on cylinder walls. Both caused random poor running and stalls. Frustrating, cause it runs great then suprises you with a stall or gets weak on an uphil (but is just random).

Looking for an old post of mine I searched "coil connections" suprised to see my face show up on the search many times- apparently I mention checking them alot... guess we all preech that which failed or fixxed our bikes alot... that said- check out this post in refferance to spark plugs, cap n' wires, and coil connections- its basic info... but exhaustive....<Spark Plugs, Caps, and coil connections>.
 
Went through the coil connections last night. Found the small crimp on connector to the small tab on the coil (red/white i think) was on but very loose. just barely touched it and it came right off. Cleaned all connections, applied di-electric grease. Zip tied the small wire as well as the throttle cables that seemed to be rubbing on it out of the way. Clipped the ends of the plug wire and applied grease also. Removed all gas, double checked the fuel pump (its ok, still in place), and double checked the air intake. Valves I checked last week and they were perfect. After all that, the battery was too weak to really run it. Charged it over night so now Im gonna run out to the original dealer to get and install the new ignition switch (that too acts up sometimes) and then ride on his property and see what happens. Wish me luck.
 
Ok**************************************** good job. Did you check the ground bolts that hold the coil in place too?

Now... if you corrected an actuall ignition problem but fueling was mistakingly changed to compensate, don't be suprised if it needs another Ibeat adjustment. Ensure you coordinate your findings and results with Rockwell for the best overall outcome.

Hoping for good results for you!:thumbsup:

PS/FYI: that grease (white) on the back of the regulator is not really grease- some have seen it and said (WTF) is that there for... It is actually "heat sink compound" and is made to help transfer and disapate heat: grease is better than nothing, the old stuff is better than grease, and new stuff can be found at Radio Shack.
 
Kept the white grease in place. Took the paint off where the regulator bolts. Greased, cleaned and tightened where the regulator and the coil bolt to the frame. Im thinking it is possible that the reason it ran flawlessly off and on for hours at Rockwell is on the dyno the wire did not shake the coil wire loose. Once in the bouncy trail, the bouncing effected the contact of the coil wire thus fouling the plug. If that is true, the Ibeat setting may be just right (hopefully, Rockwell is 1.5 hours away). Of course, this is all a guess and my fingers are crossed. Logically, the problem shouldn't be the EFI because it ran pretty good (occasional flame out but rare) for a year and then just seemed to get worse through the end of last season.
 
SOunds good!
Yea, when my coil was loose, the vibes at about 6000 rpms would make the bike run like it was hitting a rev limiter and NOT fully rev out. Also it would die on uphills where large amounts of power was needed. Other times it would run perfect... This made me luckily look to other issues (coil). We are apt to blame efi and settings first when we have not develped much knowledge or confidence in the system- so we forget the other things sometimes. I learned that lesson... So I usually ask people to verify eveything else is correct when they ask questions. Its just easier to do when you can eliminate the other issues, and esier if you know the history and condition. When people are certain of the cause but have questions- it is annoying for them to hear people ask the basic questions... So I sometimes don't aske them the basic stuff- being polite... That reminds me of Billy Bob Thorton in Sling Blade: where the mechanics are standing around a lawn mower confused because it won't run after checking "everything" over... BillyBob (Carl) walks up and checks for gas and says "hmmm...there's no gas in the tank"... and they say, "that there boys got a flair for the obvious..."

That' said- can't wait to hear its running right!
 
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