Help I do not understand old crap

Okay so the 1978 gs400 ran well enough when I bought it. But when I got it home I started to have problems. As of now it is running on one cylinder all the time with the second kicking in momentarily ever few seconds. Under a load it will only run on one cylinder. I put in new plugs and points and set the static time per the manual. I cleaned the carbs twice, the second time they soaked over night. I have swapped the coils/ condensers from side to side and cleaned a bunch of grounds. The thing is that the running cylinder have swapped sides a few times. Never while running. It just starts and runs on the other side. Ideas?

Clean all the electrical connectors in the ignition and all contacts inside the fuse box.

Woody wrote: Clean all the electrical connectors and all contacts inside the fuse box.

+1

Seen this before. It is likely a corroded ign wire. the plug ends should unsrew from the wire then cut the wire back about 1/4 inch and re-thread the cap back on. you should do the coil ends too. The coil ends are likely one of two Styles. the nicer kind have a plastic nut over a rubber Farrell and the wire just pushes on to a pin inside the coil. loosen the nut slide it back pull the wire out cut it back and push it in the hole and reinstall. the other type has a plastic clip with a tapered plastic fitting. use a small screw driver to lift the latch and pull out the clip careful they break easy.

Most bike stores will have a roll of ign wire on the self its real wire not carbon fiber core stuff like cars.

44

Thanks guys. I will try these tonight.

44Dwarf wrote: Seen this before. It is likely a corroded ign wire. the plug ends should unsrew from the wire then cut the wire back about 1/4 inch and re-thread the cap back on. you should do the coil ends too. The coil ends are likely one of two Styles. the nicer kind have a plastic nut over a rubber Farrell and the wire just pushes on to a pin inside the coil. loosen the nut slide it back pull the wire out cut it back and push it in the hole and reinstall. the other type has a plastic clip with a tapered plastic fitting. use a small screw driver to lift the latch and pull out the clip careful they break easy. Most bike stores will have a roll of ign wire on the self its real wire not carbon fiber core stuff like cars. 44

Worked berkeleying great!

It stopped running on both cylinders now?

Congrats!

Woody and Huh,
I went through and cleaned the all the plugs the best I could. And it is running even better now. But do you have any tips on cleaning the inside hole of the bullet plugs? I am thinking a tiny pipe cleaning brush.