Weird issue this winter

[Tfrank59]

A little follow-up on my weird issue. I changed the plugs (NGKs) last weekend and I found the front one was in fact tan colored and the rear one was black, but it wasn't actually coated with carbon or anything.  Anyways when I fired the bike up with the new plugs it ran really smooth and has a lot more pep. I guess 20K is it for a set of plugs.

[Texasdrifter]

I had exactly the same issue when I bought mine. I changed the plugs, checked all the coils and wires for tightness, adjusted the carb,  I also replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets because it was backfiring. runs perfect now!

[Tfrank59]

Yeah I'm going to buy new plugs and pull out the old ones see what I can see especially on the rear cylinder. My guess is the front one might tan and the rear might be kind of carbon coated. I was thinking about what you're saying and go in a half a turn on my fuel air screw.

[greenbarn]

If it's jetted too rich, as you said, it could be that you are just fouling the rear plug when it's cold- gas doesn't burn as well when it's cold.  It may have to warm up enough to get that rear plug to fire good.   Same fix though- for now change the plugs and see what they look like.  If you think the rear one is rich, maybe lean out the mix a little.

[Tfrank59]

I have owned 3 xv1100 Viragos and each one had done the same thing as your Drifter. Starting it up after a long down time it would always start on one cylinder only and after a while the dead cylinder would come to life with a big bang outta the exhaust pipe and then be ok. Trouble was,that sparkplugs can't take to many backfires before they are toast, and never failed on those Viragos that I had to replace at least one new plug a year. Not sure why it did this but after I changed from NGK to Autolite plugs as per advice on the Virago forum, plugs have lasted 3 times longer.
Plugs are cheap and relatively easy to change. I would start there first, especially if they have been in for a while.
A little trick i"ll pass on, is an easy way to test for a dead cylinder. Lick the end of your finger and touch it to the exhaust header. If she is dead, the header will be cool and end of finger doesn't hurt, if it is alive, your finger will sizzle and maybe hurt.
Safer and just as easy is an infra red heat sensor gun.

Good advice Rob, I'll change the plugs.  I wanna stick with NGKs though.  I rode the girl today over 40 miles, great ride, both cyls firing as they should from start to finish. I was even able to run her hard enough to clear out some of the carbon that built up over the past months of semi-hibernation.  As our winter draws to a close here in W. Wash I think this "weird issue" is behind me... for now.

[rob f]

 I have owned 3 xv1100 Viragos and each one had done the same thing as your Drifter. Starting it up after a long down time it would always start on one cylinder only and after a while the dead cylinder would come to life with a big bang outta the exhaust pipe and then be ok. Trouble was,that sparkplugs can't take to many backfires before they are toast, and never failed on those Viragos that I had to replace at least one new plug a year. Not sure why it did this but after I changed from NGK to Autolite plugs as per advice on the Virago forum, plugs have lasted 3 times longer.
Plugs are cheap and relatively easy to change. I would start there first, especially if they have been in for a while.
A little trick i"ll pass on, is an easy way to test for a dead cylinder. Lick the end of your finger and touch it to the exhaust header. If she is dead, the header will be cool and end of finger doesn't hurt, if it is alive, your finger will sizzle and maybe hurt.
Safer and just as easy is an infra red heat sensor gun.

[Tfrank59]

I have a theory about what's going on with my bike and I want to run it by you. When Troll mentioned my valves I got to thinking ever since I did my rejet with the dyno jet the bike has been pretty rich and when it's cold I see carbon coming out of the pipes especially the rear cylinder. Well when it's cold like it's been especially last month coldest February on record I think my rear cylinder valves were sticking because of all the carbon deposits in there. and because I haven't really ridden that bike much I ride my other one in the winter mostly because The Drifters not a very good bike for cold weather as far as wind protection. Anyways like I say today I rode the thing and being that it hit 50 degrees this afternoon it was comfortable to ride and she ran like a champ. But I'm afraid I'm getting a lot of carbon deposits in my cylinders and haven't had a good chance to really blow out that carbon. I won't get to do that until the weather really gets good and warm. I'll keep an eye on things and update your but does anybody think that's a possible explanation why she was running on one cylinder in extreme cold?

[Tfrank59]

Well that is pretty interesting. This issue of mine is definitely associated with the cold weather. Today I fired up the bike and it's about 10 degrees warmer than it's been, and it ran great right from the start. I'm hoping it is just a winter thing and it'll cease at least until next winter

[Thiessen90]

I had a similar issue in a different bike, but that one was 2 carbs.  However it was a bad coil and it would run on one cylinder until you really pushed it and then suddenly the other cylinder would jump to life.  Turned out to be a bad coil.

[Tfrank59]

could be a bad coil also

But would a bad coil come back to life once the bike's warm?  I guess one could ask the same question about a spark plug.

[Pilgrim]

could be a bad coil also

[Tfrank59]

Wow see that's why I'm on this forum! I was wondering if it could be a bad spark plug too but I thought fuel delivery just cuz winter time and gas getting bad and stuff like that but you're right one carburetor, it works or it doesn't for both cylinders. I am a little worried when you talk about valves so I'm going to check that out just like you said. Thanks so much Troll!

[Troll]

First off, let me say I envy you. I wish it were possible to even get my bikes to start in the winter. Right now, it's about 0°, but we have had a low, this month of -29° a couple of weeks ago. We set a record for the greatest amount of snow in Feb. 31.1" just for one month...now, about your problem...can't be fuel delivery, since you have one carb that feeds both cylinders...I would suspect a spark plug issue. Just to be sure, however it might be prudent to check engine compression when the engine is cold. If you have a valve that is too tight, it could cause this problem. Normally, you check comp. when the engine is warmed up, but this case, it sounds like the problem goes away after the engine is up to temp. I have no idea what the comp pressure on a cold engine should be, but if they are both within 10% of each other, then you're probably alright.

[Tfrank59]

So this is the fourth winter I've had my girl and I don't winterize my bikes I ride them as frequently as possible. That said, this has been the coldest February on record and the times I've started my bike this month, well the last two times, it's ran really crappy and wouldn't warm up for like 10 minutes, and that's 10 minutes riding after a 10 minute warm up idling. What I think's going on is the rear cylinder isn't wanting to fire up. I can tell it's only running on one cylinder for those first few minutes, pretty sure it's the rear cylinder that's being stubborn, and then all the sudden it wakes up and runs okay. All that to say I think it's probably a fuel delivery issue, so what I intend to do is make sure I fill the tank again with ethanol-free gas, put in some seafoam to stabilize it and try to run the bike more frequently. Hopefully March will be warmer than February where we've had every night in the past couple of weeks below freezing. But what do you guys think? The odd thing is I've had the ethanol free gas in there and I've had seafoam in there as well this winter, but still this problem occurred and like I said it's never happened before this year. Sorry for making such a long post