Not firing on cylinders one and four

go to this link http://www.xjcd.org/General_Electrical it will have links for tci repair and list caps needed

 

(problems continue below exposition) After I thought I had solved this, the problem resumed. Long story short, I'm not too proud to eat crow.

Took the carbs to church (again, but with more zealous this time), and this bike now starts and runs better than I imagined it could. Fires up in no time at all with no choke, runs great, responsive and powerful. I'm positive the zealous cleaning had the biggest impact on starting, but for those who might be curious, I have a sigma 6 jet kit now, "tuned" (for what it's worth) for my 4-1 exhaust with stock airbox and filter. No complaints, no flat spots. Ran it up somewhere past 85. On my speedo I don't know how far.

I pulled back in from my test ride, lifted the tank, connected vacuum gauges to sync, and hit the starter button. *insert sound of can of rocks* did this several more times fearing the worst then pulled the starter motor to examine it. It rattled when I pulled it out, so that wasn't great. Not sure if anyone can see, but the plastic bracket on the post on the inside is broken to pieces. Apparently I was shorting to case (it would crank now and then, but always the same final result of not starting).

Along with that, I found some evidence of damage to winding insulation on the rotor. Looks like small chips, two of them. The starter brushes and whatnot I can rebuild no issue. Parts already on the way. But what I'm worried about is that the rotor is in it's death throes. Can I reinsulate this? Do I need to? Do I need a "new" rotor? I was thrilled with how well my bike ran. It's so disheartening to swing from one issue to another.

Oh well, it's a 40 year old bike. Can't complain that much!


(with the starter back in but not hooked up, this bike bump starts and runs like a dream. I can at least still ride if I'm confident I have ten feet of level runway)