Ignition Woes....in the rain.....on the motorway...

It was raining yesterday and I tempted fate by taking the Combat for a 200 km run to clear the mind......
I went to visit a mate in the country who is Guzzi mad but also owns an 850 Commando, which he keeps in the lounge ( there is no SWMBO at the moment).
On the way back I stopped to tighten the mirror and the bike just stopped....and did not want to start again from kicking.The headlight was bright so the battery was ok.
I gave it 5 minutes and turned on the ignition and there was a pffft...out of the exhaust....hmmm I thought the ignition is working.
It then started and was fine for the next 30 minutes at motorway speed...and I had the headlight off just in case.
As you would expect it cut out on the approach to a multilane bridge.....great.....my much loved piece of British engineering was fast becoming a pile of Pommy crap.... :roll:
Once again the 5 minutes worked.....not nice of the side of a motorway with 3 lanes of vehicles flying by......
Got off the motorway and back roaded it home.....
I got to thinking that it was not the first time it cut out after a longish run but it had time to cool down before going again.
My question for the panel is:
Is this a known issue with Boyers?
It came with the bike in Jan so could be years old.....and electronic parts do age.
Thinking of Mr TriSparks ignition to go with his fine voltage regulator.

Here is a Boyer story from the past...... :evil:
I fitted a Boyer to my R75/5 when I was living in London in the late 80's..was fine until I took it and its sidecar to the Elefantreffen in Germany one Winter......when the temperature was below 0 C it would not fire....had to warm up the 'black box' to get it running...once going it was fine for the day..got a bit tiresome after a few mornings. Arrived back in London where it was still snowing and the next day fitted the points back....started straight away. Wrote a grumpy letter to Mr Boyer and they sent a new one.....I never fitted it as points in a BMW are fine...who cares about MPG. :|

It sure sounds like a wire is fractured somewhere.

I would start with quickly checking the obvious, like the boyar live power wire from your ignition switch to your boyer
and then the boyer ground wire, then the quality of the boyer wires going down and through the timing cover and into your points cavity, are those wires firmly still attached, maybe the soldering in the boyer pickups is fracturing.

Not finding anything that obvious, I would completely rewire the boyar.

No, actually after 25 years with a boyer and now 2 years with a trispark, I would just order a new trispark from CNW,
along with their dual lead coil and resister plug leads and resister NGK plugs they supply.

It is critical to ground the trispark securely in the points cover because that IS the source of trispark grounding.

In addition, I ran a thick ground wire directly from the left rear engine mount bolt down to the oil filter mounting bolts, and then ran another thick ground wire from the positive battery lead down to that same oil filter bolt,
of course first grinding away the black paint under the oil filter mounting bolt.

Sorry, I am sold on my trispark, back to boyer troubleshooting.

Is it the early Boyer with the electronics on the timing case? if so I had exactly the same problem with my 850, (back in 1975!).
I replaced it with the later one, (electronic box under the tank) and it's still working today,

Dave.

No, actually after 25 years with a boyer and now 2 years with a trispark, I would just order a new trispark from CNW,
along with their dual lead coil and resister plug leads and resister NGK plugs they supply.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll investigate the wiring but I think I might save up my Kiwi shekels for a Trispark :lol:

When I arrived at my mates place he said " do you want to park it under the eaves keep the rain off"
" shes right..... its a good 'un"

...famous last works.......

resister plug leads and resister NGK plug
--------------
Why resistor leads and resistor plugs? one or the other, not both!

Dave.

I had that problem once upon a time. Spent an age with a squirter bottle of water and the bike running trying to see whether or where the wet was causing grief. Finally found that the grommet at the back of the points housing was missing and figured that in the rain water would track down the cable and part fill the points housing (was running a boyer then) causing the electrons unnecessary confusion. Sealed things up and all good since.
Pfft sound of drips coming out the little points cover drain hole and steaming on the exhaust sound familiar.

Hi 72 Combat, I have an 850 down in Tauranga, I fitted a Pazon as they are made in NZ (admittely by a Brit) and there are three models to choose from.
I rode mine around in last weekends pouring rain, after fitting and setting up my JS keihins, not a faulter in the ignition. Are you going to the rally in Jan 2012 in the Manawatu?
Regards Mike

Brooking 850 said:

Hi 72 Combat, I have an 850 down in Tauranga, I fitted a Pazon as they are made in NZ (admittely by a Brit) and there are three models to choose from.
I rode mine around in last weekends pouring rain, after fitting and setting up my JS keihins, not a faulter in the ignition. Are you going to the rally in Jan 2012 in the Manawatu?
Regards Mike

Click to expand...

Hi Mike, I only heard about the rally today. I'm gearing up to run a bike in the Classic Festival the weekend before...if I can get it finished in time and do another few track days in prep.....sort of a bucket list thing.....maybe...mines been good up till now... :roll:
Probably my lack of maintenance schedule catching up on me...
I'll have a look at the Pazons