The International CBX Owners Association

Guy's,

I have an 81 "X" that I ride regularly, spring is coming here in NW Indiana soon and I would like to get to the bottom of a problem that seemed to get worse last year as time went on, What I have is when I start my bike after it sits for a bit, as little as a few hours is when I start it it runs very rough with some knocking that appears to be coming from the RH side, now if I let it sit there and idle for a bit (1-5 min) it will clear up and run perfect with great acceleration, smooth as silk and no hesitation. What I'm thinking is one of the ignition modules is giving it up and I wanted to know if any of you has had this experience, by the way it starts quickly but it seems to not run on all the cylinders until something comes on line and then runs fine. This is not the usual vacuum petcock evaporated fuel issue because the time it takes for this to occur seems to be getting shorter as time goes on. Any thoughts or similar experiences ?? Also if it is the ignition module I was thinking that it might be better to just add a Dyna ignition and do away with the modules because the Dyna would be a cheaper possibly better option to replacement modules, I already have Dyna Coils which made a significant improvement until this other problem showed up. Thoughts ?

Also I talked to the Racetech people at the Chicago bike show about a rear shock for the 81-82 X, he said that they currently do not offer one which I knew but he said they would like to get someone in California to loan them a Prolink for a couple of weeks so they can develop one so if you have any interest call Racetech. I have a card with a name and number to contact the individual I talked to but can't seem to find what I did with it, I'll post it once I find it. Thanks in advance for any input on my problem,

Steve P.

Ok Guy's,

Guess I'll have to answer my own post. Last weekend I dug into this and found the modules functioned correctly and appeared as new, so I looked at the pulser/pickups and found the problem. What I had is that it appears that
I had water in the ignition housing that had filled the housing until it leaked out of the wire slot at 4 o'clock which put the lower pickup about 2/3's submerged. The wire sheath had degraded causing the wire inside to arc to the housing. Anyway I replaced the whole system with a new Dyna and am much happy with the results. The motor runs much smoother and much more responsive, plus I had a slight stutter that occurred very occasionally at the end of last year that is now completely gone. A couple of things to note,the pickups on the Dyna are NOT set at the proper 120 and 240 deg from the initial 0 settings. They were off 6-10 degrees from the initial timing set, don't seem like all that much but both were late so there goes smoothness and efficiency, if they were advanced that much over the recommended +10 deg they would spark knock like crazy. So the moral is that I recommend the Dyna as a replacement but you need to check them, I used a degree wheel attached to the RH side of the crank, this compensates for the chain slack to the jack shaft that the ignition runs off of.

PS: I drilled a 1/16" hole in the very bottom of the ignition housing so that water will drain if it gets in and shouldn't fill again, plus a very judicious effort to seal the housing and cable opening.

Steve P

Nice diagnostic investigation, Steve.
Dyna ignition and coils were on my '81 when i bought it 5 years ago. Time to give them a once-over.