# Front Cylinder no fire



## robisra (Dec 13, 2009)

I was riding out a Soggy Bottoms yesterday, and went through the two ditches down from the shop. I ran through the first one with no problems. Then ran through the second one. When I came out of the second one, the brute had lost a little power and seemed to be running on one cylinder. By the time I circled the ditch in the field, I felt the 2nd cylinder fire up, and the brute ran fine for the rest of the day. We rode the trails for another 2 hours (no water/mud) and everything was fine. As we get ready to leave, I go through one of those ditches again. About halfway through, I felt the bike lose power again. It made it out, but on one cylinder. This time, as I was riding around the field, the 2nd cylinder never picked up fire again. Bike cranks and idles, but only running on one cylinder. I get it on the trailer and to the house. Pull front plug wire while bike is running and no change to engine. 

So front cylinder is not firing. I ride around the yard trying to get the front cylinder to kick in and she starts smoking, bad. I pull the air filter and discover a lot (about 4 oz) of clean oil in the air box. I clean that up, pull the front plug, its fouled. I put a new plug in. Bike still cranks and idles, but that front cylinder will not fire. And smoke is billowing out of the exhaust. After cleaning the intake, I ran it for about 20 minutes, but the front cylinder never fires and smoke keeps coming.

I know the front cylinder gets fire because the darn thing shocked me when I pulled the plug boot off.

The ditch was full of mud up to my knees, but not over the fenders and not much water. No mud or water in the air intake. I don't know what caused this, and I don't know what is causing the no-fire. Any ideas?


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

Probably has so much oil in the front that it fowles the plug on the first stroke. Try pulling the plug, cleaning with acetone or laquer thinner and let dry completely. Then plug it onto the wire and set the end on the engine. Crank it to see if it sparks. If it does, let the engine start with the plug out and run for a few seconds to kick extra oil out. Double check that the plug is VERY CLEAN AND DRY..all the way to the bottom of the insolator, then reinstall and try. 

Also you are going to want to check the front coil and its connections and make sure your airfilter is clean and serviced.

If you are running a 2" snorkle, do know this is restrictive and what some don't know is it also adds vacuum on the airbox at higher RPMS which makes it pull harder on the crankcase vent line...and that means more oil to the box.


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## Roboquad (Sep 8, 2009)

Don't you have a buddy with a bore scope. You may have gotten a shock but was it enough. Check your spark,it may not be enough. to me sounds like a spark problem. Does the cylinder move ? do you have compression? I would start by swapping wires etc. From front to back, make sure the push connectors are clean.


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## robisra (Dec 13, 2009)

I bought a compression tester first thing this morning. Hooked it up and was running 70psi in front cylinder. I checked the plug against the engine and it had good spark. Installed the plug and wire and the darn thing cranked right up, no skipping, no smoke. Firing on both cylinders as if nothing was ever wrong. Rode around the yard for an hour and it runs great. Pfm!

Only thing I can figure is the water wheelie in the thick mud put enough load that the crank vent puked oil in the air box. Still not sure why the front cylinder because it looks to me like the back intake in the airbox would be lower during wheelie. But whatever, it runs great now. I was sick last night thinking I lost the cylinder. I didn't think the catchcan mod applied to the efi brutes, but guess I need this? Would that have prevented my problem? 3" snork..


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

robisra said:


> I bought a compression tester first thing this morning. Hooked it up and was running 70psi in front cylinder. I checked the plug against the engine and it had good spark. Installed the plug and wire and the darn thing cranked right up, no skipping, no smoke. Firing on both cylinders as if nothing was ever wrong. Rode around the yard for an hour and it runs great. Pfm!
> 
> Only thing I can figure is the water wheelie in the thick mud put enough load that the crank vent puked oil in the air box. Still not sure why the front cylinder because it looks to me like the back intake in the airbox would be lower during wheelie. But whatever, it runs great now. I was sick last night thinking I lost the cylinder. I didn't think the catchcan mod applied to the efi brutes, but guess I need this? Would that have prevented my problem? 3" snork..


Yeah, Catchcan and a 3" snork...for sure.


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## hp488 (Sep 23, 2009)

nmkawierider said:


> Yeah, Catchcan and a 3" snork...for sure.


When I snorkeled mine I did the 2" and no problem with it being restricted seems to get more than the factory setup IMO. I did not do the catch can mod I only ran the vent line to the pod with a small filter never had it puke any oil up.


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## oldtruck54 (Mar 13, 2011)

what do you mean buy a catchcan


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## Roboquad (Sep 8, 2009)

Search thread under kawi. How to. glad to hear it is up and running again ,it always seems to be the front cylinders that give problems. Make sure your spark plug drain holes are cleared out too. Glad to hear no big deal.


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## whoolieshop (Mar 22, 2011)

Also if you were playing in the water be sure that your plugs and coils have di-electric grease on all connections, water in the cap can cause a mis-fire that magically clears up later once the plug dries out.


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## robisra (Dec 13, 2009)

thanks everyone. I'll add dielectric grease to the coils and plugs boots tonight and clean the drain holes (didnt even know about these). Also just ordered a yamaha catch can. Now to figure out how I want to mount it. Just posted another thread about that.


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