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Honda shadow vt600 sudden no spark

  • Gabriele.Frs

    Hi everybody, I was riding my bike perfectly fine, then parked it and picked it up after one hour, and it was having trouble starting. After a while it started, but as soon as I put it in gear it ran like 2 meters and then shut off. It wasn't starting again after a lot of tries. The tank was full of gas, but i switched to reserve anyways, same problem. I tried starting it up while moving the bike on the sides suspecting it had a clogged fuel line and it seemed to start at the beginning but would shut off as soon as I let the trottle go. I tried bypassing the fuel pump(the membrane that is a defective part on this model) by connecting the tank directly to the carb, but nothing changed. Then I pulled the sparplugs out and tried to see if there was spark and nothing, from all four of them, but they were wet, meaning that fuel was not the issue(I cleaned them and put them back again). I had spare spark plugs and tried changing them but the issue was the same. The starter motor works fine and I can hear the pistons moving, also the battery has just one year of life, but I connected it to my car while running the tests just to be sure it wasn't low. I then started going down the elctrical troubleshooting:
    1, checked the fuses, all were ok, I also checked the fusebox itself and it was okay
    2. from the ICU, I traced back the black and white cable that goes to the coils and then to the killswitch and starter, and all was okay
    3. checked the coils and they were NOT getting any tension.
    4. Meanwhile, I had an electrician friend check the circuit board from the ICU and it seemed to be working fine.

    I can't believe both coils died suddently and at the same time, and I believe I've kinda gone down a rabbit hole. With all the information provided, do you guys have any suggestion on the next things to say? 
    Hope I've been quite clear, I'm kinda new when it comes to motorbikes.

    Thank you!
  • C

    If it is a carb one, I would try taking the lower spark plugs out, starting the engine and checking if it shoots fuel out - that could mean a stuck carb float, allowing fuel to run free down to the cylinders, which would wet the spark plugs and not start at all.

    Love & Hate, embodied as a bike: VT600C!
  • D

    Sounds electrical. Check Battery voltage, Ignition switch, Check safety circuits, (Kick stand, in gear, clutch). The last thing you did when it was running good was, stop, kick stand down, ignition off.
  • Gabriele.Frs

    Hello, sorry for the missing update. 
    After carefully inspecting everything at some point I got the bike to start by absolutely nothing... other than turning the HANDLEBAR....
    what I discovered is that the black and white cable, the negative that goes to the killswitch, was damaged internally, meaning that some copper wires were "loose" and the current would pass only where the cable was in a certan position with the moving of the handlebar. When I opened the sheath the the wire was absolutely intact and there was no way of noticing a problem with it, but when I started to twist it in portions I then found the loose end when that part of the cable twisted more.

    I guess the lesson here is to literally check every single cable before anything.
    Thank you for your support!
  • TJ

    @Gabriele.Frs awesome! glad to hear you figured it out! 

    DO FUN SHIT!
    Check the FAQ's here for tons of tuning info and more!! - t.ly/MA6r6
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