Front Cylinder Misfiring/stalling

[TheWretched]

Hi fellow 'Stormers (or 'Hawkers; depending on where you are)! I'm hoping that one of you will be able to impart some knowledge on me and prevent a trip to a mechanics, or the skip, depending...

Recently, I noticed that my 1997 'storm was heating up quite quickly and after checking the coolant, I decided to do a full system flush and top up with new coolant and replaced the sparkplugs with the NGK Iridium versions. Since then, the bike's not been able to warm up without stalling/stopping. It runs, but as soon as it gets up to the half-way mark on the temp gauge it starts misfiring in the front pot and pretty quickly comes to a stop.

When I took the tank and airbox off (side note - whoever had this bike before, used power tools to do up EVERYTHING - the screw heads looked like Freddy Kruger's prom date), I noticed that one of the manifold sleeves had come loose from the carb, and applying some pressure over the top of the carb (and restricting the air flow) seemed to kick the pot back to life. However, once this was tightened back up and put on, the issue continued. I changed back to the original sparks; still nothing.

My first suspicion was for the worst; a blown gasket. As the coolant was low previously, topping it up might have now built up enough pressure for a leak into the cylinder. However, after an hour of running with some SteelSeal in the rad, the issue is still there. Am I missing something blatently obvious here? I'm really not mechanically minded so its like I'm fumbling around looking for something out of place.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions, guys...

[lloydie]

You had the tank off !
Did you replace the vac pipe wrong ? Worth a quick check to make sure it's in good condition and on the right out let on the fuel tap ( the one at the back facing horizontally not vitally )

[agentpineapple]

maybe a problem with the front coil pack, located above the rad on the nearside, it's a fairing off job to get to it. swap the front and the rear around and see if the problem is reversed.

[VTRDark]

maybe a problem with the front coil pack, located above the rad on the nearside, it's a fairing off job to get to it. swap the front and the rear around and see if the problem is reversed.

You sound like mr mon

replaced the sparkplugs with the NGK Iridium versions. Since then, the bike's not been able to warm up without stalling/stopping. It runs, but as soon as it gets up to the half-way mark on the temp gauge it starts misfiring in the front pot and pretty quickly comes to a stop.

Plug cap not seated securely maybe you have to apply quite a bit of force and should hear it click into place.

(:-})