VintageVmax.com

Howdy, Well it seems like I have only one more problem to contend with now, hopefully. My 83 vmax wants to run, but it has what I think is an ignition problem. Took it out Fri. night for its first run since I bought it in early December. After yanking it off of the trailer, choked it, three pulls and fire. I folded the gate on the trailer, helmeted up, and off I went. Great throttle response and plenty of power poppin' the skis off of the ground. Went around a couple of bends, gassed it again and duff, duff, duff, dead. So, I had a freind go through it prior to this occurance. He replaced the track, a guide wheel, hyfax, carbides, cleaned carbs, compression test (130L, 125R), and checked fuel system. Still, he could'nt get it to run, It would fire real rough and die. He finally did get it to run, but when he jiggled the wire cluster coming out of the gearcase, it would die. So he soldered what appeared to be an old repair in that cluster, taped it up, and then it ran. So, upon my incedent on Fri. after it died it would not start again, same symptoms prior to the repair. Ten minutes went by and two pulls it started right up. Few!. It catapulted me forty yards and died again. Called my guy that repaired it, and he told me to jiggle those wires, still nothing. Well after two hours of yanking and short bursts, I made it back to the trailer, which was only a half mile away. Now during daylight the next day, I noticed that the orange wire that is soldered on the small port on the coil, had three stands of corroded wire attached, the rest was frayed and not attached. When we wrapped some clean wire around that port it fired right up, took it for a spin and idled down and died again. No matter what we did it would'nt start again. We had to drag it 300 yards uphill to put it back on the trailer, where of course it started on the first pull. I was told it could be one of four things. Stator plate, CDI, Coil, or wiring. Does this sound familliar to anyone, I hope it is just a bad coil. All the lights work and gauges Thanks. This things begging to run.

I had a similar problem, ran great when cold, ran great when warm if revving high, but if warm and idling would not take throttle and would eventually die. Turned out the choke plungers were not fully closing, so when cold it was good, but when hot it was too rich.

Sorry to hear about your iginition problem, my 83 has been a basket case since I bought it a month ago. I had to remove my stator to replace the lighting coil. If I were in your shoes I would begin by removing your stator and inspecting it. I would also ohm out the wires and do a wiggle test (wiggle the wires while ohming to see if you have a break). It took me one hour to get it out the 1st time.

Good luck. If you have any questions let me know. I have gotten to know my VMax more than I want to.