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Plug Wires and The ECM

90FXRS said:
With the 40 ohm/foot wires on my white sled, 2001 FLSTFI, there is an issue. After installing them and running a test ride I noticed that the check engine light came on with the ignition switch......run/stop in the off position. Before the light came on with the run/stop switch. I turn the ignition on first then from stop to run. I have not checked for any codes at this time.

Taylor sent me an email stating their wires are 350 ohm/foot. Almost 10x as much as the others and almost 10x less than the SE. Could this be a happy medium????? Not sure if I want to spend the money just to get white wires and find out they don't work.
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You know there is another facet to this scenario that could also be playing here. It just might be not so much the ohms the 80v (+or-) the secondary capactance discharge is running over to get the edge of the still burning flame, but rather the " stronger flame itself " resulting from the performance wires. The edge of the flame may be of such magnitude that it does not compare " as expected " with the ECM pre-recorded Lab data tables.

At our current technology level a computer is still relatively stupid. It "alone" cannot think or analyse for itself. It is totally dependent on pre-inputted data to compare to. In other words if it was told that chocolate should taste "this" good, and it runs across some chocolate that tastes fantastic, it cannot delineate that this is still good chocolate. It only knows that the chocolate does not compare with what information it was given.

Or course this is a mute issue, since if the egg breaks it matters little what exactly caused the crack. But just thinking out loud.
 
90FXRS said:
I have not checked for any codes at this time.

Taylor sent me an email stating their wires are 350 ohm/foot. Almost 10x as much as the others and almost 10x less than the SE. Could this be a happy medium????? Not sure if I want to spend the money just to get white wires and find out they don't work.
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Your coming to a conclusion too quickly. Check for codes. It may give you an idea to what is going on.
How many primary side wires are going to your coil. My books show that a 2001 Softail didn't even have Ion sense. 4 wires are required for Ion Sense.
If you have a factory manual for your year bike, see if you even have an error code for those types of errors.
My books (not Genuine) show none.
 
Service and electrical manual show a gray/blue wire. Just went and looked....there are 4 wires and one is gray/blue. Going to get my jumper and see what code, if any, it has.
 
Your coil has 4 wires and my books show 3. It's great when you spend good money for manuals that you can't trust.
The books (that I can't trust) also say that the check engine light comes on for 4 seconds, then off, then on for 8 seconds if you have a code.

It sure does sound like you want those white wires really bad!:)
 
Hoople said:
Your coil has 4 wires and my books show 3. It's great when you spend good money for manuals that you can't trust.
The books (that I can't trust) also say that the check engine light comes on for 4 seconds, then off, then on for 8 seconds if you have a code.

It sure does sound like you want those white wires really bad!:)
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As far as the manuals, I have the factory service, parts and electrical books. I figure that's the best I can get.

As fas as the wires........yes sir, they break-up the black of the jugs and heads. The bike is the pearl white, has a tint of blue and an orange-like tint when the sun hits it, black and chrome.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm mistaken about the check engine light. As far as when it's on and when it goes out. It comes on and stays on with the ignition switch and then gets a little brighter and goes out when it's flipped from stop to run. I guess I haven't paid attention to it other than to see that it goes off before I hit the start switch.
 
Hoople said:
I was kinda thinking the same thing.
The white wires your looking for need to be 8mm correct?
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To be honest I really don't know if that's an issue. From what I've read about the ion-sensing it's more of a resistance issue and I would think that would be more related to the material and method of the wire's composition.
 
90FXRS said:
To be honest I really don't know if that's an issue. it's more of a resistance issue
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I mentioned the 8mm only because of appearance and not for it's electrical properties. Belden makes White silicone true suppression wire but it's 7mm and you would have to crimp your own ends on it. It's for restoring classic cars from the '60's when 7mm was the size they used. But that probably won't help you much.

I am still amazed ion sense was out in 2001. It's going to be hard to find real suppression (~2k/ft) in 8 or 8.8mm and also in white.
I think if you install the HD plugs (30K resistance), you may be able to get by without having a bunch of resistance in the wires.
 
I am kind of confused here, is the engine light cycling on normal then going out on start and staying off? If the new wires have less resistance than SE wires and the light was not on HMMM, Hoople ya got any more ideas?
 
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