Only one cylinder firing.

I've got an "01" FLHTCI that stalled on me. I restarted it, got it home and I know now that I'm only running on one cylinder. That sounds like a typical issue but what are the typical causes?:gah:

Danny

Running on only 1 cylinder is hardly typical. As a matter of fact, I never heard of this before. How many miles on this motor? Is it electrical (no spark)? Pull the plug wire and check if a spark shows. If no spark to that cylinder, either needs new plug wires or a new coil.

The motor has 60,000 miles. I looked at both plugs and they're not worn and I can smell gasoline after it starts. I'll try what you suggested.

Just like I do with natural gas burners. Thanks Cowboy. What do I check next if/when I only see one spark, as I suspect?

Danny

Repeat. If only one spark, replace the plug wires, then the coil.

Thanks Alex, the issue was the spark plug wires. Poorly routed, they wore down from rubbing on the motor and grounded out. New wires and I'm good to go. I did however, get some scary news about my cam chain tentioning assembly. The guys at the shop were pretty surprised that I've got 60 K on the bike and have not replaced the assembly or even had issues with it. The scary part was that the tentioning pad wears down, grinds metal to metal and then we're looking at metal dust going everywhere. So, it looks like I've got a new project. Hydraulic vs gear . . . ? . . . Can you shed some light on that subject for me?

go with the Scream'n Eagle upgrade kit, that way you get the new oil pump with it, the gear drive is noisy.

I agree with Hotroadking. That original spring-style chain tensioner was junk and a bad design. It is amazing you got that many miles without problems there.

The new hydraulic tensioner is much better, but I think the gear-drive cams are the best way to go. They aren't necessarily noisy if the right gear-tooth clearance is used, and this makes for a simpler and longer lasting set-up. A little more up front cost, but much more reliable.

Look at either a Screamin Eagle or Fueling cam plate and oil pump, and Andrews cams and gear-drive. Or, Fueling sells a high quality complete kit with matched components that costs about the same as the chain tensioner system. Your bike will run like it never did before.

I've had both. The new system is cheaper, and you can use stock cams if they are in good shape. I have 52,000 miles on my gear drive with no problems. I went with s&s cams. The SE Cam plate was't available when i switched over. I've heard of guys doing the polishing and they have not had any more problems.

I always took it for granted that when the old tensioner was shot, it was time to go through the whole cam chest and replace everything: inner cam bearings, cams, lifters, oil pump, and cam plate with quality components. With 60,000 miles on it, would you simply replace the tensioner? Do the work once and don't worry about it for another 80-100K miles.

By the way, Fueling sells this complete kit above for $700 and I think it's a bargain.

H-D's cam plate doesn't have outer bearings, but Fueling's does. It does not need special cam journals either.

You have a few options for a new cam plate setup.

The Screamin Eagle upgrade kit comes with a new plate, larger oil pump, 2 hydraulic tensioners, and a new outer roller chain with sprockets. This plate has bearings, so with this setup you can use your existing cams. This upgrade is combination of old and new. It uses the new roller type chain for the connection between the pinion shaft and the cam drive sprocket, but uses the stock hyper-link chain on the cam sticks. Both chains use the new hydraulic tensioner.

The new factory installed kit comes with a new plate, larger oil pump, hydraulic tensioners, 2 roller chains, and new sprockets. However, this plate does not have bearings, you cannot use the cams from the old style plate. The new style plate has bored journals that the cams rotate in.

Or as mentioned, you can go with the Fueling setup.

IMHO, I would go with the new style factory upgrade with the bored journals. Eliminating the bearings, eliminates another part that can fail.

Hope this helps.