Sparking between HT lead and cylinder head

[Scoobs]

My bike is running rougher than a bears **** at the moment.

As the thread title suggests, there is a decent spark, but it is from the HT lead to the cylinder head. The lead is pressed home properly. The symptom are exacerbated in the wet. It does it the minute I start the bike if it has been standing in the rain. So I am guessing it is not water sprayed up by the front wheel.

Do I need to change the HT lead or could it be something like an incorrectly gapped plug? A good glug of WD40 on the lead helps by the way. Not a long term fix though.

I backfired all the way home tonight as there was unburnt fuel going into the pipe from the front cylinder.

[madmartyn]

new leads by the sounds of things :?

[embee]

Generally speaking, once an HT lead will arc to ground it's had it.

The tracking, even when the plug is firing, tends to cause the insulation to degrade, and it won't "heal".

Just for interest, HT problems account for the majority of true breakdowns in petrol engined cars. That's one of the main reasons why modern engines have "on-plug-coils", it minimises the amount of HT carrying hardware.

It's a shame Suzuki didn't put on-plug-coils on the SV (hmmm, now there's a thought :idea: ).

[Scoobs]

Well just phoned a local Suzuki dealer to ask for a new lead, but they come moulded to the coil. Quoted £50 - £60. I don't think so. Apparently, the lead cap unscrews so I am going to try a new cap at £3, otherwise get an aftermarket lead and splice it to the coil.

[BaggaZee]

Hmmmm, club together to get this?...

http://search.ebay.co.uk/sv-coil_W0QQfkrZ1QQfltZ9QQfromZR8


includes what you need, I need indicators and the right rear footrest. Anyone else?