electrical gremlin

[Socer4m]

I picked up a 80 g cheap, and was running great then the spark just died,,,,checked cdi, popped in my other xs and fired upgood, has dyna 3 ohm upgrade coils, no resistor, checked wires to coils, three of four have 12 volts,,,,the red, yellow stripe that splits to two, one for each coil and also a brown wire has 12 volts, I assumed each coil only has one live 12 volt,,,but 3 live wires out of four to the coils??? I disconnected the brown, turned over the starter and still no fire.....battery fully charged, wierd that both coils refuse to spark at same time,,,,,,,,,,,,what am I missing??? Hope the electrical wizards can help,,,,Mike in Sun Diego

[Loch]

I'm confused, if it fired up with different CDI's, it is the CDI's. Leave them in.

[Loch]

I assume you have an eleven. An orange wire from one coil to the CDI, a grey wire from the other coil to the CDI. Check continuity and short to ground or power. A short to power would explain power to 3 coil leads. Cheers.

[Socer4m]

thanks for the input Loch, just to narrow down the gremlin, I wanted to check the bike's cdi and popped it into my other xs1100 and it ran fine, so that narrowed down that it wasnt the cdi and put it back in,,,,,as Loch stated a short,, so I will try and check out a short, it just seems weird that a negative coil lead now has power,,,hoping it was some common thing, like a pickup wire shorting or similiar,,,,,will update if/when the electrical gods give me luck sorting this out,,,,Mike in Sun DIego

[bikerphil]

The red/wht wire with the double female connector should have 12V, the orange and gray wires are trigger wires from the TCI, don't test those for voltage. You can test them for continuity between the male end(s) at the coil and the TCI plug. You can check the P/U coils at the 4 pin connector at the TCI. They should read about 720 ohms between pairs.

[motoman]

Socer4m, I suggest your electrical gremlin may be hiding in the RUN/STOP switch. This completes the electrical circuit in order for motor to run, Remove the switch halfs from bars and have a look-see inside switch. Careful of internal spring that it dont boing off who knows where. In order to clean, unplug switch and put in a shot glass of Evap-o-Rust for a few hours. Remove and wash it out with water and air hose blow it dry. Will look like new internally and externally, plus in RUN position, motor will always start and keep running for ya.

[cajun31]

check the pickup coil wires for breakage under the left crankcase side cover.

[Socer4m]

thanks guys,,,,the kill switch has been working, thanks Motoman, it , I havent checked the pickups yet but will, the kill switch keeps the bike from even turning over, on stop but on run, the bike cranks but no spark, the r/wh dbl connector has 12 volts, the orange and graybrown wires have no voltage but the wire connecting back from the coil has 12 volts,,,,this has me perplexed,,,,so orange and gray into the coils, nothing, but if I disconnect the gray brown and test the wire from the coil it shows 12 volts,,,so does the two coils 3 hot terminals?? One coil has one 12v the other has both terminals at 12v........assuming the kill switch is good, do coils flow 12 volts through one terminal like the r/wh feed to the other terminal on the coil??? One coil does this the other doesnt but neither coil is firing.....the search continues thanks,,,,Mike in Sun Diego

[bikerphil]

There should be no brown wire going to the coils, just 2 red/wht and orange and gray. There is a brown wire in that vacinity which is paired with a pink wire powering the horn.

[Socer4m]

thanks Phil, I will check that and backtrace the origin of the brownish gray wire, I downloaded an electrical schematic for the bike and it looks like the gray wire goes back directly from the coil to the cdi,,,,,,will check continuity on it and get back,,,horn is good, everthing works, but no spark, turns over fine with starter, and again I plugged in this cdi to my other 1100 and it ran fine, old bikes are so fun, it came from a former xs member that left it outside for years after getting a fj1300 rocket...... ,,,,,the saga continues, ......f..Mike in Sun Diego

[bikerphil]

There may be 2 brown wires, the G model has dual horns. Check the continuity of the orange wire back to the TCI too.

[Loch]

The coils have power and the orange and grey wires are intact, then i agree with checking the pulse generators next.

[Socer4m]

well am slowly going through the web of wires,,,have power to coils and tci, wires checked out from tci to pickups, question, to bypass the tipover switch, does it have to be jumped after pulling out? or just pull it out? Also,,,semi dumb question,,,,can the kill switch still turn over the starter with no spark firing or does it have to have ignition and power to starter to turn over?? thanks for any answers, I will get this beast running yet,,,,the p.o. did the pickup wire fix before and it looks like a decent rewiring, also I crawled around to see underneath and couldnt find a kickstand switch,,,,does the 80 g have one??? It will turn over in neutral or any gear, kickstand down or up so I am assuming there isnt one??? at least I have a couple other bikes to ride while dissecting this xs...........Mike in Sun Diego

[bikerphil]

There are no safety kickstand or clutch switches on the 80 Standard. No need to junp the wires on the tip over switch, just unplug it to eliminate it for testing purposes. The starter will turn over as long as the kill switch is in the on position and the key is on regardless of it having spark or not.

You did say the pick up coil wires checked out by testing with a ohm meter?
Did you check for spark by removing one of the spark plug caps? I've seen them fail internally, especially the long ones for cyl 2+3.

[Socer4m]

thanks Phil,,,,nice to know there is no kickstand or clutch switch, drove me crazy trying to find one,,,I will check the pickup wires, just trying to figure out where to connect the end of the meter where they are on the flywheel,,,it looks like zero access to bare wire, so I guess I can poke a hole in the wire and test there and at the tci,cdi. I swapped cdi with my other xs1100 and it was fine, the coils were the 3 ohm dyna's and they tested good in ohms, primary and secondary, 3.3ohms and 15k,,,,I will disconnect the tip over just to eliminate it, also kind of wierd is at testing the fuse box when I pop one out, one prong registers 12v and the other post is 3v with no fuse in,,,wondering if there is a short to ground somewhere??? which is giving the grounds partial charge....also the spark wires from p.o. were changed with the new coils so will try that also and get back, wierd that none of them are firing.....to be conitinued, thanks again for input ......Mike in Sun Diego