ignitor unit

[audijunky]

Hey all, I have recently purchased a 1978 xs1100 standard. The PO said everything worked well went it stopped running. PO says he and his buddy traced the problem to the ignitor unit. I was wondering if the ignitor unit from a 1980 and the 1978 are interchangeable.I have found a 1980 for cheap. I am having trouble finding a 1978 cheap though. Any thoughts. Thanks

[webbcraft2150]

TCI boxes are very reliable. I would do some troubleshooting first. Might find out you don't need one.

[mro]

Check out

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6105&highlight=TCI+repair

or go to the search feature and type in "TCI repair"
if above link does not work

May find that there are other problems. Would not have a lota faith in others diagnostics, well maybe proms or randys or kens or tcs or.........., but would still check myself.



mro

[mro]

btw

welcome to Xsive Land



mro

[audijunky]

Thanks for all the replies fellas, and thank you mro for the welcome.

[mainlylinux]

two HEI modules should work as well. I'm doing that right now - I'll have the instructions of what wire goes where when I'm done.

Dan

[Trikerneil]

Mainlylinux

Pardon my ignorance, what's a HEI unit? and what's it off?
It's not a term I've come across before.

Also

Would there be any chance of a copy of your megasquirt fuelling map at some time, my collection of FI bits is growing

TIA

Neil

[randy]

audijunky,

'78's through '80's will interchange. If you'd like help troubleshooting your TCI, go here:

Randy's XS page

[mainlylinux]

Hi Trikerneil, HEI stands for High Energy Ignition. It was used extensively by General Motors in the 70's and 80's. Frequently the HEI "Module" is found mounted inside the distributor, easy to remove by unscrewing two bolts. Some other cars had different model HEI's, in different configurations. There is a model of HEI "Module" that allowed a computer to control the timing, and that might allow us to build a cheap and easy replacement for the XJ TCI.

Basically the component of HEI that is applicable to us is the "ignition module", which is the part that reads the signal from the pickup coil in the distributor (or from our bike) and it also controls the coil, discharging it and making sure that it doesn't overheat by controlling the dwell current.

These modules are cheap ($15.00 in the US) and very easy to obtain. They are also quite sturdy, small, and very easy to hook up. There are 5 actual connections to it (although one of the connections is bascially its chassis), including the ground. On a motorcycle like ours, it would only have to fire 1/4 as often per rpm as it would on a typical V8 engine (once per crank revolution vs four times)

Connections:

1. Ground
2. Power
3. To Coil (and tach)
4. & 5. connect to the pickup coil.

That's it!

Since our bikes have 2 pickup coils we need to use 2 modules. They can even be bought at the junkyard (wreckers) cheaply sometimes.

Running them on a XS allows you to eliminate the TCI completely, and opens the door to replacing the TCI on the XJ. That's something I'm looking into now.

If you have a TCI that works good now and you are happy with it, then stick with that. If you like to experiment, don't have a working TCI, or want a potentially hotter spark then check into something like the HEI.

I wanted to replace my coils and I felt I might as well "upgrade" the TCI while I was at it.

Dan

[mainlylinux]

Here is a picture of several types of HEI modules, courtesy of www.megasquirt.info.

The one in the top left is the 4 pin model which I am using. The one on the top right is the 7 pin, which might work in conjunction with some other circuits to replace the XJ TCI.

[mro]

Hey Dan the TCI replacement man

You need to get w/TC and post a Tech Tip on this.
The FI would be cool too.



mro