So who wants to know about the green Mikes Coils?

[MindWebs]

my thoughts...

Did you do the fuse box upgrade yet??

i had that problem on mine and all i did to check it was take my
pliers and short from one side of the ignition fuse to the other.

the bike fired right up but would die as soon as pliers was removed.

the clips that hold the fuses are old and brittle.

an ATC fuse block will give you many more years of service.

[CA]

Yup got the new fuses.

Didn't really check them. Had some friends comin to the house and grudingly walked away from the bike. I definitely will in tomorrow.

Yet in my year and a half on these forums, I can honestly say I have never encountered the "tip over switch," don't see how I missed it. The funny thing is I was monkeying around with it and cursing it's awful location while installing the coils. I would bet tomorrow's lunch on that being it. hopefully.

I'll let y'all know.

thanks

[CA]

well...

I went out and removed the tip over switch. didn't do anything. checked the fuses and found my ignition fuse busted. borrowed my brothers 10 and put it in. The starter cranked this time but after a crank or two it blew. I realized I had the ballast resistor still plugged in from last night so I removed it and plugged the two remaining wires together. The ballast resister itself was very hot.

The only fuse I had left was a 25, put it in just to check it. The starter turned but again it was weak you could tell. and when we checked the two connected wires from the removed ballast resistor one side was very hot.

Don't know. Maybe I should do a new connection between those two wires from the ballast, i was just using the original, but it seemed good and strong to me.

[DiverRay]

Sounds as if you have a short someplace in the ignition. Check the red/white wire all the way from the fuse to the coils. Look for anyplace the wire can rub, and check to be sure it isn't shorting to something at the bypass for the resistor. DO NOT FORGET TO CHECK AT THE HEADLIGHT AND ALL THE WAY TO THE TCU! good luck!
Oh, an easy check for a short is use a VOM between the red/white and ground. If you have a low resistance, unplug the wire at different places to get close to the short. My guess is you pinched a wire when you put in the coils.

[dbeardslee]

If you want to run some continuity tests on the red/wht, open the handlebar switch. One of the red/wht wires leads to the fuse block, and the other goes through the ballast resistor connector and then to the 'Y' connector at the coils. Unplug the ballast connectors, and test the wire from the 'Y' to the connector, and then from the other ballast connector to the handlebar switch. If all wires show continuity, plug the ballast connectors back together and test from the handlebar switch to the 'y' connector. If the continuity readings change you'll know the connectors are the problem. I'm guessing that's what it's going to show as that's where the heat is. When I removed my ballast resistor, I cut the connectors off and soldered the ends together and put a heat shrink over the connection. Nothing to corrode or short - no more problems out of that puppy.

If you want to check your starter button, you can do it with out taking the switch off. If you unplug the connector down by the gas tank, and put one probe from a multimeter on the blue/wht wire, and hold the other probe to the switch housing with the mm set to continuity, you should see an open circuit that closes when you push the button. If it shows continuity all the time, or doesn't show continuity when you push the button, then the button isn't doing its thing.

[CA]

Ok, Great help guys. I printed out a B&W copy of the wiring diagram at work and have been tracing my routes with a colored pencil (summers are slow at the homeless non-profit). It all makes good sense, and I will check just as you guys have said. The diagrams help tremendously as well.

thanks

[CA]

found it. The negative gray wire grounding on of my coils is not grounding. From the wiring diagram it seems this wire runs straight through to the ignition box. I checked it there abd it's not grounding...maybe that's obvious.

what's the best way to resolve this? Can I just ground it with the same wire as the other coil? Find the crack in the gray wire?(dont feel like undoing the whole harness but I will) or just run a new one?

[psycoreefer]

I've not got a diagram in front of me but....
It sound like your talking about the "signal" wire from the TCI to the coil, when that wire grounds it should fire the coil, if it doesn't you won't have any spark on those two cyclinders.

Have you done the pickup coil fix? I'd look there first, if the pickup coils or their wires are not working properly then the TCI will not ground that wire.

No you can't just use the same "ground" for both coils, if you do all 4 cylinders will fire at the same time, and of course then your engine won't run.

[CA]

Ok that makes sense but now I am more confused. So does that mean they in fact should not be grounding at the same time? I simply have the key on and the kill switch on, Im not trying to crank it.

I have never checked my pick up wires. guess I should. Watch it may not have even been my coils. haha.

[dbeardslee]

Here's what you want to do...

Take a digital multimeter, pull the four wire connector at the TCI, and hold it so the 'slots' are horizontal. Put a probe in each one of the 'upper slots' and take a reading. Should be 720 ohms plus or minus 20%. Repeat on the 'lower slots'. If the numbers are within spec, replace the four wire connector, and turn the ignition on but not running (if they're not in spec, jump to the last paragraph). From the back of the large TCI connector put a probe on the red/wht, orange, grey, and wht/red (one at a time) and put the other probe on a good ground. Set your dmm to volts and take a reading. Should be 12v. Repeat on the black/wht and you should get a reading of 6v. If your voltages are significantly less (I would say less that 11.5v), get to work cleaning all connectors, and pay particular attention to the red/wht wire. Don't forget to clean the handlebar switch too - and be careful with the kill switch. When you get the switch apart, there's a screw that holds the kill switch in. Once you've removed it you'll see a little circlip on a brass post. Watch it when you remove the circlip and pull the assembly apart - there's a small ball bearing and some springs and stuff in there that can really fly if you're not careful.

And to finish the pickup coil wire test, remove the timing cover (left side of motor) and take each pickup coil wire in your fingers and pull gently. If you've got any breaks inside the wires you'll see the wire sheath stretch. Just pull gently - the sheath will slide around on the wire a bit, and if you pull too hard you can almost make a good wire look bad. While you're in there you might check your pickup coil gap too.

[DiverRay]

The one last thing to look at, and maybe a FIRST thing, is the TCI box itself. Remove the connectors, and the two screws holding the box onto the bike. Use a #1 phillips screw driver to remove the six screws that hold the cover on. You will see the BOTTOM of a printed circuit board, with the connectors from the bike soldered on one side. Use a soldering iron and heat up each connector until the solder just melts. If you have some rosin core solder, put just a little bit on each connection. Some times the connectors will end up with a "cold" solder joint, or one that the solder has pulled off the metal pins of the connector. This is VERY hard to see with just your eyes, and it's easier to just touch up all the pins so you know the connection is good.

[psycoreefer]

Ok that makes sense but now I am more confused. So does that mean they in fact should not be grounding at the same time? I simply have the key on and the kill switch on, Im not trying to crank it.

I have never checked my pick up wires. guess I should. Watch it may not have even been my coils. haha.

No they should not be grounding at the same time, and they should not be grounding while the engine is not turning. So key on both coil trigger wires should read as an open circuit - not connected to ground.

I think we're getting off track here, if your blowing 10amp fuses and things get hot, during a short cranking session, then the pickup coils aren't your "main" problem. You need to be looking at wires and connectors. Feel around after cranking, If you have a hot connector - its dirty or loose or both, clean it! If you have a hot or very warm wire, follow it and look for bad connections or bad insulation.

I wouldn't continue to use that 25 amp fuse in there, your really risking a melted and burnt wire harness.

BTW you said the ballast resistor was hot - that's ok, that is what it does, turn electricity into heat. However with it removed the two connectors you plugged together should not get hot!

[dbeardslee]

Good call Psyco - you're absolutely right. Here's a couple notorious places for shorts - behind the fuse block mounting plate (check all connectors, and pay particular attention to any that show signs of heat - if you find any, replace the connectors, including the housing if it's got melted places) - the 3-wire ignition connector in the headlight bucket.

[CA]

Shiver me timbers...or something like that.

I didn't mean to hijack this thread, but now I am glad it is here, because it has everything to do with mounting the new coils. I went back yesterday armed with my multimeter and the knowledge here and started playing around. I soon concluded that it was not the signal wires grounding the left coil but the coil itself. I got pretty concerned that I had messed it up, when my brother came out to help diagnose. He immediately saw that the + wires going to the coils were precariously close to the mounting bar on the coil attached to the frame. I repositioned the left positive wire from touching the bar and Wala. No more grounding. After repositioning both wires and fixing a short in the kill switch that developed from us monkeying with it, the bike roared to life.

Without re-gapping my spark plugs or anything I was impressed with the overall performance of the coils. Even though I need to fine tune my carbs (running very rich and have a weird transition around 3.5k to 4.5k) and re-gap my plugs, the coils cured all my obvious problems from before. Its actually hard to compare the old coils because in the end they were really crapping out on me!

Thank you for all your expert advice, through this little exercise my knowledge has greatly increased concerning how electricity works on the bike and in the ignition process, so thank you. At some point this summer I will probably take a day and go through all my connections and the other things listed here.

[psycoreefer]

Glad you got it fixed! Nothing quite like that feeling when it fires up for the first time after some mods...