Alternative to hacking the harness?

[xs11bobber]

So, I was going to take the left coil off and try swapping with one of the old stock coils I had my dad take off. When I started, I noticed that it didn't take much force to turn the nut from the bolt. Not even the weight of my arm. So I thought, hmmmmm, maybe they just aren't grounding and it's causing that 1 to appear bad. I re-tightened everything and now I get 135MV on the Orange. That's puts me about 7/8 of the way to 1 VOLT! Alright... making progress

So does that mean my coil is really bad? I'm gonna do some experimenting with some jumpers or something and see what happens. I'll post results...

[Ken Talbot]

Where are you testing the "out" value for each coil? If you are sticking the test lead inside the sparkplug cap, you are measuring the coil plus the lead wire plus the potentially flakey connection between the lead wire plus the cap, plus the resistor in the cap. Be sure what you're measuring before you start throwing out perfectly good parts. (Hint - cut 1/4" off of the lead wire, reattach the cap, and retest).

[xs11bobber]

If you read closely in the earlier posts, I think I said it. I haven't been testing plug caps or wires, because they're brand new. I'm testing at the male spade ends molded into the new PNM coils.

I was getting intermitent spark. I've somehow changed that to just spark on 2&3. I was doing Randy's TCI test and noted 35MV on the Orange wire at the TCI so I knew I had a problem because Grey and Orange at the TCI should read the same.

Red/White at the coils is 11.72V on both sides. I'm testing the PNM(Parts N' More - GL1100 OEM Replacement) coils on my dad's E so I have the short leads from my old stock(SF) coils attached to the new coils. Red/Whites at the coil spade connector are 9.54V and 9.76V, so I know I'm loosing 2V between the Red/White double bullet connector and the female spades I crimped on to fit the new coils. On the right coil (Grey wire) I'm getting 9.87V, but ont he left coil (Orange wire) I'm getting 135MV.

So I don't know if this is a sign of a bad coil or what my problem is. I've swapped TCI's for others that tested fine on my SF and still spark on only 2&3 cylinders. I do think it's incredibly odd that with a tighter bolt I went from 34MV to 135MV.

[xs11bobber]

Here's what I did...





...And I'm testing at the blue connectors

[xs11bobber]

Still needing some help...

So I removed the PNM coils and tested the primary resistance and it was 2.5 Ohms. I then measured the stock coils that were removed from the bike and they were at 1.5 and 1.6 for the primary resistance. I went ahead and reinstalled the stock coils after trimming back the wires 1/4". I then reattached the ballast resistor and measured all voltages. All were around 11.72V EXCEPT the ORANGE WIRE.

So this thing needs to get power from somewhere. Where do I start?

[bikerphil]

The orange wire runs from the TCI to the 1+4 coil. Check for voltage back at the TCI. ??

[xs11bobber]

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I have 11V on orange and grey. WTF!
Tested at the TCI and then at the coils. Twas the same.

[xs11bobber]

Is this common of the pick-up wire fix?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Josh,

Been out of town for this past week.

Okay, with your new DMM, check the voltage ON the coil where the Orange wire would contact with it. Also check the resistance thru both ends of the Orange wire....from the coil end to the TCI end, should be very low value, and measure the same for the gray for comparison.

You put the OLD coils in, and got the full voltage on the Orange wire at the TCI. Remember, the Orange wire is just continuing the power from the RED/WHITE wire that goes THRU the coil.

So...put the PNM coils or at least the suspect coil back in, and test the power where the Orange wire connects to the coil and you'll probably find that it'll also be low...in the MV range...which would indicate that that particular coil is fried/damaged.

When you first tested your OEM coils, you found the same low MV reading on the Orange wire. Check the orange wire as described above, you may have flaky connections/terminals on the ends of the Orange wire.
T.C.