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This article comes from Braden Thro at Merriam cycles
part of the Done-Solved Mysteries series from the July 2003 issue of Dealer News.)
During the last winter lull, a customer wheeled in an XS11(our specialty) with an intermittent starting condition. The customer had traced the problem to an ignition malfunction but had found no logical cause- wiring and coils were good, pickups ohmed out properly, and he had even swapped out the igniter box with a spare.
After verifying his troubleshooting, i checked the ignition pickup voltage and found it to be about half of normal. Apparently, the integeral magnets had weakened to a point where they could no longer generate a sufficient signal. The cure was simple enough- reduce the gap from ".025 to .010". Output immediately doubled and the bike now started with a vengance.
Regapping is easy enough on engines with adjustable-gap pickups but presents a much greater challenge on non-adjustable types, especially when significant disassembly is needed just to get access. Recently a problem with a mis-firing Virago required the use of a die-grinder to reposition the pick-up bracket(although, the problem was fixed by resetting the gap). At the time replacement of the pickup would have been a $200.00 gamble, since no spec was available on pickup output voltage.Despite all of this, it pays to know that- integeral-magnet ignition pickups can lose output over time.
part of the Done-Solved Mysteries series from the July 2003 issue of Dealer News.)During the last winter lull, a customer wheeled in an XS11(our specialty) with an intermittent starting condition. The customer had traced the problem to an ignition malfunction but had found no logical cause- wiring and coils were good, pickups ohmed out properly, and he had even swapped out the igniter box with a spare.
After verifying his troubleshooting, i checked the ignition pickup voltage and found it to be about half of normal. Apparently, the integeral magnets had weakened to a point where they could no longer generate a sufficient signal. The cure was simple enough- reduce the gap from ".025 to .010". Output immediately doubled and the bike now started with a vengance.
Regapping is easy enough on engines with adjustable-gap pickups but presents a much greater challenge on non-adjustable types, especially when significant disassembly is needed just to get access. Recently a problem with a mis-firing Virago required the use of a die-grinder to reposition the pick-up bracket(although, the problem was fixed by resetting the gap). At the time replacement of the pickup would have been a $200.00 gamble, since no spec was available on pickup output voltage.Despite all of this, it pays to know that- integeral-magnet ignition pickups can lose output over time.