Help if you can, or trip is cancelled...

[CA]

I am 100% sure I did not mix up the leads. Because right when I put them on I did that! THen switched them. THe bike ran great for about a week, then after a while it began exhibiting the signs that had started before i replaced the coils. Not running on all cylinders, backfiring etc.

I have switched them recently to make 200% sure and nothing.

Thanks Ivan, yes it has been a pain especially since I should be exiting the smokies right now!!

I am believe that I am looking for an intermittent electrical issue that has been coming and going. Not it has come to nest.

On the pictures above there appears to be a fried/damaged section on my tci board. In the picture it merely looks like a brown section, but in real life it looks worse.

A tci board thing would explain why the first time it really stranded me was when my girlfriend got on the back for a ride. ( I swear shes not big!) and the second time it crapped out was when I loaded it up for the trip. Maybe just coincidences. maybe not.

[psycoreefer]

Not sure what the two pictures are, and yes crappy cell phone pictures don't help but it looks like the lower TCI has a burnt/corroded/ or really dirty trace near the bottom right of the picture. Looks like that would either the red/white or red/yellow for the ballast resistor circuit, however you have spark while cranking so must not be too bad.

I'm still not sure why your chasing the spark path when you've confirmed you have spark?

[CA]

Ha I am not really chasing anything right now. Since I have no where else to turn I decided to start playing around...

HOWEVER!

In looking at it closely I can clearly identify rubbing scratches/marks etc around the lower left quadrant where that brown and broken trace is. It looks like at least 3 traces have rubbing on them including the broken one.

Now psycho you know way more than I, but that is exactly where the gray, orange, and white/red wires enter. so from my understanding those control timing and even though I was getting spark it would ruin the timing?? I don't know if its not spark, and its not fuel/air ( I switched out carbs). then I have no where to chase!

[DGXSER]

Look at Randy's member page, there is a link to his personal website which has a good test for the TCI. Run his test and it should tell you if your TCI is the issue.

[psycoreefer]

I'll never claim to be an electrical guru, but these are the facts as I see them..
1. You were riding the bike and it started running worse and worse
2. After shutting the bike off it will now not start
3. You've pulled the plugs and can see that you are getting spark on all 4 cylinders


It takes 4 things to make a motor run, spark, compression, air and fuel.

You've confirmed you have spark, now use a timing light and make sure its at the right time, easy, no need for guessing. I've not read of anyone having a TCI that sparks but at the wrong time, usually they work, or they don't, or the solder joints are bad and they work sometimes.

You think you've got air and fuel because you swaped carbs from a running bike - I'm sceptical but we'll roll with it for now, should be good enough to get pops and bangs I'd think. BTW what do the plugs look like???

Have you checked the compression? Even just held your finger over the hole while cranking?



If you really want to rule out the tci, just swap yours onto the "running" bike (don't go the other way cuz you don't want to burn up the good tci if your bike already fried one) and see if it starts.

[Ivan]

Erg. I guess I just repeated DGXSR's postn. Sorry about that.

Anyway, if you have a burnt trace on the board, but none of the components are fried, a small piece of wire soldered from where the trace starts to where it ends usually works on solid state stuff. With the newer SMT stuff, is so damn small I can't do it, but on this older stuff, its cake.

Maybe that will work?

I am guessing you have an extra TCI there, but if not I have one extra 2H7 (thats what you have correct?)

[CA]

swapped out the tci box and lo and behold my elaborate idea was incorrect. The bike fired right up. Well the true test would be to swap it back to my bike and test it, since sometimes my bike was running just as nicely. Yet my battery is at 11%. the rubbing does worry me, and I may go ahead and do Ivans fix.

When I was checking the spark on the plugs I could barely see because the air bursting out of the plug hole was hitting me right in my eye

Maybe we would all feel better if I put my carbs on the other bike to verify two completely working carbs? Actually that would make me feel better too.

I don't have a timing light. Don't believe I know anyone who does. i may just order the cheapest on from amazon.com and have it here by tomorrow. Guess it would be handy to have one laying around. Could the timing go in and out like that?

[DGXSER]

If I read you correctly, you swapped the TCI from the running bike to the non-runner and now it runs fine.

I do not think your timing is the issue. Everything you have written points to the TCI. I'd say, put a really strong metal cover over it, load your stuff on and go for a short spin.

[CA]

I apologize, I wrote that poorly. I took the suspect tci over to the running bike and it started up fine with either of the tci boxes. So I think that rules out the tci box as the problem. Yet the final way to find out would be to immediately try the suspect tci box on the non-running bike and make sure it is not simply working without a load on it. Yet my battery was dead and I did not feel like swapping out the other battery before lunch.

I will try it once again this afternoon.

I don't know anything about timing so I do not know how easily it goes out of time. But the light is 20 bucks to get here today and would be nice to have I suppose!

[psycoreefer]

do you have a harbor freight near by? You can get one there for about 10 bucks.

[DGXSER]

Honestly, if your battery is that dead, nothing you do will start the bike. Alot of the much smarter folks here say the TCI has to have at least 12V to work. I believe that is while the starter is cranking.

[randy]

Have you tried re-soldering the pins on the TCI? I've seen alot of them that were intermittent and re-soldering cured it. The joints go bad from age / moisture / vibration. All that gobbledygook is covered on my webpage.

BTW, how did you get 'rubbing' on the circuit board? Have you been running the bike without a cover on the TCI?

Can't really make out the burnt trace on the board form the poor pics, BUT if it is burnt out, Ivan's suggestion is a sound one, I've done that more times than I can count over the years. Before re-energizing that TCI, find out the cause of the burn-out. Something like that could only happen if you shorted directly to ground or something metallic fell on the exposed pins. Again, I have to go back to ...running it without a cover on the TCI?

[CA]

yes I was probably just wasting my time when the battery was dropping rapidly. I will report the results with a freshly charged battery.

Didnt realize that about the 12 V an the TCI...interesting.

[cywelchjr]

And if you charge the battery and it starts and runs, check the charging system, it might not be charging the battery properly and letting it run down.

[jmnjrpa]

Pardon my jumping in but it sure sounds like an intermittent short that manifests when the bike is loaded. Pulls the battery down and you no longer have juice to crank it. Could also be a bad ground. I may have missed something in your posts (3rd page) and I am not nearly as compentent with the electrics as some of the other members so..... JAT