Baffling spark chase

[LoHo]

Got her back together all nice and tight. Cranked smoothly, but no spark.

I fiddled around and re-cleaned some connections and checked, jiggled some wires, checked some voltages...nothing.

Stared at her a while, tried again...weak spark, almost started. Several more attempts get it allllmmmmost there. Maybe the carbs are still a little dry...

Put some more gas in, cranked: no spark. When I have spark, I have it on all four plugs. When no spark, none on all four. I have three TCIs and all have the same results.

I am stumped and about to just start replacing ignition items until it works, or I can part her out and buy a Road Star.

[James England]

I'd say it's definitely electrical. Personally, I think the only way with things like this is to go back to basics and work methodically through the connections of the wiring loom with De-Oxit spray, checking the front part of the loom near the steering yokes (the bit that flexes when you turn the bars) for breaks. Clean the ignition switch and handlebar kill switch. Hunt around the whole bike, looking for block connectors and clean them. There's one from the ignition pickups lower down on the bike. Fiddling and jiggling doesn't really help, IMO. It needs a methodical search to find the problem, otherwise you can accidentally 'fix' it without knowing how and then the fault comes back again a few minutes later!

Does your bike have a ballast resistor, on the left side of the bike, under the tank, visible without taking the tank off. A silver oblong with two red wires......?

Also, on the right hand side of the bike, under the fuel tank on the right side tube of the frame, is a block connector which joins the right handlebar switch to the loom. It connects the engine kill switch. Mine used to move slightly and was filthy and it cut my engine out several times. I replaced it with a block connector off eBay.

Another thing... in the headlamp (certainly of the European model) are several block connectors. Pushing ther headlamp back into the case can press on the connectors and dislodge them. I know for sure that it's possible to have no spark at all but still have the warning lights working (which makes it look as if the ignition is on).

Given the intermittent nature of the fault and the fact that it affects ALL the plugs and obviously isn't the TCI (highly unlikely that you have three defective units), I'd say it's virtually certain to be electrical.

[skids]

Bridge the ignition fuse and try it again. If no luck, let the fuse do its work.
Bridge the ballast resistor and try it again, Make sure it isn't grounding to the frame or something.
Make sure the kill switch on the handle bar is not grounding out and killing spark.
Make sure the tipover switch under the tank is not killing the ignition.
As I remember the things that you tried, it probably isnt the pickup coil or the black box.

[WMarshy]

There is a connection for both coils under the tank up by the neck, each coil has a male bullet connector that both connects to a single female (both males go side by side inside the female connector). You might double check that connection, also double check your main ground. GL