well i was left stranded again...

[Cuda 69]

hey airborne, I had the same problem, it was the wires in the pick up coil,had to do the fix thats listed on here somewhere. Runs great now,even on all 4. John

[airborneXS]

so heres what i found when i ohm'd my coils...
primary:
1) 1.8
2) 1.8

secondary:
W/ caps
1) 25.7
2) 24.9

w/o caps
1) 16.01
2) 16.13

i read that a member had this problem but it only showed up after the motor heated up...so maybe its good until the motor warms up a bit?

[DGXSER]

Electrical items like the coils ussually will fail or work. Typically they do not get better after they fail (Note the term typically).

I would start wiht the pick up coils as the source due to common issue and is often an intermittent issue.

[natemoen]

As has been said repeatedly, check your pickup coils!!! 750 ohms and pull and tug on.the wires as you test.

Also measure your ballast resistor. Should be 1.5 ohms as well.

[skids]

i read that a member had this problem but it only showed up after the motor heated up...so maybe its good until the motor warms up a bit?

Plug wire coils can fail when they are hot. Been there - done that.

[crazy steve]

As has been said repeatedly, check your pickup coils!!! 750 ohms and pull and tug on.the wires as you test.

Also measure your ballast resistor. Should be 1.5 ohms as well.

Yep, do this next. Your coil numbers are good, I'd look elsewhere for the problem now. Unless everything else checks good and you still have the same problem, I'd assume the coils are ok. You could have an issue in the TCI too; those have been known to act up once they heat up.

[airborneXS]

ok im feeling kinda dumb now...TCI? where do i hook the leads to the pick up coils to ohm it? the ballast resistor is the rectangular metal box under the coils?

[crazy steve]

The TCI is the big black box under your seat; that's the ignition box. To check your pick-up coils, unplug the smaller of the two plugs on it's side and check between the orange and gray and the blue and gray. You should get about 720 ohms. But you may have broken wires at the pick-up coils themselves (extremely common problem); to check that, with your meter still connected as above, remove the timing cover and pull/tug/wiggle each wire and see if the meter changes reading. If it does, the wire is broken inside the insulation. If you see the wire stretch when you pull on it, it's broken. Because these move with the vacuum advance, a broken wire can come and go, so that's a very likely candidate for your problem. The 'fix' is posted here:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=543

And yes, the ballast resistor is the silver box by the left coil. Those can go open when they get hot, so that could be it too....

[airborneXS]

so im assuming that you mean this box:



i cant find an orange and gray or blu and gray wire, however there is an orange wire and gray wire...i got no ohms between those though...

[BA80]

I believe it's that 4 wire connector that goes to the pickup coils. There is also a connector behind the fuse panel that the pickups actually plug into the harness and that's where the wires change colors.

You should be able to look at the schematic in the manuals to see which wires are which.

[crazy steve]

The right plug is the pick-ups. The top two wires are one side of the coils, the bottom two are the other side. Left and right sides should be the pairs. Check between each pair, looking for 720 ohms +/- 20%. If either is open or outside spec, that's a problem. If they check good, reperform the tests while stretching/pulling/wiggling the wires at the coils to check for breaks. If you see changes on the meter, you've got a bad wire.

[BA80]

I've always checked them from the plug behind the fuse panel. It just seems easier to get to.

[ESJr1642]

The Nasty Pick Up Wires!

I can tell you this, lost all spark last night after trying to get a miss out of the bike at 2000 rpms. I pulled the ignition cover off and moved the wires on the pick coil and that was all she wrote.

Searched the treads over on this site, went out today and sure enough, wires were broke. Took my time and fixed the wires, runs the best it has since I picked it up at the beginning of the year.

Without the advise on this site and the knowledge of the members, I would have never looked at these wires.

Thank You Very Much!
Ernie

[airborneXS]

so i got it ohm'd, one side read 780, the other side 765, and tugged on wires all over the place around the pick up coils, and found nothing, it moved on the meter maybe 1 to 5 ohms. i checked the ballast resistor, it read 1.8 ohms. i plugged everything back together and now it wont turn over. the starter engages but not fire up. after a few try's of starting it i did get a huge flame shoot out the exhaust and singe my leg hairs tho. i got my new coils in today so im going to try and replace those and see what happens. im at my wits end with this.

[BA80]

Wolf, under the the cover the shift lever shaft comes out of, tucked into it's own little niche next to the oil pan is the neutral light switch. The wire to that runs in the same sheath as the pickup coil wires and sometimes the insulation will get bad on all those wires in there and the pickup wires will ground through that switch.

There is a phillips screw holding that wire to the switch. You don't have to take it all the way out but loosen it enough to disconnect the neutral light wire.

Try to start it up with that wire off.