Could someone help walk me through some of this electrical?

[MR.D]

Mr. D,

You live very close to me. I would love to come and give you a hand. Unfortunately, I am working down at the ATL and can not get away. We need to get that thing fixed, so you can come to the fall rally.

Thanks for the offer any time! ill send you my contact info.

[MR.D]

Have you checked your resistance on your pulsar coils? The wires have a tendency to wear out from all the movement.

on my way to get a meter. crazysteve has been helping me. going to run threw the ignition wiring wish me luck im new to this.

[jetmechmarty]

Without Crazy Steve, there would be far fewer XS11's on the road! He is a blessing!

[MR.D]

Without Crazy Steve, there would be far fewer XS11's on the road! He is a blessing!

true that he is!

[MR.D]

ok got the coils off the bike. left coil at the primary wires i am getting 1.6 and at the plug wires 15.41. on the right coil i had to use a dremel tool to cut the coil so i can get to the pins i had a broken plug wire. right coil reading 1.6 at primary and 15.09 at the plug pins.

[MR.D]

[crazy steve]

ok got the coils off the bike. left coil at the primary wires i am getting 1.6 and at the plug wires 15.41. on the right coil i had to use a dremel tool to cut the coil so i can get to the pins i had a broken plug wire. right coil reading 1.6 at primary and 15.09 at the plug pins.

Those numbers are within spec (I assume the secondary readings are on a 20K ohms scale), so the coil windings are good...

[MR.D]

Those numbers are within spec (I assume the secondary readings are on a 20K ohms scale), so the coil windings are good...

the meter i got only has one setting for ohm so i think its automatic setting. hope its good. =) to bad its going to be raining for the next week so i guess i will be reading the Manuel trying to get a game plan on what to check next. sucks unless i get someone to let me use there garage.

[TopCatGr58]

thanks tc this was a barn find i got last summer. i had a guy work on it he had it running but one of the carbs float post was broken he said he was going to fix it and lost them. i recently got a set of 80's carbs that was leaking clean them up and tested with a bottle and no longer leaking. got it all on the bike and nada. the battery i am using i got last summer new for my cb900f my quick charger test for load so i think its good, it did take 16 hr to charge since i had not used it since then. today i cleaned every connector but the ones in the headlight and used dialectical grease. i took the plugs out and put near ground and no spark. i did check to make sure i was getting power to the coils and the old fuse block......this is where i am. i just started working on bikes last year KZs so still learning the way of these old bikes.

Hey there again Mr. D,

I merged your previous thread so we can keep the info about what you've already done, what has been suggested, etc., in 1 place so we won't go repeating ourselves!

Also, yes, Steve is great, but since he's communicated with you via PM we don't know what he's already told you to do...aside from getting a M.M. and testing the coil's resistance. I hope you were planning on putting new wires on the old coils...otherwise you didn't have to go cutting them out of the coil body like you did. The test for the secondary windings is just to be done without the plug caps on...unscrewed from the wires...then you can also inspect the contact points of the wires/caps for corrosion/green, and trim back 1/4 at a time till you get to clean copper!

Hopefully that 16 hour charge was at 2 amps. Another point of corrosion and power/voltage loss is the actual main key switch, it can be taken apart, inspected and cleaned as well since ALL of the power runs thru there, and resistance can cause unwanted voltage drop. If the voltage drops to near/below the 10.5 mark at the TCI, then the TCI won't work and no sparky!Not sure if Steve mentioned it, I forgot to regarding the connectors, but also the 2 ground wires..the one for the battery at the frame, but also the second strap wire at the back of the engine below the battery box connected to the starter housing...clean both real good...but then apply dielectric grease AFTER you have reconnected the wires to frame...the grease can actually interfere with the continuity if it gets between the metal surfaces, it's NOT conductive.

Using your MM in VOLTs DC mode, monitor it across the battery during starting mode to see if it drops more than 1 volt. Also, you can put a jumper on the red or red/white wire going to the TCI during cranking again to see if it drops near or below the 10.5 volt range. You can use a car battery to jump/boost the bike battery to see if it will start, and if so....then the bike battery may not have enough reserve power...not pass a load test!?

Good luck with the troubleshooting, you've got the weather for it!

T.C.

[MR.D]

Hey there again Mr. D,

I merged your previous thread so we can keep the info about what you've already done, what has been suggested, etc., in 1 place so we won't go repeating ourselves!

Also, yes, Steve is great, but since he's communicated with you via PM we don't know what he's already told you to do...aside from getting a M.M. and testing the coil's resistance. I hope you were planning on putting new wires on the old coils...otherwise you didn't have to go cutting them out of the coil body like you did. The test for the secondary windings is just to be done without the plug caps on...unscrewed from the wires...then you can also inspect the contact points of the wires/caps for corrosion/green, and trim back 1/4 at a time till you get to clean copper!

Hopefully that 16 hour charge was at 2 amps. Another point of corrosion and power/voltage loss is the actual main key switch, it can be taken apart, inspected and cleaned as well since ALL of the power runs thru there, and resistance can cause unwanted voltage drop. If the voltage drops to near/below the 10.5 mark at the TCI, then the TCI won't work and no sparky!Not sure if Steve mentioned it, I forgot to regarding the connectors, but also the 2 ground wires..the one for the battery at the frame, but also the second strap wire at the back of the engine below the battery box connected to the starter housing...clean both real good...but then apply dielectric grease AFTER you have reconnected the wires to frame...the grease can actually interfere with the continuity if it gets between the metal surfaces, it's NOT conductive.

Using your MM in VOLTs DC mode, monitor it across the battery during starting mode to see if it drops more than 1 volt. Also, you can put a jumper on the red or red/white wire going to the TCI during cranking again to see if it drops near or below the 10.5 volt range. You can use a car battery to jump/boost the bike battery to see if it will start, and if so....then the bike battery may not have enough reserve power...not pass a load test!?

Good luck with the troubleshooting, you've got the weather for it!

T.C.

thanks T.C yeah steve gave me a quick run down and some links and stuff i already forgot what reading i am looking for the caps. the batt charger is automatic with load test. I am putting some new wires i had from a other bike, need to check and clean the key ignition, wire plugs in the headlight, the ground strap on the back of the motor to under the bat box.

did not understand about the jumper wire to what? also am i jumping it to the big plug on the tci? hope its not raining in the morning so i can check some of this. cant wait to hear her purr

[TopCatGr58]

I'm gonna borrow a recent photo from Davinci: CLICK ON image to enlarge and even right click and SAVE and Print!



Pin #6 is the main 12 V line IN to the TCI from the solenoid, check that one first...just a jumper wire to it so you can still plug in the TCI...then you can connect the gauge (+) lead to that wire, the (-) gauge lead to ground whereever you can clamp it....hopefully you have some alligator type clamps you can put on the end of the gauge test leads so you don't have to HOLD them!?

Then IF #6 checks out with good voltage...well above the 10.5 dead zone while cranking, then check #2 and #7....both should provide ~12V to those circuits....the one going to the Ballast Resistor will be dropped to ~9 V after the resistor to the coils while the bike is actually running, but the TCI pin should be close to 12V during cranking.

Are we having fun yet?!

T.C.

[MR.D]

I'm gonna borrow a recent photo from Davinci: CLICK ON image to enlarge and even right click and SAVE and Print!



Pin #6 is the main 12 V line IN to the TCI from the solenoid, check that one first...just a jumper wire to it so you can still plug in the TCI...then you can connect the gauge (+) lead to that wire, the (-) gauge lead to ground whereever you can clamp it....hopefully you have some alligator type clamps you can put on the end of the gauge test leads so you don't have to HOLD them!?

Then IF #6 checks out with good voltage...well above the 10.5 dead zone while cranking, then check #2 and #7....both should provide ~12V to those circuits....the one going to the Ballast Resistor will be dropped to ~9 V after the resistor to the coils while the bike is actually running, but the TCI pin should be close to 12V during cranking.

Are we having fun yet?!

T.C.

Thanks T.C sucks its raining here no garage i need to get a canopy or something.

[MR.D]

I'm gonna borrow a recent photo from Davinci: CLICK ON image to enlarge and even right click and SAVE and Print!



Pin #6 is the main 12 V line IN to the TCI from the solenoid, check that one first...just a jumper wire to it so you can still plug in the TCI...then you can connect the gauge (+) lead to that wire, the (-) gauge lead to ground whereever you can clamp it....hopefully you have some alligator type clamps you can put on the end of the gauge test leads so you don't have to HOLD them!?

Then IF #6 checks out with good voltage...well above the 10.5 dead zone while cranking, then check #2 and #7....both should provide ~12V to those circuits....the one going to the Ballast Resistor will be dropped to ~9 V after the resistor to the coils while the bike is actually running, but the TCI pin should be close to 12V during cranking.

Are we having fun yet?!

T.C.

well i did this check today the bat i used had 12v it was on the bike for a few day so i added a other 12v bat with jumper cables.. when trying to start it would drop to 10.40 or so i will take them both to get tested tomorrow.

on pin 6 to ground i got 8.0v then when starting it went to 10.40

on pin 2 to ground i go 11.46v the when starting 9.50

on pin 7 i got the same 11.46v then when starting 8.60



from the Manuel it said to check for 12v at gray, white/red, orange, red/white to ground and 6v to black/white witch all checked out but! the orange to ground was all over the place and would not stop. whats that?

note: i did clean the key switch all all the plugs in the headlight.

also took the left cover of and i am not getting anything POWER to them four wires at the pickups i guess it is?

[crazy steve]

...from the Manuel it said to check for 12v at gray, white/red, orange, red/white to ground and 6v to black/white which all checked out but! the orange to ground was all over the place and would not stop. whats that?

note: i did clean the key switch all all the plugs in the headlight.

also took the left cover of and i am not getting anything POWER to them four wires at the pickups i guess it is?

If you're not getting a consistent voltage on the orange wire, make sure your coil connections are good. If they are, then the TCI is faulty.

The wires to the pickups don't get any power; they generate a signal when the bike is running. Check them for ohms (720 ohms, +/- 20%), if they're within spec they're good...

[MR.D]

ok guys so i found3 broken pick up wires one of them is very close to the pick up. whoever was in there before me used but connectors and now the broke above and below. hope i save them.