Parked bike yesterday, this morning... No spark.

[sparkfly88]

My Subarus engine is out doing headgaskets on it, heads are at shop being machined..

Been riding Excelsior to work and back lately... Ran fine yesterday, went to start it this morning, no spark.
Checked number 1 and number 4 cylinders just to get it quickly checked.

No spark. Won't even attempt to fire.

Getting picked up for work by coworker. I'll update thread as I dive into my bike internals.

[DiverRay]

Two quick checks.
1: Do you "use" the engine kill switch on the right bar? If so DO NOT! that is a 35 year old bit of plastic, and they are starting to cause problems for a lot of us.
2. Check the other coils as well, plugs 2 & 3. 1 & 4 fire from the same coil. If the center are trying to fire, you may have a pick-up coil wire gone bad.
My bet is #1, as it seems to be going around a LOT more as these bikes get on in years. The switch can be bypassed, but I don't have the schematic in front of me at the moment for your bike, so I can't say what two wires to connect together.

[sparkfly88]

Two quick checks.
1: Do you "use" the engine kill switch on the right bar? If so DO NOT! that is a 35 year old bit of plastic, and they are starting to cause problems for a lot of us.
2. Check the other coils as well, plugs 2 & 3. 1 & 4 fire from the same coil. If the center are trying to fire, you may have a pick-up coil wire gone bad.
My bet is #1, as it seems to be going around a LOT more as these bikes get on in years. The switch can be bypassed, but I don't have the schematic in front of me at the moment for your bike, so I can't say what two wires to connect together.

Kill switch has already been completely bypassed from another problem I was having. I only use the key.

1 and 4 are on the same circuit? I couldnt remmeber, they were just the easiest to check into.

When I get home I'll have more info
Thanks for the quick reply

[Winterhawk]

Have you checked the fuse? Just a thought

1 and 4 is the same coil. 2 and 3 the other coil.

[sparkfly88]

Well, that was easy. Loose connection on the ICU.
I removed some of the dielectric grease I had on the connections and boom, fired right up.

[sparkfly88]

I lied.
I could get it to restart fine... The moment it sits... Its back to square one.

I thought I had it all set, buttoned it up and did some laps around the neighborhood.. It died all the way in the back. I just finished pushing it home.. That was exciting in the Florida heat. NOT.

[rdmcguy]

Similar to recent problem of mine maybe

I too had a strange electrical problem like yours..(see post.. solenoid tci)
Checked and rechecked misc. things...kill switch ..fuse area connections....Wound up being where right handlebar switch connects with harness...300 miles later going strong

[sparkfly88]

So, I rechecked my bypass of the handlebar kill switch, and all is fine there.

Still no spark on any of my four cylinders.
My Subaru has its own problems as well after rebuilding the engine.. But that's another story.

I'm at a loss with my bike.

[sparkfly88]

Just found a broken and completely separated wire in the spark advance. A previous repair from a while back I did.

I forget if that would cause a no spark situation, I'm repairing regardless.

[sparkfly88]

Well, repaired that... No change.

Still zero spark on all cylinders.

[DiverRay]

Make a "jumper" cable and connect the red/white at the ballast resistor to it on one side, and through a switch or alligator clip on the other to the positive of the battery. Start with the wire connected so it goes through the resistor. If it does not work, connect to the other wire so you bypass the resistor, keeping the resistor out of the circuit. Connect it just before you try to start the engine, and tell me what happens.
If it sparks, the TCI is good and you have a problem with power to the coils. If not, it may be the TCI. We can check for that if we need to.

[RODS454]

Mine was doing the same thing when I got feed up with it and quit working on it. Watching with interest.

[sparkfly88]

almost a year later and I'm finally going to be tackling this problem...life got in the way and the bike has been mothballed till now..

[DiverRay]

Read my post about a jumper wire and go from there... Welcome Back!

[sparkfly88]

the ballast resistor has been long gone for a while. does that change your instruction at all?