Pick-up Coil Curiousity

[Radioguylogs]

I have just experience my second Pick-up Coil wire failure on the SF.

The failure mode was "very hard to start". Ran OK after warming up on two consecutive rides, but for the third consecutive ride, it didn't start at all.

During both times I had a failure, the wires to only one coil were broken, but all plugs failed to fire.

Seems that two of the plugs should still fire if only one Pick-up Coil is failed.

Fixed one wire this time, and all plugs start firing again.

That seems weird to me.

BTW, Fixed it with solder/shrink and rode it tonight

[DiverRay]

You have two pickup coil wires per coil, but I THINK there may be a common wire, and that would cause the problem you saw. It's been too long since I've looked at schematics for the bike, and my head has been wrapped around some other, much more complicated systems to trust memory. If you really need to know, I can try to take a look sometime in the next few weeks and let you know for sure.

[Radioguylogs]

Ray:

I do NOT need to know for sure. Don't go out of your way.

BTW, there are 4 wires all the way back to IGN Module.

Just seems weird.

[BA80]

Find a different set of pickups. I've found these sometimes don't like repairs and tend not to last long.

I had one set that seemed perfect and worked perfect above 40 degrees, if the temperature dropped below that they wouldn't work until I heated it up.

weird.

[ViperRon]

Pick up wires

Trust in what BA80 said, when those wires get brittle in one they are all brittle and when you work on them you can be very carful and still damage a currently working one. The thing is they are not an easy on the side of the road You need a meter to check it and the darn cell phone does not work everywhere and some people are rude and demand you push it off their property down the road and will not let you use their phone and it can be a darn awful experience so I would suggest getting a new to you, good looking set, before you have to push that thing a half mile like I did. Oh by the way I was testing the repair I made to them when mine failed.

[Radioguylogs]

...Oh by the way I was testing the repair I made to them when mine failed.

Now that's painful!

[Radioguylogs]

Ok

When I fixed the SF originally to get it back on the road a few years ago, I was thinking like Greg- get a new-to-me set of Pick-up Coils for a better chance of survival. This "new" set only lasted about 3,000 miles.

I hear what others are saying about repairs. If the wires are brittle, they are likely to fail again; and maybe in a bad situation.

So, I think the best thing to do is to find some really good suitable wire, and cut out the all of the moving wire, splice in new wire, and anchor the splices in a way that only the new wire is moving.

I bought this wire on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ4CGXL/ref=biss_dp_t_asn



It is 20AWG, "super flexible", has silicone insulation rated to 200 degrees C, and it has 100 tinned strands for flexibility. It's nice to have the colors to make it the project look correct- if you have the choice.

I cut back into the bundle coming into the pick=up assy about 1/2", and soldered/heat-shrunk in the wires:


Then I dressed them. I used the clamp at the coils to hold those splices so only the fresh new wire can move. I used silicone tape to re-bundle the wires coming in:

Seems good as new. I think I trust these coils better than the ones I fixed and installed last week. I think I will swap these and use the other set for emergency repair.