Pick up coil issue?

[DEEBS11]

Yes, the clamps are too tight at the factory. I loosened mine as well and used flexible RC car wire, solder, and small heat shrink tubing with internal adhesive.

[DiverRay]

Leave the clamp LOOSE so the wires can move just a bit. Yes, it could wear through the insulation after a while, but it would probably last a lot longer than the wires breaking again. That is how I fixed my '78 back in '78!, soldered the broken wire and loosened up the clamps. When I sold the bike years later it was still running great.

[jetmechmarty]

What do y'all think about this? These wires are known to break. The factory bends are tight. Maybe take the clamps out of the middle?


I need to figure out how to best deal with mine. New wires just got spliced in is where I left it.

[DiverRay]

Yep! I've fixed two boxes with that problem. Be careful about the solder you use! ALL the new solder is "tin" and it will cause problems. I still have old lead/tin solder that I use. It is available, but hard to find. Used for telecommunications and ANY space bound boards. Strait tin solder will "grow whiskers" in space and short out the boards. Yeah, I used to work in that kind of company...

[DEEBS11]

Sometimes it's a cracked solder joint.

[DiverRay]

The box can have problems as it used two large transistors to fire the coils. Send your old box back to me , and I'll look at it and see if I can repair it.

[shopteach]

Got another update, hopefully the last. I switched the coil wire and it fired up and ran awesome. Ran for a bit revved it up a couple times and sounded awesome and then shut it off. So I thought I was all good and I started to put it all back together. My wife came home and asked if it was fixed. I said yes and started it up. This time it wasn't running right, I mean it was like 10-15mins after it was running awesome. I checked spark and very poor spark on 2 cylinders. I thought for a few mins and DiverRay had sent me an igniter to see if that was my problem so I threw that one in and it ran awesome again. Soooooo, my guess is the igniter would warm up or vibrate and it wouldn't run correctly. Has anyone else experienced an issue like this before? I have been chasing my tail on this problem for quite a while because it has been an intermittent problem. So hard to figure out. I am so thank for you guys and all of your help. I truly couldn't have done this without you guys. Big shout out to DiveRay, you are the man!

[bikerphil]

I once got it together a bit off and it backfired and I thought I really broke something. The centrifugal advance wasn't lined up right throwing off everything. You could check that.

Yes, the unit fits over those pins better one way than the other, but it can be forced to fit the wrong way.

[speedlimit85]

I once got it together a bit off and it backfired and I thought I really broke something. The centrifugal advance wasn't lined up right throwing off everything. You could check that.

[bikerphil]

If you swap the 1+4 spark plug wires with 2+3, that should tell you if you are 180 deg. out. Or you could swap the org and gray wires on the coils.

[shopteach]

I got another update. When I checked to orange wire the ohms seemed to jump around when I moved the wires around. So I replaced the orange wire. I know have good spark on each cylinder. However, when I try to start the bike it only backfires and doesn't try to start. I even shot a little starting fluid in the carbs and still just backfires. So I am wondering since I replaced the pickup coils that I could be out of timing? Here is a pic of the wires on the pick up coil. I didn't put it on backwards did I?
I am pretty sure that's the way they came off. Do I need to check timing? Can you check timing with it not running? Where do I go from here?

[skids]

I heard that the wires that come from the pick-up coils run through a sheath to the black box, and within the sheath there is a splice that can short to another. I never had mine apart to check ir. I was having issues with mine when I rode through rain or washed the bike. There is a connector behind the fuse panel (mine is a 78) where low voltage wires are too close to higher voltage, causing shorting. There is a wiring mod to fix it and I haven't had issues since. If this is the issue, when wet it runs fine in neutral but only on two cyls when in gear. I can send you the copied threads if I get your email, but it is too lengthy to post here.

[DEEBS11]

Shopteach, you can't measure components while they are "In Circuit". This is why you are possibly getting unusual readings. You must first disconnect the orange wire from the coil. Then measure the resistance (meter set to the lowest scale "2K") between the two coil terminal screws. It should be around 3 ohms indicating a good coil. If it reads infinity ("OL") the coil is bad.

Next, put one meter lead on the disconnected orange wire near the coil and the other lead back at the igniter box orange wire at it's connector. That should also read just a few ohms. If it's infinity (which is "open" - no continuity) you have a orange wire connection problem.

[shopteach]

I got to check the wires tonight. the R/W wire had 11.47v with the battery at 12.47v. I have the orange wire hooked up to the lead closest to where the plug wires come out and the R/W wire on the opposite side. On the other coil I have the grey wire hooked up to the lead closest to where the plug wires come out and the R/W wire on the opposite side. Is this correct? I figured it didn't matter which side those wires were hooked up to.



I checked the orange wire for ohms. I'm not sure if I am doing it correctly or not. This is how I had it on my multimeter:

With it hooked up this way it went from OL jumped some numbers and then went to 0. I did this for all of the ohms positions and basically did the same thing. I turned it to the continuity "beep" position and it would beep showing continuity.

[DiverRay]

Yes, check the orange wire between the coil and the igniter. There should be no more than 1 or 2 Ohms resistance.
Box will be in the mail today for you.