electrical question

ok so ive changed most of my electrical system tryin so get some fire. i put a whole new (used) wiring harness,new tci,new solenoid,new diode and new battery. i finally got "some" spark. i have spark on 1-4 but no 2-3. i swapped primary leads and now have spark on 2-3 but not on 1-4. when i do get spark from one coil it seems pretty weak but im not sure, ive seen on here they are all pretty weak?? i know its not the coil since it fires when i switch leads. pickup coils maybe? i did the resistance test at the tci on them and they both were 0.0 so im not confident with that result since i get spark from one coil :?:
this has probably been covered on here 1000 time but i cant find it. i read the electrical f.a.q and im gettin pickup coil from it. please, any confirmation will be great, im runnin out of hair to pull out

 

Hi,
If you swapped the primary coil feed and have the other coil working now then it has to be either the pick-up coil circuit or the circuit from the TCI to the other coil or... the TCI itself.
Did you have the same result with the original harness too? "If so", then I'd point more at the TCI.

 

cds, before i had zero spark anywhere. i have an old uncertain tci that i tried and it had the same result, only one coil firing. fairly sure its not the tci(i hope)
im recheckin the grounds now not sure what else

 

Try this.
It's cheap and only takes a few minutes.

Sand a dull point on a short length of solid copper wire.
Use Needle Nosed Pliers and "Stuff" the solid wire as far up the Center Core of a Spark Plug Wire that's missing.
When you get the solid wire stuffed as far as its going to go, ... clip the end.

If the Plug Cap wasn't getting Spark Plug Core to get a bite into, ... this helps.

 

check out this link...

http://www.currentobservations.us/image ... Series.jpg

i built my own harness from this, its got the basics to get the bike to run perfectly. u already bought a bunch of new parts, i would say its a wiring issue that this can solve. i mean... everything seems to be new, except ur harness which is used after all! buy some 16G wires and make ur own harness is what i say

hope this helps

 

Interesting post FH, got my brain sparking.

In theory, that diagram fits for any (street legal) bike. I think I'm going to keep a copy of that, just in case...

 

thanks guys. ricko, when i switch coil leads the non firing coil will fire. i think the problem is before the coils. if i understand your tip it will diagnose a problem with the plug wire or boot?

fh that is my next step if i cant get this figured out. im probably gonna change pick up coils since its all that's left basically. if that doesnt work then its build my own.
any more ideas gents?

 

Jason you can also switch the wires from the pickup coils at the tci box to test them just like you did the coils or simply ohm them out.

 

i did the ohm test but got stange results they were both 0.00. not sure how to interpret that since i know they both arent bad.

 

Jason sounds like you were on the wrong scale they should read 700 ohm -+ 20% at 68 degrees F. As you stated one of them at least has to be good looks like your tci needs some work but re-test the pickups anyway someone did a good write up on tci repair i will look for it and post a link
I think this fellow is a member of this forum but im not sure heres his site:
http://dave_jack.tripod.com/id41.htm
Also I read that Robert a moderator on this site does repairs on these if you dont feel comfortable messing with soldering circuit boards

 

i have a second tci that im unsure of and when i pluged it in i had the same results, only 1-4 firing no 2-3 so i think my original tci is ok. i will swap the pickup leads today to try to zero in on them or rule them out one or the other.

 

Jason when you ohm ed the pickup coils were they unplugged from the tci?

 

no they were still plugged in. should they not be? im gonna get out and work on em after the race

 

Yes they should be unplugged. Iif the TCI impedance is less than the coils, you'll read that instead.

 

it turned out that my new(used)box was bad after all. got a different one in and it fired up. this is the first time ive had it running since ive had it. my new question is concerning a noise i think is coming from the top end. it sounds like some gear is not quite engaged. i noticed my tach is not responding right. it is real slow to respond and seems like its lower than it should be. was wondering if anyone has come across this before? how is the tach driven inside the head?

 

Jason congrats on getting her fired off. Disconnect your tach at the head and see if that makes the noise go away if it does try cleaning and lubing the cable and the housing> Sometimes its real hard to tell where the noise is coming from on a bike. I think someone did a write up on cleaning and lubing the tach. You should start a new thread to get more input from the forum