I thought I was an ok mechanic untill.....

I cant get the damn thing to spark. Picks show bounce on the volt meter when the engine cranks over, coils ohm out fine and i have a couple new used tci boxes. WHAT NOW?!?!?!?!?! I'm about ready to sell the damn thing as I've put about a grand into buying and trying to get the thing running and I haven't had so much as a backfire out of it. What now. I already replaced the fuse box and checked my conections a couple dozen times. The coils have tweleve volts running to them I just don't have so much as a hint of spark. I'm beyond desperate and ready to put it on craigslist. Please help me out here

 

Tiny, you forgot to tell us what bike you're talking about, and I did not see you list 12 volts at the coil plugs. Give us more info.
Bill

 

Sorry bill. It's a 1980 xj 650 maxim.

 

side stand relay. Disconnect it and see if you have spark. It is a light green/lime green connection in the headlight bucket. Make sure that the side stand switch is functioning correctly. I'm betting it is the relay. My buddy had the EXACT same problem on an 81 xj 650

 

Tiny, put a hold on the craigslist thing. The gurus here are WELL compitent enough to diagnose your issues. Just hang in there and see what they say. I have this exact bike...year and all and it runs like a top.

 

mc I don't think the 80 model has the relay on it. I could be wrong, but my bike doesn't have it and it's an 80 model

 

Second that Side Stand relay. Got me twice bashing my head against a wall. "WHY WONT IT WORK" Is all I could say for an hour.
Sat on it, kicked the stand up, pressed start.
And nearly passed out with relief

 

Not to distract from Tiny's issue, but I am now confused. Does the 1980 models HAVE the kickstand relay on them? I can start mine sitting on the kickstand. I was under the impression that the 1980 models did not have the relay installed on them yet. Can someone clarify this for me?

 

No, the 80-81 650 Maxims do not have a sidestand relay.
They do have a clutch switch...

 

Thanks Robert. I was beginning to think that I had yet another relay that was not working!

 

You can start a bike with the sidestand relay IF it is in neutral with the stand down. It won't crank in gear with the sidestand down....

The 80 is simpiler and cuts off the starter unless in neutral or in gear with clutch in. Later models have starter and TCI cutoff.

But not the issue here - Spins, 12V to coils, TCI appears to functioning, pickups appear good. Coils test good with ohm meter. No spark.

Let me some basic questions, just bear with me. When stumped I like to go back to ground zero.

How are you determining you have no spark other than no start?
Have you check the coils ground all the way back to the battery?

When you check a coil you should remove the plug caps. Assuming you did that are you sure your plug caps are any good?

How about the connection to the wire for the caps? Very common for this to corrode. You can snip a bit off the wire for a better connection - just watch your length.

 

I'm with Bill, back to basics and build a foundation of knowledge to further the effort.

 

Bill, I have no spark to the plug. I pulled the wire and stuck my finger in it to make sure. Plug caps are good. I have not traced my ground back to the battery. I'll do that this evening. No corrosion in the caps. sgknies, I have no doubt they can figure out what the issue is, its just a matter of how much more time and money it will take to get it running. Im beyond frustrated and I refuse to spend another pennie on this thing until I see spark.

 

I can understand your frustration I tuned my bike Saturday and just now had to clean 2 plugs (again) to get her running on all 4.It's a labor of love. Most of us have reached that point. Best thing to do is take a bit of a break.

Once you are ready let me clarify. When you say ""I pulled the wire and stuck my finger in it to make sure." you mean with the plug cap on or off?

Have you examined the wire where the plug screws into?

I see you have a parts bike have you tried the other coils?

Sorry if you have been through all this before just trying to see what the heck is going on. Has to be a logical reason.

 

I pulled the cap off the plug and stuck my finger where it conects to the spark plug to see if I felt a shock. nothing. I tried the coils off my parts bike and still no luck. I don't think I can possibly have four bad coils.

 

I don't think I could tolerate the feeling of ZAP on purpose, haha. I had to replace my actual plug boots - coils were fine, but the stock boots (caps) were crapping out.

You could also try cutting a wee bit off of the spark plug wire and screwing the cap back in further down the line to hope for a better connection.

 

Finger in the plug wire - not a good trick to see if you have spark. Hot damn man. I thought it was bad of me to grab a plug wire and rip it off while running ... O_O

Keep a plug in it, and ground it to the head.

 

I had to do something and I wasn't sure the plug were any good. Chalk it up to being up at four in the morning frustrated at a bike that should run but doesn't.

 

Even though there's no sidestand relay, does this bike have a "safety" relay? If so, locate and unplug it. The safety system works by dropping the TCI to ground so it can't produce a spark...

 

Where would this relay be? Whats it look like? Sounds like a definate possibility. And I think we can all agree my method of testing for spark was a dumb ass move. But you have to admit I now know for sure that there is nothing getting threw to the plug. I can imagine what would happen if it had sparked and wont be testing with this method again. I went out and spent ten bucks on a spark tester a couple days later.