1982 GS400E running on 1 cylinder

[hansel]

Hi,
I'm new here, riding a 1982 GS400E bone stock and i have spent a fair bit of time diagnosing the standard electrical issues.
So far I have:
- Full carb clean
- new battery
- Coil relay modification (repower)
- new coil
i have swapped the coils side to side, and only the left cylinder fires. I seem to have fixed the charging issue and the bike is running really smoothly on one cylinder.

Any ideas why only one cylinder would still be firing now that i have "solved" all of the elec issues.

Thanks

-Hans

 

[hansel]

Bikecliff's coil relay mod would take away any bad wiring leading to the positive side of the coils.
I pulled the right plug and there is no spark at all.
Could this be a short in the negative wire that leads back to the igniter?
(the two black wires from either coil do lead back to thee igniter correct?) Or could it be an issue with the igniter itself. Any tips on testing either of these potential issues?

 

[tom203]

Could be a connection problem from signal coils to ignitor, or from ignitor to the non firing coil- the ignitor grounds out the negative side of the ignition coils. Look for bad connections along the path.


Have you seen this link?

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/electrical_odd-n-ends.html#A17

 

[hansel]

Pulled off the igniter, and it is definitely shorted out. Any tips on where to pick one up. I've exhausted almost every resource on the site trying to find one with no luck so far.

 

[spyug]

I might be talking out of my azz but I believe there was a recent post along the same lines but relative to a 450, which if I'm not mistaken uses the same one. Perhaps you can search for that.

If that doesn't work, perhaps you can have a look at the parts fiches on BikeBandit's site and see if you can locate another model that lists the same part.

There may be an after market solution too but I couldn't swear to it. Have you done any general Internet searches?

Sorry , I wish I could be more helpful. this is a tough one.

good luck,
Spyug

 

[hansel]

Thanks, i've tried many online resources so far with no luck, and bikebandit prices are far to high for my project.

Does anyone know if there is a DYNA or similar system that will work for this bike and eliminate the igniter?

Has anyone tried the GM H.E.I. method either and does it work/is it possible?

Thanks!!

 

[tom203]

Member MAdams450 had a solution for his bad ignitors......

"I had a similar problem with my 84 gs1150.(intermittent spark at random times). turned out to be bad solder joints inside the igniter box. opened up my new box after about 6mos and saw the same thing starting to happen with that one also. resoldered the connections & been fine for years now. just thought i'd mention the possibility. "

Might be worth looking into on your ignitor box

 

[hansel]

How does one open up the igniter box as it seems to be epoxy sealed on the backside. you can tell where shorts happened as there is a texture change/discoloration near the pins, and in the top left middle. It appears to have melted some of the plastic due to excessive heat. (likely due to poor charging system before)

 

[hansel]

swapped in a new (used) igniter, and no luck on getting it to fire on the right side. Any other ideas on what could be causing no spark on the right side?

 

[mvalenti]

could the plug be bad? rare yes... but....

 

[hansel]

The problem was a bad 5 pin relay that i installed with the coil relay mod. where there are two 87 outputs, one had 12 volts with the key off, and 0 with the key on, and the other had 0 with the key off and 11.84 with the key on. My deduction was that the relay was bad at this point. I opted to swap it for a 4 pin and split off the one output to both coils, but I accidentally plugged the pigtail in with the battery connected and the wires were criss-crossed. I then swapped it back to the five pin and ran the split cable off the one good output and shes running beautifully. Funny how a 7 dollar new part can cause many headaches and parts searches accross the country.

Always check with your voltmeter!!

 

[Thumper88]

That relay didn't have two 87 outputs...it had an 87 (Normally Open) output and an 87a (Normally Closed) output. Take a closer look or perhaps it was mislabeled.

 

[Guest]

Hey Hans and welcome!

The Dynatek DS3-3C kit will work on your 450, I have one on mine. A couple of things to do to make it work but it's almost a straight bolt on.

Glad you got it sorted though!

 

[hansel]

Thanks for the heads up.
Still dealing with charging issues. After determining it was the reg/rect at fault, i replaced the reg/rect with one from electrosport. have killed one or two batteries and still no luck. I must make the assumption that its not my reg/rect, but my stator. But as i have been running it as such i likely will have fried my new reg rect as well. I trust it is recommended to replace stator and reg/rect at the same time to avoid further issues?
i did redo the wiring to delete the one leg of the stator going up through the headlight. I now have 3 yellow wires from the stator going directly into the regulator.

 

[Guest]

Here's a tip... don't make an assumption

There's essentially five major points to getting the charging system right:

1. All your grounds *must* be spot on and preferably keep them to one common point with a direct connection to battery negative where possible.
2. Wire the stator direct to the R/R (as you've already done).
3. Make sure you have a good healthy battery.
4. Check to make sure your stator is operating correctly.
5. Check to make sure your R/R is operating correctly.

If your grounds aren't any good, it doesn't matter how good/bad your stator and/or R/R are, they will most likely do the wrong thing and under or over charge.

You really need to take it step by step and go through the Stator Papers...

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfault.htm

I've now replaced my stator once (died a couple of months after the rebuild) and my R/R twice. First time immediately after the rebuild it tested faulty, and then the cheapo Taiwanese one I bought failed a few weeks ago.

Test it all thoroughly after sorting out your grounds and you will be good to go for quite a while

 

[hansel]

Its been a long cold winter under the motorcycle cover for her. I'm now getting myself re-aquainted with the in's and out's of the charging system in hopes of having her up and running soon.

Duely noted on the assumption front, will try not to make that mistake multiple times again.

As for stators, any tips on a good place to buy one for a 1982 GS400E at a good price??

Happy Spring...

 

[tom203]

As Pete said way back when, do the tests to confirm what is no good! Across the pond, we are looking at new stators in the $80 to $120 range. Personally, I'd avoid Electrosports stators- too many problems seem to afflict them.

 

[Guest]

I think the Ricks stators get good reports over there... for me I used an Electrex World one that I sourced locally and have a Kawasaki model Shindengen 532 R/R as well.

My charging system has been flawless ever since...

 

[hansel]

Stator Purchase

Stator Purchase

Has anyone ever bought a stator from Caltric? any good/bad reviews?

 

[hansel]

Hello,

One more question on Stators, if i have already replaced my reg/rect with an new electrosport RR, would it be recommended to keep the same brand and replace my stator with and Electrosport stator? or would switchign to an RM stator be better, as they seem to get better reviews.

Thanks,

Hans