• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

one coil hot other coil not getting ground

  • Thread starter Thread starter sangheraent
  • Start date Start date
S

sangheraent

Guest
Ok so I have a problem, My bike has been hard to start when cold for a while. It usually got going and ran perfectly fine. Last week my wife and I were about to go for a ride and it wouldn't fire. Finally 2 cylinders fired up 2-3 and bike ran like poo and had no power so that ride got cancelled.

Left coil not getting power on the ground wire which is white. I have power on all 3 other wires. I can get cylinders 1-4 to spark if I take a wire from the black wire on the right coil and jump it to the left coil.

I have checked all the connections and there wasn't very much corrosion on any of them other then some rust on the tank and seat. I cleaned off the ground under the battery as well as the bolts for the coil.

I printed and went through the tech guide and my guess is that the wire may have some problem somewhere along the way but that doesn't explain the hot coil?

any suggestions.
 
I swear I was part of this forum before im not sure what happened. I use it a ton.
 
I think so too.

Is - terminal on the coil a ground? I know the red/orange wires come from the kill switch, but Im not sure where the - wires come from one side is black it works fine the other is white it doesn't work at all.

I am wondering If I can by pass it some how to test the wire. is the - terminal wire the line from the pickup coil? if so then i have to test the pick up coil as well.
 
sangheraent said:
I think so too.

Is - terminal on the coil a ground? I know the red/orange wires come from the kill switch, but Im not sure where the - wires come from one side is black it works fine the other is white it doesn't work at all.

I am wondering If I can by pass it some how to test the wire. is the - terminal wire the line from the pickup coil? if so then i have to test the pick up coil as well.
Click to expand...

What bike do you have? The coil negative terminal goes to the ignitor on the electronic ignition bikes. At least it does on my 1100E. Orange/White (again, on my 1100E) are +12V from the battery and go to the positive coil terminal. The other two are switched to ground through the ignitor.


Mark
 
sangheraent said:
any suggestions.
Click to expand...
First suggestion is to tell us what bike we are discussing.


sangheraent said:
Left coil not getting power on the ground wire which is white. I have power on all 3 other wires.
Click to expand...
"Not getting power on the ground wire" is actually quite NORMAL and EXPECTED. :-k

And what are the "3 other wires"? Every coil I have seen DOES have 4 wires, but one supplies power, one goes to the points (mechanical or electronic), two go to the spark plugs. The closest thing to a "ground" wire is the one that goes to the points.

.
 
Sorry my bike is an 81 GS650G. 35000 kms on it. Sat for 20 years ran great first 2-3 months after valve/carb work.

I have power on the 2-3 could spark everything is good. The left coil is getting power on the hot side when i use the bikes ground it shows power to the coil but it will not show power when i use the - terminal for the ground. The other coil does that fine.

I can get coil 1-4 running if i jump it from the - terminal on the 2-r coil.
 
So you're saying that if you switch the ground wires (not the OW) and you get the other coil to spark?
 
Let me try to explain how coils work. First you have 12v on the + primary side of the coil. That energizes the coil when the - side of the coil is grounded. That is the normal condition with the bike not running, ignition on. Now to get a spark you have to remove/disconnect the ground via points opening or ignition (CDI) box switching it off of ground at the proper time. The energized coil "field" collapses and generates a spark on the secondary or high tension coil firing the spark plug.

So that narrows down your problem to one of 3 things to check. First disconnect the coil primary wires and measure the resistance of the primary coil. Should be 3 to 5 ohms. If you get below 2.5 ohms or you get more than 5 ohms the coil is bad. Usually they will read very high resistance like 2k ohm or open (infinity) when bad.

Now if the primary resistance is between 3 and 5 ohms then check the wiring to the ignitor. If connector is clean that is usually not your problem.

So that leads us to the pulser or signal generator. Look in the Factory Service Manual for your bike and use the resistance check. Typically 250 to 350 ohms but check for your model for the value and which wires to check. If that checks good then your Ignitor box (CDI) is bad.
 
jdvorchak said:
Let me try to explain how coils work. First you have 12v on the + primary side of the coil. That energizes the coil when the - side of the coil is grounded. That is the normal condition with the bike not running, ignition on. Now to get a spark you have to remove/disconnect the ground via points opening or ignition (CDI) box switching it off of ground at the proper time. The energized coil "field" collapses and generates a spark on the secondary or high tension coil firing the spark plug.

So that narrows down your problem to one of 3 things to check. First disconnect the coil primary wires and measure the resistance of the primary coil. Should be 3 to 5 ohms. If you get below 2.5 ohms or you get more than 5 ohms the coil is bad. Usually they will read very high resistance like 2k ohm or open (infinity) when bad.

Now if the primary resistance is between 3 and 5 ohms then check the wiring to the ignitor. If connector is clean that is usually not your problem.

So that leads us to the pulser or signal generator. Look in the Factory Service Manual for your bike and use the resistance check. Typically 250 to 350 ohms but check for your model for the value and which wires to check. If that checks good then your Ignitor box (CDI) is bad.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the huge delay got busy with work and had to put the bike on the back burner.

I tested all my coils by switching them out back and forth. I have 4 coils (2 on bike 2 spare) and they all work when connected on "the good side". The pulser says 150 ohms I think this is my problem. I checked the switch on the handle bars and there was almost no corrosion in there. So I am going to try a new pulsar and see where that takes me.
 
sangheraent said:
Sorry for the huge delay got busy with work and had to put the bike on the back burner.

I tested all my coils by switching them out back and forth. I have 4 coils (2 on bike 2 spare) and they all work when connected on "the good side". The pulser says 150 ohms I think this is my problem. I checked the switch on the handle bars and there was almost no corrosion in there. So I am going to try a new pulsar and see where that takes me.
Click to expand...

What does the FSM say the value should be for your bike?
 
so what you need to do is the ignitor test, which is outlined in the FSM, this is taking into the equation that you have the factory ignitor, and not an aftermarket unit like the dynatek ds unit. the factory ignitor is located on the same plate as your r/r underneath your airbox.

-what you need to do is pull the plugs from cylinders 1 & 2, then locate the connector with the blue & green wires found behind the left side cover by the battery.
-disconnect it and figure out which side runs to the ignitor, leave the ignition key off the whole time you are doing this test.
-once you've found out which one goes to the ignitor, set your meter to the continuity/diode setting.
-connect the black lead from the meter to the blue wire, then connect the red lead from the meter to the green wire.
-once you connect both leads, plug #1 should spark. disconnect the red lead and plug #2 should spark.

if only one plug sparks, then your ignitor has gone bad, which is getting more and more common with the 650s. you have 3 options if it has the factory ignition: 1) buy one from a member here or from ebay, which is a gamble if it works or not. 2) build a diy ignitor. these work. I built one for mine and worked well until one of the hei modules burned out on me. 3) buy an aftermarket ignition kit like the dynatec ds 3-2.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top