walk through on getting spark

[key_lo]

I"ve been working on my 1982 gs850L and I am close to having it ready, or least I thought I was. I am not getting any spark from the plugs. It still has all original parts. I did remove the wiring harness to clean and replace some of the wires so I was wondering if I missed a connection. Also, with all the hoses hooked up to the carbs and tank, fuel was draining into the number 2 carb. Any suggestions? Thanks

[rustybronco]

YES.

re-check all of your wiring connections, making sure they're clean and tight.

check the resistance of the coils, primary (3 ohm's) and secondary side (11,000 to 20,000'ish ohms).
(secondary side>>>excluding the plug boots (caps) which should measure around 5K ohms each)

remove, take apart and CLEAN those carbs.

then check the petcock for proper operation.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Testing The Ignition System

As for your fuel issue, it sounds like your petcock has failed. Go over the maintenance lists in your "mega-welcome". They are guaranteed to deliver you to GS nirvana, if you take no shortcuts.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[TheCafeKid]

Having just gone through this issue on an 1100E myself, You need to test the power/ignition system. You'll need a wiring diagram, but in short, yours is likely very close to what I just dealt with.

Before doing anything, see if you're getting voltage to the coils. If not, see if you're getting voltage to the ignitor. If not, you need to start checking all the Orange/white wires in the harness, starting from your killswitch back. Use your diagram, its really pretty simple. There are TWO different O/W wires coming from the ignition/start switch back to thru the harness. One goes straight from the Killswitch housing all the way back to the fuse block. The other comes from the headlamp bucket IIRC and junctions with the coil feed wires bellow your tank in the harness, then continues on to the ignitor. Useing your VOM, test for continuity through the killswitch (should be less than 1ohm everywhere, but not infinite [meter will read 1. on the left side of the display] ) then through the harness from the connector to the killswitch with one of your leads and the other lead at the O/W wire in the fuseblock connector.. If you switch the kill switch with the key in the (ON) position (disconnect the battery for the moment to save it, you're looking for continuity, not voltage) It should read less than 1ohm. With the killswitch off you should have infinite resistance. If there is no change, your killswitch maybe bad. If that works, however, the killswitch isnt the problem, so continue looking at other connections/connectors with the O/W wire..

[key_lo]

So even if the starter will turn over it can still be the kill switch??

[rustybronco]

Yes... power goes from the kill switch to the start button. BUT, if the voltage coming out of the kill switch is low enough, it still may have enough to operate the starter solenoid but not enough to properly power the coils or the igniter.

unlikely, but possible.

why don't you just measure and find out if it has the correct voltage at the coils? (orange/white wire)