Brought home a 550E no spark

[thebleakness]

Wow! I'm really hoping that isn't part of the problem. I'll test out the extra ignitor I have, maybe help someone else out on the board if I can determine that works as well.

I found a guy out of state from me on craigslist parting out an '83 550E. I'm really hoping he still has the generator on it. As long as one of the pick ups works I'll take it and see if I can solder it in.

I did some researching myself on the microfiches and it does appear that the 83-86 550s are the only one with this style. There are a few other displacements that are similar but don't look like they'll work.

[thebleakness]

A quick update on the bike... JEEPRUSTY sent me a pickup in the mail from a bike of his so I soldered it back on the leads from the old one and.... I have spark! All four plugs spark but the bike still doesn't run. It doesn't even seem like it's trying to fire, I'm guessing some sort of fuel issue right now. I'll have to check that out tomorrow.

I noticed that with a full charged battery it only cranks over normally for maybe 20 rotations or so and then starts to lack power to turn over anymore. Is this normal for such an engine or just a sign of a bad battery?

[tom203]

From there I checked the signal generator leads, I get a resistance over 2 of the leads but the other combination does not work. I pulled the cover and one point will measure over the solder points but the other one wont.

Can we back up to this first post? What did the manual say the leads from signal generator should test at- resistance wise? Like Mr. Blowerbike, I doubt this would fail unless it was whacked- it's just a pair of mini coils. However, I can see bad connections causing problems here. Maybe when you soldered your replacement in, you fixed a poor connection. Hopefully, you didn't offset timing 180 degrees by switching wires.

[JEEPRUSTY]

A quick update on the bike... JEEPRUSTY sent me a pickup in the mail from a bike of his so I soldered it back on the leads from the old one and.... I have spark! All four plugs spark but the bike still doesn't run. It doesn't even seem like it's trying to fire, I'm guessing some sort of fuel issue right now. I'll have to check that out tomorrow.

I noticed that with a full charged battery it only cranks over normally for maybe 20 rotations or so and then starts to lack power to turn over anymore. Is this normal for such an engine or just a sign of a bad battery?

Your battery needs a charge most likely.

I have no doubt that you would have followed the correct wiring when soldering the part in.

I have been looking for interchange on this bike and found one ebay listing for a gs500 points cover with one pulsar coil snipped off so this has been done before.

Thank you for opening up a wider range of known possible donors for this part.

[thebleakness]

Can we back up to this first post? What did the manual say the leads from signal generator should test at- resistance wise? Like Mr. Blowerbike, I doubt this would fail unless it was whacked- it's just a pair of mini coils. However, I can see bad connections causing problems here. Maybe when you soldered your replacement in, you fixed a poor connection. Hopefully, you didn't offset timing 180 degrees by switching wires.

I have no idea how it went bad, I just know that it did. The service manual has the resistance values of 250-500ohm. Measured right over the 2 solder spots on either pickup I got 360 on one (the good one obviously), the other I couldn't get a reading on at all.

As for switching the wires, I spent alot of time looking at the color coded wires before doing any soldering of my own. I didn't want to mess that up lol.

[don]

For what it's worth, I have the exact same bike, over this past winter I was having some issues left over from the 09' riding season and did all of the electrical tests in the service manual I downloaded from Basscliffe's site..... and all the tests in the Clymer book....... and all the tests the dealer zook mechanic told me to....... and litterally ALL tests failed yet my ignition system works perfectly fine. Either I did the tests wrong or some other magic fu-fu mo-jo is at work.

(I have worked as an electical engineer for the past 17 years designing and building similar control systems on industrial equipment, and I do know how to operate a meter and sensors and controllers and..............)

Just my one time experience with all of it on bikes. Don't know if it helps you at all. I'm guessing you have tried the spare igniter you have, just because.........

[tom203]

For what it's worth, I have the exact same bike, over this past winter I was having some issues left over from the 09' riding season and did all of the electrical tests in the service manual I downloaded from Basscliffe's site..... and all the tests in the Clymer book....... and all the tests the dealer zook mechanic told me to....... and litterally ALL tests failed yet my ignition system works perfectly fine. Either I did the tests wrong or some other magic fu-fu mo-jo is at work.

Yes, I'm getting the feeling that some of the tests are misleading. I'm still trying to understand why suzuki had so many different ignitors doing basically the same thing- if mechanical advance, one ignitor should have worked for all fours.

[don]

Well, (to me), that's an issue with these 83's. The advance is electronic, there is no mechanical advance, there isn't even an advance adjustment unless you slot the holes in the pickup mounting plate. If you have advance issues, you can only fix it with a new igniter. At least with mechanical advance you can fiddle with springs and weights.......

[JEEPRUSTY]

Yes, I'm getting the feeling that some of the tests are misleading. I'm still trying to understand why suzuki had so many different ignitors doing basically the same thing- if mechanical advance, one ignitor should have worked for all fours.

the japanese model of the triad or whatever needs a review


the latter day gs 500s use one coil with an 8 or so notched rotor.
It truly bizarre

also some of the 90s 500s have a cali only rotor

spark advance as epa panacea
?

[thebleakness]

Well it's running now! I think the leads to the coils themselves were switched around (PO must have done something funky) and once I switched them, it started right up. My soldered pickup from RUSTY apparently did the trick.

Thanks for all the help!

[blowerbike]

this information has been recorded in my memory bank for the 83-86 550 odd ball GS's.

[SVSooke]

Well it's running now! I think the leads to the coils themselves were switched around (PO must have done something funky) and once I switched them, it started right up. My soldered pickup from RUSTY apparently did the trick.

Thanks for all the help!

Switched coil leads got me to.

[JEEPRUSTY]

Switched coil leads got me to.

Wow I am so happy to have helped you.
I did a part slookup on the pickup coils and ont he gs500 they switched from the same setup as your bike to a signal though identical pickup with a rotor that has one large tab and several small one.

To thik that for the twin they could have gone furhter and made the pickups redundant.

Oh well the part itself is still insanely priced.

Sunny day time for a drive I say