Strange behavior after coil mod

[haapy52]

Well after finding that #'s 2&3 were not firing I decided to do the coil modification on my 79 gs1000. looks like 2&3 are still not firing so now I will look at the points again, and test the condenser. But the strange thing is that after the coil mod the kill switch does not work, and the ignition switch will not stop the engine either. Luckily giving it gas stalls it. So clearly I have messed something up. I wired the relay as follows.

Power from battery to #30
Ground to 85
Switched from harness (yellow/white) to 86
power to coils 87 87a

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

h

[Macguyver]

Greetings haapy52!

Here is a great link for relay pin-outs, it should help us figure this out.

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Automotive-Relays.htm

So battery power to #30, check.

Ground to #85, check.

Switched power from harness to #86, check.

Coils to 87, 87A. AUUUGAAA! Warning, danger Will Robinson!

If you want the coils to be powered only when the relay is tripped, power both coils from 87, 87A is powered when the relay is not tripped.

Relays like this one act just like a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) switch, that is, one common connection, and 2 possible connections. The only difference is that we are getting the solenoid in the relay to flip the switch for us.

If you power one coil from 87 (Normally Open - N.O. connection), and the other from 87A (Normally Closed - N.C. connection), you will only have one coil active at any given time. This may also cause voltage to leak back into your wiring harness and cause odd behavior.

The way you describe the wiring, your 2nd coil is only powered when the solenoid in the relay is not, so your coil is live when the bike is off.

Connect both coils to 87, which is the Normally Open (NO) connection, and let us know what your results are. If I were a betting man, I would lay money down that this is the source of at least some of the problems you have described.

*EDIT* If you would like to know more about switches and their nomenclature, here's a good link that explains a fair bit.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSwitch&ei=_x6ZTOWPDcalngfe9qyhDw&usg=AFQjCNH9t8F_iwVhMDztbpGe8WUACmsj2Q

[salty_monk]

You should disconnect it pretty quick. An "always on" connection to the coils will overheat them & kill them pretty quick.

[haapy52]

Macguyver nailed it, i had them wired wrong. Wired per Macguyver's direction problem went away. Thank you!!!!!!!!! Now on to why 2 &3 do not fire. I swapped the coils and the problem stayed with 2&3!. Back into the breach.

h

[Macguyver]

Just glad I could help.

Now for the 2&3 not firing situation.

Bigzack had a similar problem a little while ago:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=165999&highlight=firing

Turned out to be a wire problem. Maybe go over all of your wiring for the coils again with a multimeter and make sure everything is properly connected.

Aside from that, it could be faulty signal generator or a bad connector maybe?

Have you cleaned all of the corrosion out of the connectors on the harness and treated them with dielectric grease?

[Big T]

Macguyver nailed it, i had them wired wrong. Wired per Macguyver's direction problem went away. Thank you!!!!!!!!! Now on to why 2 &3 do not fire. I swapped the coils and the problem stayed with 2&3!. Back into the breach.

h

If you swapped the wires to the coils and the 2-3 coil is still not firing, either it's not getting powered up or it's bad.

Test the positive line at the coil - 12V or no?

If 12V = bad coil

No 12V = wiring issue