'84 GS1150 Ignitor

[rputney01]

I need some advice please. I'm going to look at an '84 1150 today or tomorrow. From the pic the guys sent me, it looks to be in good shape cosmetically. He says that it doesn't run because the ignitor is bad. I'm thinking that if that is all that is wrong with it, I can put a Dyna S in it and be good to go. Any thoughts as to how I can otherwise make sure that I'm not buying a basket case?

I assume that I can check the electrical and starter motor. Does going through the gears without the bike running tell me anything useful? Compression test? He says he had a Kaw dealer put a new stator in it, don't know what brand, but he claims to have receipts. The bike only has 16K miles on it and he claims that he is selling it because his brother died recently in a motorcycle accident, which seems like a fairly good reason. He's asking $2000 for it. If it was running and clean, that seems like a steal. It has a Yosh pipe on it, so no telling what other mods it may have.

As always, you advice is quite welcomed. What do you think?

Thanks.

[Nessism]

The 1150 doesn't have a mechanical advance unit since the spark advance is built into the ignitor. Because of this the Dyna-S won't work, unless someone here says you can retrofit a mechanical advance unit from a different GS model. You might want to lay a plug alongside the engine and see if there is spark. A used ignitor is not as easy to find as other GS models, and a Dyna 2000 is a good bit of cash.

Good luck

[tom203]

If it doesn't run, you can tell very little- it might be cosmetically perfect, but the engine/trans could be toasted. All the stories about ignitor, stator, brother, etc would mean nothing to me. Non running bikes aren't worth $500, unless you feel real lucky.

[SqDancerLynn1]

If you can't find a used one ?? A Dyna 2000 is several hundred dollars And is the best option if the ignitor is bad.

[rputney01]

If you can't find a used one ?? A Dyna 2000 is several hundred dollars And is the best option if the ignitor is bad.

Glad I asked. It looks like the Dyna 2000 is between $400 and $500. I can't tell for sure which part number it would be. It looks like there are two that work for an 1100, but I don't see one for the 1150. Would it be the same for both bikes? Does it make sense that one would be single fire and one would be dual fire, to make the $100 in price?