Coil Relay Mod

[huahuahauzi]

So I've been looking at this coil relay mod everyone is talking about and wanted to check to see if I need to do it. But I am not a genius when it comes to the multimeter. How exactly do I check to see if it needs it. Where do I put the red and black prongs from the multimeter. What am I looking for.

Anything would help at this point. I'm honestly completely lost here.

[bonanzadave]

You have to have at least a basic understanding of electricity.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/coil_relay_mod.html

[spyug]

What you are trying to determine is the voltage drop from the battery to the coils. A drop in voltage makes starting harder as the spark generated is weaker. Do you have a manual for your ride? If not go check Basscliff's site for the manual. You want to look at the wiring diagram to see what wires feed the coils. Each coil has a positive and a negative lead to it.

With the key on you can test the voltage at the battery and then at points on the ciruits down to the coils. Set the multimeter to DC volts (at the 20 scale). Black lead to negative and red to positive. If you reverse them the multimeter will show the voltage as a negative. To be accurate the battery should be fully charged. The voltage should be 12.5 or better for a healthy battery.

Now if you hold the probes to the respective pos and neg wires at the coils ideally you should have the same voltage......but you won't. Wiring itself and corroded and or grungy connectors along the pathway will add resistance and lower the voltage that gets through to the coils.

Now if the voltage difference is 1 volt or more you need to consider the coil relay. Before you get to that ,however, you should clean up all connections in the circuit from the battery to the coils. Don't neglect the run switch in the right side handlebar controls as this factors in to that circuit too.

When doing electrical tests like this you will find it helpful to use a circuit test probe which is a device like an icepick with a light bulb in the handle and a lead from the handle to an aligator clip. If you clip the aligator clip to a negative pole (on the battery or any metal part of the bike, i.e. a ground) and touch the tip to any connector or wire it will light up when you have touched a "hot" lead or connector(has voltage). Placing the red lead of the multimeter there and the black lead to a good ground ( i.e. the frame or any metal part, or black wires with white tracers which are grounds) will give you a voltage.

That's a basic overview of what it is about. By using a relay, you are insuring full available battery voltage is provided to the coils. that in turn insures you get the best spark available. One other thing to note is that for the best possible spark the plug caps should be in good working order. They all come with a certain level of built in resistance (usually 3 to 5 ohms) but over time addition resistance can build up weaking the spark further. If your spark doesn't look healthy enough change out your caps. It can make a world of differenc for around $7 a pop.

I hope that helps a wee bit.

cheers,
spyug

PS Remember when checking voltages in any of the circuits, you need to have the key in the on position. It is not necessary to have the bike running unless you are checking for charging voltage as per the Stator Papers. To learn about bike electrics I strongly recommend this http://www.tracyamartin.com/WebPages/MotorBook.html about $25 from all book stores. Written for the newbs, it is easy to understand with tons of illustrations and pictures.