Bad ignitor maybe?

[Guest]

My 80' 1100e has lost its spark while sitting and I'm thinking its the ignitor gone bad. I moved about 5 months ago and brought the bike out of storage when we got in the new place and as usual I made sure it and my other bikes that were in storage were still going to run. It started up and I rode it around for a bit and everything was fine so I parked it under the carport with the other bikes, well here it is 5 months later and there is 0 spark on either coil. I have a good ground on the coils and a ground on the ignitor, coils are getting 12v on the constant lead and 12v on the signal lead. I am assuming that means the ignitor is bad, but would it just stop working like that from just sitting? there was no battery on the bike this whole time as well. Has anyone ever had this problem? Could I maybe take it apart and soak it in something for a few days or weeks to free something up. I did put another coil on the bike and it did not spark either and I also checked the signal gen and it was fine as well. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do to make it work or should I just plan on replacing it? I do plan to eventually upgrade to a dyna system but it will be a while before I can spare the money for one. thanks in advanced for any help.

[fastbysuzuki]

I would not recommend taking the igniter apart and defiantly would not soak it in anything. If the bike was running ok when you stored it I would favour checking and cleaning all the connections on the ignition and charging system.
It's hard to see the igniter go faulty just sitting there unless it was subject to continual dosing with water.
The igniter can play up if it's not seeing 12 volts there is an igniter test somewhere on this or bikecliffes site although personally I don't see it as conclusive.

[JOE91]

All connections looked to be good but I do plan on going through all of them again and cleaning this weekend just to make sure, it shouldn't have been getting wet much at all since it was under the carport the whole time, the only thing would maybe condensation at worst. I'll look up the test to see if that shows anything.

[tom203]

I'd remove ignitor and stick in in sun (or someplace hot) for awhile ,and see if internal condensation is the issue. I doubt that your ignitor just went bad sitting around.

[JOE91]

I went through everything yesterday removed the plug caps trimmed the wires and got good readings on them, so I know they are ok did the test on the signal generator and it was good as well. I believe I have isolated the problem to a grounding issue I will try again today and see if it will fire up.

[wymple]

Run a hot wire to the coils & see if it fires up. If so, you're problem is wiring, not ignition.

[JOE91]

The coils have power going to them on the constant hot side, are you talking about using a hot wire to activate the signal side?