No spark at the plugs.

[robert_r_lefebvre]

I'm just posting this as a lesson learned.

Last weekend I was riding my bike when the engine stopped at a traffic light. After some troubleshooting, was it gas or spark that caused the stopage, it was no spark. After getting the bike home, I openned the Suzuki repair manual, which by the way was far superior compared to the Hanes manual with regards to this problem, and started to troubleshoot the problem. After eliminating the signal generator, coils, basic wiring, the only thing left was the ignitor. Fortunately you can separate the cover from the circuit board and upon close, really close inspection, the solder connections for the ignitor external connectors were exhibiting cracking. So after some soldering and re-assembly, my bike runs like new again.

I must say the bike was exhibing some weird symptoms before the final failure but since they were intermittent I thought they were attributed to intermittent contacts and it would be quite hard to find the source since it was intermittent.

Anyway here are the symptoms before the total failure:
1) Bike was hard to start some times, and now that I've located the problem it now makes sense, spark was not always there.
2) While riding, the tachometer would drop down to zero and pick up again. Yet engine ran OK. While troubleshooting, I noticed that the tach feeds off the same lines as the coil for banks 2,3 so missing spark on banks 2,3 would cause tach drop out.
3) Sometimes bike would act as if it was missing. This was barely noticable, I think it might be because the bike has so much power to start with and I don't drive it hard.

Anyway, thats about it, hope this helps someone else some day.

Bob
GS1150EF

[SqDancerLynn1]

Those of you that still have your stock igniter Should consider checking the solder connections on yours before it fails

[robert_r_lefebvre]

Make sure you use a magnifying glass. To the naked eye, the solder jionts appeared OK. It only became suspect when I actually used a multimeter and noted that the readings (Open or Short) changed as I flexed the board a bit. Thats when I used a magnifying glass and you could start to see the solder joints had cracked around the pin.

[t3rmin]

How the heck did you crack that sucker open?? I've just torn mine out and it's a solid brick of hard plastic and epoxy...

[syncali]

Thank You

OMFG!
I think you have solved my problem!

I have a 1983 gs550es with no spark to this day since last october.
I was riding it when it just shut off on me after about 5 minutes. I went ahead and bout a new ignitor from ebay for about $100. i am going to check my old one to see if it has the same problem yours had.
Although, the bike didn't work after i got the ignitor.STILL NO SPARK!
my coils and ignition circuits are good and the only thing i can think of is the pickup (SIGNAL GENERATOR) lET'S SEE IF IT WORKS

THANK YOU
GREAT ADVISE

[gert du prez]

Suzuki Manual

Hi Robert,
could you specify a bit more please on what items the Suzuki manual was better than Hanes ?
Do you know how I could get a Suzuki manual for my bike ? is it out on the net ? or were you able to order one ?

[nabrams]

OMFG!
I think you have solved my problem!

I have a 1983 gs550es with no spark to this day since last october.
I was riding it when it just shut off on me after about 5 minutes. I went ahead and bout a new ignitor from ebay for about $100. i am going to check my old one to see if it has the same problem yours had.
Although, the bike didn't work after i got the ignitor.STILL NO SPARK!
my coils and ignition circuits are good and the only thing i can think of is the pickup (SIGNAL GENERATOR) lET'S SEE IF IT WORKS

THANK YOU
GREAT ADVISE

syncali,

This can't be the first time you've seen a report of a failed ignitor on this forum (I'm assuming you've used the search feature).
Now, you bought a new ignitor that may or may not be good.
Before you start tearing your hair out from frustration, go through the simple sanity checks for the ignition components. They are described in detail in various places on this site and in the manual, but basically these are the steps in the appropriate order:
1. Verify that the signal generator is sending signal to ignitor (there are TWO "coils" on the signal generator - they signal alternately).
2. Verify that the OUTPUT wires that lead FROM the ignitor TO the coils are sending their signal.
3. Verify that the main power to the coils is present. This is the wire that is NOT coming from the ignitor. Each coil has TWO "hot" wires - one for the "main" power (always has current when the key ignition switch is on) and one for the signal from the ignitor (only supplies current when that coil needs to spark the plugs). AND, of course, each coil has a ground wire or is grounded to the frame - check this too.
4. Verify that current gets out of the spark plug wire/cap combination when the coil gets signalled - YES, it is possible that coils are fine but that the wire/cap is screwed.
5. Verify that the spark plug itself is actually good - YES, plugs do inexplicably die - some are defective from the factory (this is a more rare occurrence).