Spark Help

[Skievryday]

Bought an 83 550E (14k mi.) off another forum member a week ago. Was supposed to be more or less a runner needing a new battery, and prolly an R/R in the future. It has been sitting up since April when appranetly the battery finally gave out.

Drained tank, fresh gas, sprayed out carbs(I know they will need a dip at some point), and still nothing.

Engine spins, gas on plugs, air box looks good, but no spark on any cylinders.

Can someone walk me through testing the whole spark system? I get all the mechanicals of bikes, but not the electrics. I have a good ole cheap voltmeter ready. To be honest I prefer riding, and dislike having to do work. Unless it involves upgrades like nice Progressives and beautiful spark provided by coil relay.

One of my thoughts is to do coil relay mod right away. I will be doing it anyways, but if there is no power going to coils then that should take care of it right away, correct?

Help please... want to ride...

[RJ]

You say the battery "gave out." Do you have a new battery installed? If not, get one. Next, check all of your grounds and clean them if necessary. Then pull off the orange and white wire from one of the coils, take your voltmeter and measure the voltage at the coil with the ignition on and while your turning the starter. You should be getting at least 11 volts. That's not great voltage but it will start the bike. If no voltage then you need to look at the connectors behind the headlight, particularly the ignition switch connector. Corrosion is very common here and a quick spray with contact cleaner and connecting/disconnecting the plug may do the trick.

Oh yeah, did you check your fuses?

If the wiring harness looks like it's been hacked into you may just want to go ahead and buy a new one. It's pricey but may save you a lot of headaches in terms of chasing down shorts.

[Skievryday]

Sorry

Yeah, new battery and I checked my fuses... I was hoping it was a fuse when I first tore into it. Woulda made my day.

Ummm ya priceier than I wanted to be getting to buy a new harness.

Ok, and if all that doesn't work?

[RJ]

I wouldn't fool with buying a new harness unless the original was hacked up or the connectors were badly corroded. If you try those things I mentioned in the post above I bet you'll get it running. There is a possibility that the signal generator, which tells the coils when to fire, is bad. In that case get a Dyna S ignition which works better and is cheaper than the stock setup. You're looking at around $100. They are really easy to install. I'm not sure how to diagnose the thing off the top of my head, but a repair manual should have the procedure in there.

[Skievryday]

ok lunch time check

Checked at lunch.

I have continuity through positive and negative going into the coils, but I don't even need to hit the starter. Key on, and 12-13V on both coils.

Is something fried?

[RJ]

Check to see if the plug wires are hooked up right. The left coil should feed the 2 outer cylinders 1 and 4 (1-4 left to right as you sit on the bike), and the coil on the right feeds 2 and 3. If that checks out, pull one of the plugs, lay it on the engine and se if it sparks when you crank it. It's unlikely that both coils fried at the same time but it is possible. If at this point you don't have spark I would suspect the ignitor.

[Skievryday]

Ok

I found the manual on Basscliff's site and I found out how to test the signal generator and iginitor, hopefully something inbetween there is sloppy. That would be nice....

I already checked coil wiring, but even having one of them right like #1 woulda given me spark on the head last night.

Grrr... I shouldn't have bought a non-runner.

Last question for the day: Where do I find a Dyna system? Seems hard to find for an 83 550...

[hikermikem]

Last question for the day: Where do I find a Dyna system? Seems hard to find for an 83 550...

Call Z1 Enterprises & talk to Jeff. Open the sig gen cover & see which ignition you have; either Nippon-Denso (ND), or the other one. That determines which Dyna S you need (-2 or -3). You will need a mechanical advance as well.

You may need to fashion a spacer for the cover afterwards, to provide clearance for the unit. I've read here where some have traced the cover OD onto one of those nylon cutting boards & made a spacer that way.

Good luck

[lucabond]

Checked at lunch.

I have continuity through positive and negative going into the coils, but I don't even need to hit the starter. Key on, and 12-13V on both coils.

Is something fried?

With the key on you should have the battery voltage on the orange/white wire. Disconnect the other wire from the coil and connect a temp wire to it.
Now ground and unground the temp wire with a plug in the plug cap and grounded to the engine with the key on. You should get a spark by doing this, its what the ignitor does in slow motion. No spark, and there is a problem with the coil or wire. Try removing the plug cap trimming a 1/ inch off the wire and reinstall the cap and check again.
If you got a spark with the test look at the other wire for a bad connection between the coil and ignitor, also check the ground and power wire for the ignitor to make sure it has a good ground and battery voltage going to it. Hope this helps good luck

[Skievryday]

Well

I did not get any spark from the plug. The temp ground would spark, meaning there was power running through the coil right?

Awesome. I see coils and wires and $150 charge to the card in my future unless the guy takes the bike back. I wanted a runner...

[Scotts]

Good luck with the bike you are getting good advise there.

I used to live in Reynolds GA. up the road a bit. Had to go down there to shop.

Scott