Won't start...She's Running:)

This may be just a bit of "hand holding" but I thought I'd throw this out. Weather's pretty crappy so I won't be able to do anything for a couple of days anyway. I'm putting this in engine because it started when I adjusted my valves and removed my cams.
Bike ran fine before doing valve adjustment and cam removal. Since I was putting it back together anyway I also went up one main jet size and also replaced the coil, w/a used dyna 3ohm coil. I'm as sure as I can that I put the cam in and did the timming correctly. I checked, double checked and rechecked my manuel. During these upgrades there was probably some incidental banging of the electronic ignition pickup during crankshaft rotation as well as possible disturbance of floats when replacing jet. Gas w/sea foam sat in float bowls about 2 months. The coil also came prewired w/a male and female connection that I just plugged into my wiring, using the existing male/female plugs. New spark plug wires.
I tried to start it yesterday and got nothing. She cranked fine but didn't seem to get any fire. Gas is getting into the float bowls and the plugs smell slightly of gas, maybe a little wet:unsure:.
I'm leaning toward the coil being bad. Either bad coil or the wiring is backwards. I'd hate to pitch a good dyna coil, if the wires were just backwards. Any thoughts? I'd hate to bark up an obviously wrong tree.
Thanks
RonJ

Post edited by: ronjones, at: 2007/04/21 01:03

I'd check for spark before I did anything else.
If you have no spark, then follow the ignition backwards.

Exactly.
Lets make SURE We have spark and fuel before going any further.
Have a few spare plugs on hand,just to rule out a faulty plug,which DOES happen.If You get no spark at any of the plugs,switch it out for another one to be sure.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies:) This may need to be moved to electrical.
I have some more information, although I really haven't done a through electrical check. I hooked up the original 3ohm coil, but didn't bolt it to the frame. Just laid it on top of the frame. Still didn't get any fire. There is something I thought might be an unrelated problem but now I'm not so sure. During this last upgrade frenzy, I also replaced the original headlight w/an H4. When I turned power on all the lights lit except the headlight. I thought I might have got a bad bulb, so I plugged the original in, it still wouldn't light. In looking through my manual I also found out that the 750CSR used a 2ohm coil and the Dyna I have is a 3ohm. Multimeter says I'm only getting 9.7v to the coil and nothing to the headlights, didn't check the battery voltage. The battery should be fully charged, but I haven't looked at acid level, and the coil is being powered through the WG coil mod. I did do a visual inspection of the fuse box and fuses and nothing looks obviously wrong.
A couple of questions come to mind. By trying to start it w/the 3ohm dyna could I have f'ed something else? Does the coil need to be grounded through the mounting connection? Is there any circuit in particular that would be common to the headlight and coil? Could I have damaged my original coil by powering it w/o having it mounted to the frame? Other than checking battery voltage and fluid level and doing a full electrical diagnostic, anyone have any ideas on something I'm missing?
Everything was working before I took things apart for the cams. It's gotta be something simple:unsure:.
Thanks

Post edited by: ronjones, at: 2007/04/18 21:11

Ron...this is only a guess,and I'm probably wrong,but if You have an unplugged wire,in the headlight bucket...

Is there not a loop in there,that somewhere ties into the main wiring harness,which branches off to the ignition wiring?
You might want to take another look inside that headlight bucket,and make sure everything is grounded properly and all connections are good.

No need to ground the coil to the frame.
What is the resistance of the coil (measured), if it's an original coil it is probably more than 3 ohms by now.

With the key on, start at the coil and work backwards measuring voltage until you find where the voltage drops.

Thanks for getting back to me again, guys.
Sandy, I poked around in the bucket but didn't find anything obvious, but I'll be going back to check that whole circuit out.
Steell, I gather from your last reply that using the 3ohm coil, nor not having it mounted to the frame, wouldn't cause any problem's went out and looked at all my connections and thought I found the problem. I didn't have the pickup plugged in:blush:. I tried starting it w/each of the coils and still didn't get any fire. Well I took some measurements.
battery fluid level good, voltage @ battery 13.2v, @ coil 12.2v.
3ohm coil: primary 3.2, secondary 14.10.
2ohm coil: primary 2.5, secondary 12.65.
I also measured the wire resistance. I have 2 sets, the original and a new set.
both new wires measure 0.00ohms on the 20K scale.
Both old wires w/o the plug caps give a reading of 0.00 however when I measure the resistance of the wires w/the plug caps installed one gives a reading of around 4-5ohms on the 20k scale. The other gives intermittent reading of anywhere from 1.00 to around 5 on the 20k scale. Seems like I may have something loose in there. What about the resistance readings on the caps? Can I use the new non-resistor wires?
I'm sure I don't need to mention this but on my meter reads 0.00 w/no resistance and 1 w/infinite resistance

Hey guys, she's running:woohoo:!!!
After doing all the checks in the above post, everything seemed to check out on both coils and Steell's assurances the 3ohm dyna coil would work, I went back out and rechecked all my connections and it just wasn't getting any spark. Since I knew the coil was good, and it was getting good voltage, it had to be somewhere else. Since it was working before I figured all the individual ignition parts were good, I started thinking about the ancillary banging I might have done to the EI pickup. It looked to be a bit far away from the lobe, I used a screwdriver to pry the pickup closer to the lobe. Since I'd partially drained the battery during my previous attempts, I kicked once and BANG, she fired right up:woohoo:.
I still have to track down the headlight, hook up the alternator, tune the carbs and a few other minor things and I'll be riddin' in a week...maybe sooner, Yahoo!!!
with a rejuvenated bike:woohoo:
Thanks y'all for all the help and not just in this thread.
Steell, I hope your wife is doing better and hope for a quick recovery.
Ron:woohoo:

Well, I tracked down the headlight problem. Turned out one of my fuses had disintigrated. It didn't look bad but just kind of fell apart into its component pieces.
Other than a few more adjustments she's back on the road.:woohoo:
Ron

Really good to hear that,Ron...right ON!! :woohoo:

Feels good...don't it?

Get the spec for the proper distance between the lobe and the pickup and set it, otherwise you are liable to have problems in the future with it.

I was pretty worried about my Wife for awhile, but her condition improved enough that the Doc let her come home Friday afternoon.

Post edited by: steell, at: 2007/04/24 00:00

Sandy wrote:

Really good to hear that,Ron...right ON!! :woohoo:

Feels good...don't it?

Sure does