Testing IC igniter

Just fixed my 1000(which was hitting on one coil) by swapping out the ic igniter from my 1100. Can I assume the takeoff is trash? Is there any way to test it before I drop any more into this money pit we call motorcycling?

The ignitor has two seperate circuits. You can test it by swapping the circuits.

The first step is to swap the outputs which are the wires going to the coils. Swap the green wire with the black wire at the coils. If the problem stays with the same coil, the coil or it's wiring is bad.

If the problem followed the wire, it can be the ignitor ar it can be the pickups. To test this, you have to swap the inputs which are the wires from the pickups. Swap red with yellow, and black with blue on the pickup connector. Use jumpers to avoid re-wiring the connectors and losing the wires' orientation within the connector.

If the problem stays on the same ignition-coil, it's the ignitor. If the problem moves to the other coil, it's a bad pickup.

well, like I said in the original post, the problems vanished when I replaced the igniter... just wondered if there was any point in trying to salvage it before I throw it out.

In the Clymers manual I have, there are tests, checking the resistance between wires, you can do on the Igniter. This is what confirmed for me that mine was bad, as I didn't get any reading on one test, using the red wire on the pickup side.

Do you have a manual? Otherwise I can scan the tests and post them up.

Reviving the thread due to need to know.

I spent the better part of htree hours on a project that ended up with me frustrated at a "no fire" impasse.

I don't think the pickups are the problem, as none of that looks like it has ever been tampered with.

I have a 12v test light, which might be helpful. I also have a multimeter. I think the 12v is there, as I swapped out the ignitor and reconnected the Dyna, and got ignition. Rode around a little yesterday after the project stalled with Dyna in place.

When I originally installed the Dyna unit, I could roll the magnet past the trigger and hear spark pop.

Sadly, I don't seem to have sparkies with the new (used) ignitor and pulsers.

So input / diagnostic flow charting from someone with a check out proceedure would be really welcome right about now.

Thanks in advance.

I assume we are talking about the 78 650 SR.

That bike didn't have pickups originally, so the pickups can't be un-tampered. They had to be removed from somewhere else, which means you should resistance check them. They should be somewhere around 450 ohms. That is measured from blue wire to black wire and yellow wire to red wire.

Do you also have the advancer mechanism for the electronic ignition, more importantly the little iron pointer on the rotor?

The stock electronic ignition will not really fire if you are turning the engine slowly by hand. The engine needs to turn quicker than that to fire. It is designed so the ignition doesn't use any power if the motor is not turning.

Why did the bike stall with the Dyna unit in place?

Is the dyna broke?

What coils are you using?

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/10/16 11:34

Hi Lou, thanks for the response.

I did check the pickups and they showed continuity. Now I know what they should be. I do have the pointy-type iron induction rotor to go into the place of the Dyna setup.

I was able to move the rotor around inside the pickups last night and see that the multimeter values changed as the rotor point passed the pickup cores.

I also verified 12v (yellow/red) and ground wire (black/yellow) to the igniter itself.
So those issues are not my non-fire quandary.
The igniter itself doesn't need to be grounded, does it?

Is kick starting the bike going to be enough to activate this set up?

The Dyna is functional, but apparently is a current hog, such that my single-phase alternator is not really able to keep up with it. So that is why I would like to go with the passive induction system.

The coils are dead on at 3 ohm.

With the Dyna in place, bike starts and runs fine. I didn't mean that the Dyna stalled. It works greedily.

Which is what will stay in place until I can sort this other system out.

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/10/16 14:00

The igniter itself doesn't need to be grounded, does it?

The igniter does not need to be ground itself, BUT it should have a black/yellow ground wire that should be grounded, if I'm not mistaken.
This is if it's a Kawasaki Igniter, and not a Dyna.

Kickstarting with the inductive ignition works fine. I think you need around 150 to 200 rpm minimum to get a decent spark if everything is up to snuff. (Electric start is somewhere around 300 rpm.)I've installed it on a kickstart 650 before. But be sure you have a good, solid 12v when starting.

If you kick it, you still don't get a spark? Or have you not checked by kicking?

I have a lot of notes on the stock system. Check this link and scroll down to look for the "gpz stock ignition notes". It's a text file so you may want to save it to your hard drive then read it in notepad or Word etc. (not Internet Explorer).

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZgmHEImod.html

Thanks again for the input. I'm glad I didn't have to have the igniter itself grounded, as I mounted it to the inner plastic fender. Not much room under the side covers. Looks pretty, even if it doesn't work. LOL

As far as seeing a spark, well, that's another story.

With igniter wired in, and triggers installed, kicky kick about 12-15 times, and I'm kicked out of the running. I'm pooped. . .thinking back to how much I hated points for the same reason.

Swap point plate for Dyna & rotor, kick once and the bike fires up and vroom, good to go.

Swap Dyna off and swap pulse plate and inductor rotor in. No fire. Didn't pull plugs. Bike no start.

Swap Dyna back in. Kick once. Vroomy vroom.

Yes, but is there a spark on any of the plugs? If something is 180 out, you could have spark, but the motor still won't start. If there is no spark, the troubleshooting is different than if there is a spark at the wrong time.

Well, Robert at J&R Cycles, Marietta comes through for me yet once more.

Lent me a Clymer's manual which has a check out proceedure.

Apparently you can touch a screwdriver to the pole piece on a trigger and activate a spark.

You can also supply 12v and a ground to the igniter via trigger feeds, with the triggers disconnected, and that is supposed to activate a spark.

Swapping in a known good is the final solution.

Clymerspeek: "Sometimes you just can't isolate a problem on a bench."

So maybe I can try some of that tonight.

Keep you posted with progress. 233 views so a couple folks out here in KWAZAALAND are tuned in.

:laugh: