Will my AR ever spark again?

[Mutley]

Thanks to Gregorius for helping me believe in my ignition coil (although I wish it was simply fooked and I knew all I needed to do was send a ton more of money up to LT for a new one)

So here’s the deal:
- Magneto must be working because I’m getting the neutral light on kicking over
- Tried three spark plugs and two HT caps
- Checked all the connectors from behind the headlight fairing back to the PGM – seem OK
- Would isolate the kill switch but can’t see the best way to do that

I’ve read the full workshop manual on troubleshooting the electrics, but that full testing seems to require extra kit beyond a multimeter, so there are tests that just aren’t going to happen - at least in my shed. Continuity between PGM and coil looks good though.

So swapping out components (regulator, PGM, coil?) one by one seems to the the next step? Anyone been through this particular journey?

Overall the bike is in unusually good nick, it's worked well all summer and when I idly tried to remove the swing arm pivot bolt in a vain attempt to find a fault that could be fixed by a lump hammer rather than a multimeter, it slid out looking slick and recently greased. My AR actually looks like it's had either an easy or unusually well-maintained life. But it won't effing spark. . .

[Active Rascal]

Side stand switch?? Bypass both the ignition switch and kill switch using a piece of wire or equivalent to eliminate these. Condeser/Capacitor OK?? All earths good??

[Mutley]

Thx Active Rascal. Bike arrived with no side stand switch. Still bit puzzled about bypassing kill switch as it has three terminals? Not sure how to test condenser and capacitor? Just replace?

[Active Rascal]

If I remember rightly, it's a 3 plug connection, one of which is for your brake light switch. I've split mine into seperate plugs. Do you have a wiring diagram? Have you checked that that side stand switch has been bypassed properly, and the quality of join is still good and intact?

[Mutley]

OK, sure can work out something for the kill switch and will take a good look at the side stand bypass. Thx.

[knackeredMk1]

Side stand switch is covered in the FAQs ..........

[Mutley]

She sparks! Sidestand bypass seemed to have been done fine. Used a wire to bridge the killswitch wire at the connector and - Lo, she sparketh again! I plugged the killswitch in again and still sparks. I think the problem was the killswitch connector. Had a lot of extra tape around it, but I think dirt and water got in. Finger crossed now for putting everything back and actually putting that spark to use. . .

[knackeredMk1]

Well done

[Active Rascal]

So the answer is YES - She will spark again!!

It's always a process of elimination. You can buy waterproof plugs on ebAY, I really really rate these!! Might be worth cutting your wire back and re doing the plugs, but you'll need a special crimping tool, not a normal electrical one. I have the opposite end plugs with a simple loop of wire going through for both ignition switch and kill switch which I keep in my spares incase 1) I forget to take my keys or lose them, or two 2) I have a problem sparking when out, can easily and quickly bypass both of these.

Happy days.

[Mutley]

And she runs too now. Sweet as a nut. Thanks again to awesome forum members. Sometimes it's as much moral as technical support

Any ebay links for those waterproof plugs Active Rascal? Neat trick with the dummy plugs.

[Active Rascal]

Cracking stuff

It was a few years ago I bought them, but basically these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5Kits-2Pin-Wa ... 5b06b60eb3

You can buy cheaper from Hong Kong, however although they look the same, the price does reflect the quality. I'll only buy UK ones now. I really rate them. Another thing I do is have a blanking plug for the rear light unit (3 pin plug) so that when I do tracks and remove my rear light/Numberplate, it's just one plug, and I replace the light with the blanking plug. That way you can get it as dirty as you like, jet it off when you get back and just swap the plugs back one dried.

[Mutley]

Sweet, thanks