Stupid Stupid Stupid Spark

[todreamalife]

Hey am having trouble with the spark on my bike. In other words there is none. I bit the bullet after months of fruitless testing and bought a new solenoid and ignition assembly, (the original ignition assembly was attacked by a rabid mechanic in a misguided attempt at hotwiring) (I thought I was bad as a clueless girl reading a manual but I will never trust one of my husbands friends again until I see him rebuild a carburetor succesfully.)

Anyway I'm rambling. I decided to try all the impossible parts that never break because I cannot find anything else wrong with the damn thing and I think the ignition assembly might be one of those. Brief history:

1) husband buys me the bike (yeah he's a great guy)
2) I move to Canada
3) bike sits for two years tied up in paperwork. covered with a bike cover but in the moist air
4) "mechanic" tries to hotwire the bike, don't ask me why
5) I finally import the bike
6) Mechanic has lost all ignition bolts and the mechanism that holds the two plates inside together. I put two plasic washers against the lock mechanism which is just enough pressure to push the top plate down and voila the lights turn on.
7) Bike doesn't start, husband puts a new ground on the starter, I cleaned the old one but it did no good. (Note: very difficult to get a ground of any kind on the engine casing or starter casing or frame) starter now turns over.
8) Carburator cleaned (husband can do it sucessfully, phew)
9) Bike runs for 1 month just fine then starts having trouble starting, will only idle once warmed up, then dies. The idle switch? is stuck. Bike starts dying when I am riding it. Finally won't start at all. Seems like the cable for the idle switch is stuck permanantly so can only adjust the idle a very little bit. There is spark, I think.
10) Order a new cable. Cable arrives, I put it on the bike and the bike won't start. Check the spark, there is no spark.
11) Spend fruitless couple of months buying ohmeters and muttering over wiring diagrams. Husband puts a stop to it when I talk of lighting the bike on fire.
12) Took a couple of months hiatus. Back at it again. Decided instead of trying to trace mythical short I will try the solenoid and the ignitor and the ignition assembly.

Any hints? Anyone ever heard of this before? Any clues for a clueless girl with a manual?



Drea

[Water Warrior 2]

Drea, you are obviously not afraid to get your hands dirty. Where is the bike from originally ?? Might help cause we have some pretty smart people from all over. I have no real experience with trouble shooting but I would suggest tracing the entire electrical system and looking for any corrosion with might be affecting the overall electrical performance. Clean up all connectors and coat with dialectric grease, it is nonconductive grease. How old is the battery ?? Do you have to charge it up before the bike will run. Maybe it will not hold a charge and causes the bike to die after a short time.
Also, I don't understand the meaning of the idle switch you mentioned. Are you referring to the small lever on the left side handle bar. The one you rotate towards you to start the bike. It is the choke( sometimes called an enrichener) and used for starting the bike when the engine is cold. The idle control is on the underside of the carb.
Think i will stop now and wait for the smart people to show up.

[todreamalife]

Yup, the choke is exzactly what I meant to say. Thanks for the tip :)

The bike is from Pasedena California. I have traced wire till I am blue in the face but I haven't found anything. Even took the generator apart and looked at the stator, (inconclusive, the right ohms anyway) The dilectric grease is a good idea, tried to get some of that awhile back but the parts guy didn't know what I was talking about and I didn't know the right word.

Bought a new battery when all this started, battery does not run down on its own. Holds a charge just fine. I have a good trickle charger and I have noticed nothing unusual with the battery. When the bike used to die it sounded like it was "choking out" (yes that's my phrase) I would say it sounded like it was running too rich. The choke had frozen in place within the sleeve and so I had to tune the carb to run right when the bike was warmed up and just keep trying to start it till it warmed up. I have no way of knowing if the new choke cable fixed the problem because when I got it hooked up the spark had stopped working.

I spent a lot of fruitless hours trying to see how the choke problem/dying could be connected to the spark but I finally concluded that they were two seperate problems. I have had that happen before, some of the problems above are one right after the other.

[Easy Rider]

(the original ignition assembly was attacked by a rabid mechanic in a misguided attempt at hotwiring)

Stupid, stupid computers!
Had a nice, long reply started last night, hit the TAB key by mistake and somehow lost the whole thing!!! :cuss:

Now that I have cooled off a bit, let's see how much of it I can remember. :cry:

The electronic ignition has an anti-theft feature. A certain specific resistance must be present IN the ignition switch or it will not work. Maybe your "rabid mechanic" damaged that resistor.
If you haven't already, put in a new plug. I had a SHORTED plug on a thumper years ago and it drove me NUTS for a while.

Overall, I think you really should let a "real" Zuki shop have a go at it. While nothing on the bike is really complicated, some of it is a little tricky.........even for a seasoned mechanic not familiar with the particular model.

Good luck. It IS a nice little bike......when it's running!! :tup:

[todreamalife]

That's a bummer about your post. Yup, computers are stupid too.

You said" The electronic ignition has an anti-theft feature. A certain specific resistance must be present IN the ignition switch or it will not work."

Are you referring to the on/off switch? Because he didn't go at that, he took the bottom of the ignition assembly, buch of wires, key goes in top, bolts on with two bolts from the bottom. And he tried to push wires together there. There was a sping assembly inside that was lost, the two bolts, and unknown other bits and pieces. My McGyvver job makes it all work but the steering wheel lock. Not that I'm brilliant, just smooshed those two plastic, triangle, panel things together. (Gotta love the technical terms) I would include a picture but haven't been able to find any pic of the inside of the ignition.

Did already try the plug. Actually, just on the off chance, tried two. No luck. There is not any current going from the coil to the plug wire although there is current going in the coil, just not quite 12 volts. However the current is enought to turn the starter over.

The problem with a Zuki shop is that nobody has a clue about these bikes in Canada, (no offence to canadian members) from what I was told by several different shops, it was only manufactured in the States, I have to order all parts from the States, and even the Marauder (I think that's its slightly better known companion) isn't common here. The shops will charge me to look at it, but I am worried that electrical might start to run up the hours too much.

That said it seems to be my only option.

Drea

[Easy Rider]

Are you referring to the on/off switch? Because he didn't go at that, he took the bottom of the ignition assembly,

However the current is enought to turn the starter over.

That said it seems to be my only option.



No, I mean the ignition switch, the one where you put the key.....the one that he ***'d up! :cry:

I forgot to mention earlier that the electronic ignition also has a low voltage threshold. It will stop making spark BEFORE the starter stops turning over. Your battery MUST be fully charged while you are "testing". It is possible that you just have a weak battery.

I wouldn't give up yet. At least check out the battery. I killed mine just testing the turn signals !!! :cuss:

If you DO end up taking it to the shop, be sure to tell them EVERYTHING that you know; wouldn't hurt to write it down.

[todreamalife]

I will check the battery again. It has 12 volts on the multimeter and doesn't run down when it's cranked, should I just try another one or is that enough.

I ordered a new ignition assembly. It was expensive but I think it's worth a shot. It is the most obvious place to start. It should be here in a couple weeks so we'll try it out then and see if that's the problem. Thanks again,

Drea

[Easy Rider]

I will check the battery again. It has 12 volts on the multimeter and doesn't run down when it's cranked, should I just try another one or is that enough.

I ordered a new ignition assembly. It was expensive but I think it's worth a shot. It is the most obvious place to start. It should be here in a couple weeks so we'll try it out then and see if that's the problem. Thanks again,


It "sounds" like the battery is OK......if the voltage stays above 10.5 WHILE cranking you should be OK. If it goes much below that, then new battery.

Is that the ignition SWITCH assembly ?? If so, save the old key (to open the seat latch). Once you get everything else working, a locksmith can make the seat release match the new ignition key......for about $15. Much more expensive if you don't have the old key.

[jonathan180iq]

Does anyone near you have a GZ? If so, I would spend a weekend swapping out electrical parts from a working bike to verify what's not working on your bike. This of course should be done after making sure that you have a good battery.
Then, you could just replace what needs to be replaced with a new part.