82 GS550L - Tracker-ish

Right then. Had her running the other day off the fuel tank for the first time. Charging system has got to be FUBAR. Had her idling for a few minutes, killed, then tried to start up a few min later and the batt was dead. Threw it on the charger over the weekend and here we are.

Trying to fire it up today and not even a stumble. Starter is cranking over fine. So I'm back to square one. Spark test showed a weak ass spark, so I broke out the multimeter and tested the coils. Primary coil resistance was fine at about 4 ohms on both coils, but not getting a reading on the secondary coil circuit (spark plug lead to ground) whatsoever, on either side. Seems odd, since I had it running pretty strong idling at 1,200 before I left for the weekend...

What could cause fried coils all of a sudden? Ignition was off all weekend and the battery was outta the bike on the charger. Fuses all check out.
 
adventurco said:
Right then. Had her running the other day off the fuel tank for the first time. Charging system has got to be FUBAR. Had her idling for a few minutes, killed, then tried to start up a few min later and the batt was dead. Threw it on the charger over the weekend and here we are.

Trying to fire it up today and not even a stumble. Starter is cranking over fine. So I'm back to square one. Spark test showed a weak ass spark, so I broke out the multimeter and tested the coils. Primary coil resistance was fine at about 4 ohms on both coils, but not getting a reading on the secondary coil circuit (spark plug lead to ground) whatsoever, on either side. Seems odd, since I had it running pretty strong idling at 1,200 before I left for the weekend...

What could cause fried coils all of a sudden? Ignition was off all weekend and the battery was outta the bike on the charger. Fuses all check out.
I was told it's just corrosion and general wear and tear. I realized later my coils weren't the issue. It was the spark plug boots. Give them a check. Food for thought.
 
Now that its a bit darker out, I dug out a new plug and checked for spark. I've definitely got it, but pretty faint and white on all 4 plug wires. Looks like I'll have to pony up for a couple new coils if I want to sell her as a runner...

All three phases on the stator read about 0.8 ohms, and none of them go out to ground. So that's a good sign.
 
It seems odd that all 4 of the plug caps could be bad, yet the bike was running fine the other day. I have some extras lying around so I will cut off the end of 1 wire on each coil and re-test after work today.


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snmavridis said:
I was told it's just corrosion and general wear and tear. I realized later my coils weren't the issue. It was the spark plug boots. Give them a check. Food for thought.
NoRiders said:
Could be plug caps?

Cut off the caps and tested the wires today. Both secondary coil circuits showing open, so those are both trash. It seemed to be running pretty well the other day at about 1200 - then the next time she fired up idle was high ~2000...so either something shorted out or the coils just decided to shit the bed at an (in)opportune moment.

Looks like I'll be putting more money in parts just to sell her. Lucky for somebody...

Anyways, is there a way to test a "new" R/R? I haven't live tested the stator yet, so at the moment evidence is pointing to a faulty R/R, and wondering if that could cause the coils to go haywire? The coils are directly wired up to the CDI but not directly to the R/R or stator. Just spitballing here.
 
adventurco said:
Anyways, is there a way to test a "new" R/R? I haven't live tested the stator yet, so at the moment evidence is pointing to a faulty R/R, and wondering if that could cause the coils to go haywire? The coils are directly wired up to the CDI but not directly to the R/R or stator. Just spitballing here.


If you have a multimeter and a manual there should be some tests in there.

It's pretty unlikely that an RR going AWOL would just affect your coils - the result of a faulty RR is normally no voltage, but in the rare case that it would send excess / enough voltage through to destroy a coil it would pretty much kill everything else (fuses, CDI, lights - the whole lot).
 
hillsy said:
If you have a multimeter and a manual there should be some tests in there.

It's pretty unlikely that an RR going AWOL would just affect your coils - the result of a faulty RR is normally no voltage, but in the rare case that it would send excess / enough voltage through to destroy a coil it would pretty much kill everything else (fuses, CDI, lights - the whole lot).

The bike was originally wired with separate regulator and rectifier. Not exactly sure how the tests would translate over to a modern combo unit. No fuses were blown, and the rest of the electrical system seems to be working fine.

Well, except for the charging system ;D
 
adventurco said:
The bike was originally wired with separate regulator and rectifier. Not exactly sure how the tests would translate over to a modern combo unit. No fuses were blown, and the rest of the electrical system seems to be working fine.

Well, except for the charging system ;D


Really? I thought by 82 they all were combo units??


Anyway, it's EXTREMELY unlikely a failed RR will shoot out excess voltage - they normally fail and just don't charge at all.


Have you tested the AC voltage coming out of the stator? You should have over 50V AC from each of the 3 wires at 4-5K rpm (should be closer to 80-90V AC). If that checks out, and you're not getting 13.5+ at the battery, then it's either a dead RR or bad wiring.
 
hillsy said:
Really? I thought by 82 they all were combo units??


Anyway, it's EXTREMELY unlikely a failed RR will shoot out excess voltage - they normally fail and just don't charge at all.


Have you tested the AC voltage coming out of the stator? You should have over 50V AC from each of the 3 wires at 4-5K rpm (should be closer to 80-90V AC). If that checks out, and you're not getting 13.5+ at the battery, then it's either a dead RR or bad wiring.

Yeah, I think it was a combo unit from the factory. I'm getting my motorbikes confused, too many around right now.

I've got to replace the coils to get her running again, then I will live test the stator. It could totally be bad wiring, too. I haven't ripped into the harness on this thing and I'm not going to unless I really have to..., but the PO was a hack "mechanic" to say the least.
 
adventurco said:
Yeah, I think it was a combo unit from the factory. I'm getting my motorbikes confused, too many around right now.

I've got to replace the coils to get her running again, then I will live test the stator. It could totally be bad wiring, too. I haven't ripped into the harness on this thing and I'm not going to unless I really have to..., but the PO was a hack "mechanic" to say the least.


Yeah - I'm hearing ya. I just recently took ownership of my older brother's Z1300 and I've been plagued with fixing stuff that he has "attempted" to fix over the years - one of them being the charging (or non-charging) system. Fortunately the stator was fine....and I had a brand new RR off my Intruder in my parts bin so it was a no cost fix.
 
So I ended up buying another set of coils, since the original ones tested as junk. Second set came in, also testing dead. I'm thinking maybe it's my multimeter. Sure enough my buddy stops by with his meter and the orig coils are actually still good, but the "new" ones were dead. Sending those back, so now I'm looking at a fuel issue.

Only the #3 cylinder was noticeably wet when I pulled the plugs after attempting to start for a bit. When I put the petcock in 'prime' I can see fuel flowing to fill up the bowls. I had previously been cranking over with petcock in 'on' position. I know these petcocks are junk. Next chance I get I'm gonna pull the tank and try and run her off the bottle.


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Right, so I'm a dumbass. Clearly had a fueling issue, and it turned out to be the way that I had the fuel line routed. It must have been routed in such a way that fuel was unable to flow freely to keep the bowls topped off. Now she fires right up.

Now onto the charging system. No change in voltage whatsoever when holding at 5k RPM. A static test of the alternator showed no open circuits. I'm about to check it with a live load test. Is there a way to test these combo R/R units?
 
adventurco said:
So I ended up buying another set of coils, since the original ones tested as junk. Second set came in, also testing dead. I'm thinking maybe it's my multimeter. Sure enough my buddy stops by with his meter and the orig coils are actually still good, but the "new" ones were dead. Sending those back, so now I'm looking at a fuel issue.

Only the #3 cylinder was noticeably wet when I pulled the plugs after attempting to start for a bit. When I put the petcock in 'prime' I can see fuel flowing to fill up the bowls. I had previously been cranking over with petcock in 'on' position. I know these petcocks are junk. Next chance I get I'm gonna pull the tank and try and run her off the bottle.


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I did a trick to my petcoc to "trick" it into always giving fuel. Two sides to this. One the bowls will be topped off all the time. Two, you can't shut the fuel off, ever.... As long as the float and float valves are working, you shouldn't have a problem. But you have the potential to have a major Exxon Valdez spill. You open up the valve from the vacuum side and flip the spring from the outside of the diaphragm to the inside of the body and it will hold that valve open. I know one day it will bite me in the ass so I have a zip tie and clamp on the hose ready to go if needed.
 
adventurco said:
Now onto the charging system. No change in voltage whatsoever when holding at 5k RPM. A static test of the alternator showed no open circuits. I'm about to check it with a live load test. Is there a way to test these combo R/R units?


Check the AC voltage coming out of your stator wires. You should have over 60VAC at 5K rpm on each combination of the 3 wires.


The RR you had pictured earlier looks like a Honda one (they use green as ground). Make sure you've wired it up correctly. The 3 yellow go to the stator, red is +ve to the battery, green will be -ve to ground.
 
hillsy said:
Check the AC voltage coming out of your stator wires. You should have over 60VAC at 5K rpm on each combination of the 3 wires.


The RR you had pictured earlier looks like a Honda one (they use green as ground). Make sure you've wired it up correctly. The 3 yellow go to the stator, red is +ve to the battery, green will be -ve to ground.

I tested all 3 combinations of the stator wires and they were far below 60v. I am assuming that it is junk. Before I swap out any parts though I am going to run a direct line from the red wire from RR through an inline 30A fuse to the batt and hook the green up to the batt to see if that makes any difference. I know the R/R wiring can be finicky on these


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I think the stator came unwound.

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