XS360 electrical troubles: Ran before, no spark now

B

b5iveS4

Been Around the Block
I'm getting to the point where i want to give up on this bike and i've never even had the chance to ride it.
When i bought the bike, it didn't run so i cleaned the carbs and replaced the old broken fuse box with a new
blade fuse box. The problem, which is the confusing thing, is that i have nice power throughout the bike but
no spark no matter how many times i kick it. I had the fuse box wired up wrong before and voila! spark! and
it ran and sounded great. I noticed it wasn't wired right so i fixed it and no spark ever since.


After letting it sit for months, in frustration, I decided i need to get it going now that it's not 100 degrees all day
every day. So...I go out to the bike, pull all the wires from the fuse box and clamp them all together with some
visegrips. A terrible idea, i know...but that's kinda how it was wired wrong before when it ran. I give that a try and it
sparks on the first kick. What the hell could be wrong that it's only sparking when they're all touching? A bad ground somewhere?
I hate the thought of having this bike almost a year and never even riding it once. The weather is getting nice and
i haven't ridden a bike since i sold my R6 a year and a half ago. Please help if you have any suggestions. Next on my
list is to unloom the whole harness and look for a broken or melted wire. I'd rather not do that if i don't have to.
 
A bike only needs a couple wires to run. I think it's one from the battery ground to the frame. one from the battery positive to the coil black/white (honda), coil blue & yellow to the points, and of course the coil leads to the spark plugs. Double check this.

It doesn't need the alternator, rectifier, etc... to run. Maybe look at a wiring diagram, find the bare minimum, hear it run and get excited again. Then it should be easy to work backwards and find the problem.
 
so rectifier, regulator, condensor...none of these affect the bikes capability to run?

I just don't understand why it only sparks when the wires are all touching
 
It doesn't need those to run.

It actually doesn't only spark when all the wires are touching, it sparks when a certain wire is touching another certain wire.

Think of it as separate systems... Lights, charging, and ignition. You only need the ignition for it to run... and you don't need fuses for it to run. I run my minimum number of wires direct to where they go and then add the other components til I find the problem. You can make testing wires by adding alligator clips to spare wire... and a continuity tester will help figure out wiring issues and there are cheap ones that work fine.
 
So I can run power straight to the coils and theoretically it should start and run until the battery dies?
 
mitchellsk said:
A bike only needs a couple wires to run. I think it's one from the battery ground to the frame. one from the battery positive to the coil black/white (honda), coil blue & yellow to the points, and of course the coil leads to the spark plugs.
Click to expand...

I just double checked. The above is all it needs to run... and correct timing, good compression, plus fuel & air of course.
 
You would need to add more for charging the battery and protecting the system(fuses, regulator, etc...) but the above is my beginning point.
 
Attach a wire straight from your battery positive to the wire coming out of your coils and it should spark. (this is just temporary to start figuring wiring out).

By the way... your problem could be as simple as a dirty on/off switch. If it's dirty or bad then you wont get spark wether the switch is on or off. To check it... figure out which wires go to it and put them together to bypass the switch and see if you get spark.
 
i actually did pull the wires out of the kill switch and connect them but I'll do that again when i run a wire straight to the coils if it doesn't spark before that.
 
The obvious answer is that the fuse box either has dead fuses or there's a bad connection in there. When you clamp all the leads together you are effectively just side stepping the fuses by connecting the power directly to all of the other powered circuits.

That problem with the fuse box is probably why the PO did what he did. Try the quick test suggested above and then hunt down a good fuse box or take that one out and work out what melted or corroded away.
 
I ran a wire straight to the coils and adjusted my points and i've got consistent spark now. When i bought the bike, it still had the old fuse box in it and that thing was in terrible shape. The previous owner said he couldn't ever get it to run. As soon as i rebuilt the carbs and changed out that fuse box, it ran just fine. I'm wondering why that new fuse box i put in isn't working. The fuses aren't blown but I know that my coils are fine...at least for now. I'm going to replace the coils and the wires next paycheck i think. Got new plugs for it today...hopefully i can find out where the wiring issue is without tearing the whole harness apart
 
Trace the power from one step to the next and it will be fairly simple to find out where the blue smoke is leaking out.

I'd start with the fuse box off the bike and see what is connected to what and compare what you see to the wiring diagram and see if you can suss out what's wrong there. If that checks out OK, work back from teh coils to see where along teh path you finally find 12V. somewhere in the loom or in a switch a wire is broken or a connection is burned or broken.

It's just a matter of following it along one step at a time. You can also do it without the battery (safer) and use a multimeter to test for continuity.
 
well, I added some gas and it fired right up after a few kicks and it idled really well. Tomorrow I've got a friend coming over to help me figure out where the harness is messed up at and why it's not running when wired properly. I'd love to get this thing on the road this weekend. Feel free to pass along any more advice you have on how i could source the problems in the harness. You guys have been a huge help so far and I really appreciate it.
 
ok....i'm a bit confused. I tore into the harness to start checking the circuits and this was all with the fusebox connected(not with the wire connected straight from the battery to coil. I seem to have power all over the place just as i should but heres the weird part...
When i turn the key one click and i kick it, i have spark....however, when i turn the key all the way on, no spark.

we pulled the ignition switch off of the bike and tested continuity across the circuits and with the key turned we had continuity across the circuits but when we turned the key to the second click, no continuity across the circuits. This doesn't seem like a big deal because i could just run the bike with the key clicked over once, however...my blinkers won't work correct?
 
Could a bad switch be the reason my blinkers aren't working? My hi beam switch works but my blinkers don't work at all...no running lights or blinkers whatsoever
 
Usually switches have three positions OFF-ON-PARK.

OFF is self explanatory.

ON has lights and blinkers horn ignition etc

PARK should just be the tail light and perhaps a small wattage bulb in the headlamp shell.

It almost sounds as if the blinkers may be wired to the wrong output from that switch.

Get that wiring diagram and manual out and all this should be simple.
 
so the first click of the key is actually on and not the 2nd click like a car? I feel dumb but that's a huge relief to hear haha. I guess I'm just used to how car's ignition switches are and that's how my R6 ignition switch was as well. As far as the blinkers go, I'm pretty sure i have them wired correctly according to the diagram but i'll triple check that i do. I just bought a new flasher relay from dimecitycycles but it's just a 2 prong relay instead of 3 like my plug on the harness. I just figured that would only allow my blinkers to flash or be off instead of remaining on like a car's corner lamps and then flashing when the blinker is turned on
 
I've got a new question. So the bike ran no problem when i wired the coils straight from the battery and then i ran all the wires how they're supposed to be and I've got spark at the points but it won't start. I pulled the plugs to see if they'd bridge a spark between the plug and the head but nothing, no spark at all and it won't run. Any ideas? The coils appear to be original and I'm guessing should be replaced. I want to replace them anyway but I just don't understand why it would run 2 days ago wired straight to the battery but not through the harness when the points are sparking
 
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