Electrical Issues

[jeepman128]

OK, so the story goes... the bike was running perfect last weekend and all of a sudden I lost everything. Bike went completely dead and lost spark. So it was dark and I didn't want to mess with it at the hill, I just wanted to get towed back to camp, well on my free ride back to camp(attached to a stap) i decided to pop the clutch to see if anything happens... well it started and ran perfectly again.. i was thinking whatever it is.. it fixed itself... well. so I duned it around for another 20 min or so and i shut it off... well... when it came time to go for another ride.. the darn thing wouldn't start again... we triesd pull starting it again.. and got nothing.... I brought it back home.. checked out the wiring and found that the black and yellow wire going into the CDI box had melted together ad shorted one another out. Well I re-wired those wires thinking that "that" was the problem... well, still wouldn't run and still didn't have any spark... so my mind starts thinking ok... well i shorted out the CDI box or something along those lines... well... i go out 2 days later to get the pn number of the CDI box and for shits and giggles, i decide to "attempt" to start the darn thing... and wouldn't ya know it started 1st kick!!!.. OK so now my question... is there some form of a circuit breaker in the wiring system that was taking a while to reset? Or why all of a sudden would it be "ok" when just 2 days prior, i couln't get any spark? Could something be going wrong inside the box that will allow it to work perfectly sometimes, or completely shut off at others?? I found where the short was as mentioned earlier, but I don't want to lug the bike out to the dunes this weekend, only to have it die on me again. Please help with any knowledge you might have and thanks in advance

Kolby

[jeepman128]

OK... and I just went back out there 10minutes later and it wont start again... I lost spark AGAIN!!! Pulled of the stator cover and everything looks ok.. pickup is in check.. sometimes it wants to work, and sometimes it doesn't

Please help!

[375hp banshees]

My 87 did the exact same thing I got tired of it one day & started beating on everything ( 1 at A time &checking for spark)

when I beat on the cdi I got spark, so i beat the crap out of it & worked fine ever since.

I'm not telling you to do that, just saying the cdi will do that. some people have said the cdi either works or it doesn't but I disagree.

Mine also seamed to start every time I pull started it but that sucked so that's when I got out the hammer.

This was after I tested the stater, wires, unplugged the tors ect.

EDIT: oh yea mine never died it just wouldn't start that part was probably your melted wires??

Edited December 13, 2006 by 375hp banshees

[CadillacBanshee]

My bike did the exact same thing on thanksgiving at glamis. The flywheel turned out to be loose. Check it out, you never know.

[highroller355]

my 87 did the same thingi rewired the whole bike made my own wiring harness and just used what i needed,i rode the bike twice and everything was good but i also replaced the cdi ,blew up motor 2 days later so i will let you know if it is still happenig in 2 weeks but i also agree cdi box will work one minute and not the next

Edited December 13, 2006 by highroller355

[Bansh-eman]

hey kolby, the cdi dosent have any type of battery to store power to reset anything so once the bike is off thats it there is no decharging thing going on... if your harness is tapped untape it and lay it out on the ground... make sure theres no where else that wires are bare and grounding out... also if you can get another cdi try that... its possible that your cdi is arcing and shorting. i have an extra cdi from a 2000 ill sell you for a pretty good price. let me know if you need it. but dont jump the gun and spend the money unless you need to. my guess is you got a lose wire in your harness or a wire in your cdi that the soilder is coming lose.

[nunyabinness]

i'm not going to start a new thread to ask this question since my question kind of goes along with this topic...

 

is there a way to test a cdi? i have a couple of them that i got with the bunch of parts i just bought and i want to know if they are any good. the repair manual says that yamaha doesn't offer a tool to check the cdi. i would hate to get the bike all built and have it not work because the cdi is bad.

[Bansh-eman]

you should be able to use a multimeter on it becasue theres an input and output... but i have not the first clue on how much current to use to know if its good...