neil01 Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Hi everybody,looking for some words of wisdom if you can help me out, please. I have a 2010 EVO which is refusing to start. I took it out a couple of weeks ago and it ran without any problem. Washed it off, sprayed it with some WD40 and put it away. It now won't start. There is no spark at the plug or from the HT lead with the cap removed. I've checked over the ignition system and found some spurious voltage readings to the coil. The stator coils are within their resistance ranges and there is a reading of up to about 20V from the ignition side when spun over on the kickstart (measured at the CDI connector). The pick up coil is also within specified range. The HT cap is rated at 5000ohms and measures at 4500 so is about right. The problem seems to be the power supply to the coil. Leave it a while and kick the engine over on the starter shows a similar voltage reading to the measurement at the CDI connector. Continuity in the cable is good. Connect the supply back to the coil and kick it over, nothing. Remove the supply again and take a further measurement and it now shows 0.2 volts. Immediately disconnect the CDI and measure the output from the stator shows it is still healthy as before. Refit and measure the coil supply - 0.2 volts. Leave it half an hour and the voltage at the coil has increased again. The kill switch is working as it should and the map switch has no effect. The coil primary side has continuity and the secondary resistance is around 5000 ohms. I can get the coil to produce a spark when connected independently to a battery. It appears that under all conditions there is a decent power supply from the stator which then seems to disappear at the coil feed from the CDI. I'm thinking that the CDI unit has failed, or am I missing something? If it has failed, why would that happen? Any thoughts to confirm or deny my suspicions would be gratefully received. Thanks Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stork955 Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Gday Neil, it does appear that the CDI is at fault, however the Stator output does seem a bit low, I would expect to see around 50+ volts from it when kicking. When running it will be around 200 V. Does it check OK to ground? (Open) Have a really close look at the terminals in the CDI and coil connectors and in the loom - corrosion there will cause a similar issue. If all that is OK try substituting another known good CDI to confirm before you spend money. Let us know how you get on. Cheers, Stork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil01 Posted June 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Hi Stork, thanks for the reply, it's appreciated. I'm probably misleading you when I said 'kicking it over', I was actually cranking it by hand while trying to keep the probes in place with the other. I'll give it a try with a good kick over and see what it gives. The connectors are all good and clean throughout the loom. What do you mean by 'check to ground'? From the wiring diagram there are two wires from the stator, a blue and a red which both go straight to the CDI connector. This is where I have tested across for both volts and resistance. I'll try to find a substitute CDI but may struggle with that. Thanks again for your help. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stork955 Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Gday Neil, its hard to hold the meter and kick and keep the leads in the wires etc etc etc.... You can check each stator wire to the engine for a short to earth. Find a nice clean bit of alloy to put one lead from the meter. You dont need to kick for this test, you just need to make sure there is no dead short or reduced resistance to ground. Most stators are around 2-3 ohms and triggers are around 150 ohms. Any less is no good. To get a good idea what yours should be you can remove the coil from the bike, measure between the lead and the earthing point on the coil, and then refit and see that the reading is the same. Hope this makes sense, Cheers, Stork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stork955 Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Gday Neil, on reflection ignore all that above...Doh - I was thinking of floating earths, which the beta wont have if only 2 wires come from the stator. Mines in the back of the shed and hard to get at to confirm, but I'll look at it on saturday when it gets prepped for sundays Trial. Stork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil01 Posted June 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Thanks Stork. I spoke to someone at work about swapping some parts out but he was understandably a little reluctant. He did say though that he had stuck with Beta despite a number of previous electrical problems just because the Beta importer provides such excellent customer service and back-up. I rang them today and spoke to them about it. I have to say they were first class and are sending me a new stator and a new CDI in the post to try out by substitution. They're charging me for both then when I return the faulty part and the unneeded new part they'll give me a full refund under warranty. He did say that they hadn't had any previous CDI failures and thought the stator more likely. I'll let you know how it goes. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stork955 Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Ok, hot off the bike - Source coil specs = 292 ohms (Blue/Red), Trigger = 313 ohms (Black White) no connection to ground. There coils are floating earth so there should be open circuit to ground. Brown wire is grounded however. There are measured at the CDI connector. This might help eliminate the stator. Cheers, Stork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil01 Posted July 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Thanks Stork, my coils measured within range with the exception of the trigger which was around 420 ohms. Academic now, however, as the bits came from Lampkin's and having swapped the stator set it started first kick! Result. Thanks for your help Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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