Im out of ideas

Moderators: Site Director, FZR Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

Spark plugs are new and gapped correctly. Threads in the head are clean and ground properly. Spark plug cap resistance within spec. Secondary ign coils resistance within spec. Primary ign coils resistance within spec. 12v+ voltage at the coils on red/white wire as well as grey and orange. Continuity checked between coils and ignition module. Each ignition module wires tested for either + or ground. Entire safety circuit checked and tested successfully(kickstand switch, clutch switch, N switch) as well as tested while bypassed. Oil level is within spec and oil light comes on only when cranking like it should. Bypassed oil switch and N safety switch to verify no malfuntion. Ignition module tested on a running bike, fires right up. Main relay tested every which way after taking 2 bad ones to make a good one. Wires tested for continuity. Case cracked open and each relay, resistor, and diode were tested for funtionality. Main relay plugged into running bike and it started. Main fuse tested for continuity, secondary fuses tested for continuity(all), all test OK. Pickup coil resistance within spec. All engine grounds tested OK. Key switch tests ok. Start switch tests good. Stop switch tests good. Tried 3 different wire harnesses, 2 ignition modules, 2 main relays, 3 key switches, 2 start switches, 2 starters, 2 sets of ign coils. Exact same result every time. 0 voltage to the plug=no spark whatsoever. Battery is new R1 sealed, 0 miles. Tests 12.45v under no load. 11.75v during cranking. Every wire connected to ignition module and main relay have been traced and checked for continuity.

So why am I not getting spark. Ive checked everything i can think of at least 5 times, if not more. If this isnt resolved, this will be the death of this project because I swear i will tear it apart soon and walk away from FZRs. Ive had my eye on a nice cruiser for sale lately.
User avatar
shredex
2000+ Posts
2000+ Posts
Posts: 2768
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Holiday, Florida
Contact:

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by shredex »

i tried a sealed battery from an r6 on my bike...didnt do crap...just made my starter solinoid go crazy.

have you checked to see if your pick-up coil is good? or plugged in? or if you even have a fly-wheel?
or if you might for some od reason have a yzf600 stator cover which wont work on fzr motor
Image
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

shredex wrote:i tried a sealed battery from an r6 on my bike...didnt do crap...just made my starter solinoid go crazy.

have you checked to see if your pick-up coil is good? or plugged in? or if you even have a fly-wheel?
or if you might for some od reason have a yzf600 stator cover which wont work on fzr motor
The stator cover is brand new FZR. The stator is new. The pickup coil is plugged in and tests for proper resistance. the flywheel is there, unless someone stole it while I wasnt looking.
User avatar
shredex
2000+ Posts
2000+ Posts
Posts: 2768
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Holiday, Florida
Contact:

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by shredex »

I just have a feeling its something with the stator.
tampafzr had the same problem...but that was only because he had a yzf cover on and guy he bought it from said it was fzr and he couldnt tell the difference.
did you check to make sure the pickup part was clean? the part where the flywheel spind underneath it?
Image
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

The only thing that stands out as odd to me is the wires from the ignition coils. The red/white wire carries 12v+ from the battery to the stop switch, stop switch to the coils. Thats the constant power feed for the primary coils. What is odd is that the orange wire and grey wire that go from the coils to the ignition module are also 12v+. The ignition module breaks the circuit causing the primary coil to dump to the secondary coils and fire the plugs, but if they have constant unbroken positive voltage, theres no way to break the circuit. From what I understand about these ignition systems, these wires should be negative and the ignition module opens the circuit by breakign the ground. But these wires are positive, all the wires at the coils are positive. Doesnt make sense. Thats the only thing I can come up with as odd with the system or a possible cause, but that appears to be how it is supposed to be in this system. I dunno

But considering the test to check if the primary coils are within spec is to check resistance between the two leads. If the resistance is too high, the coils are bad. Continuity tests good between the leads of the coils
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

shredex wrote:I just have a feeling its something with the stator.
tampafzr had the same problem...but that was only because he had a yzf cover on and guy he bought it from said it was fzr and he couldnt tell the difference.
did you check to make sure the pickup part was clean? the part where the flywheel spind underneath it?
The stator was spotless. The cap was brand new, and the stator itself worked fine when removed and was clean itself. The only real change with the flywheel was the installation of a ignition advance. And it was verified very carefully that it was facing the correct direction and that the flywheel was properly torqued back into place.
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

What type of voltage should I expect from the pickup coil wires? Thats the only other thing I can think of that might be acting goofy. But it was fine prior to the rebuild.
User avatar
reelrazor
Wrench
Wrench
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:19 am

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by reelrazor »

mrfreeze5 wrote:The only thing that stands out as odd to me is the wires from the ignition coils. The red/white wire carries 12v+ from the battery to the stop switch, stop switch to the coils. Thats the constant power feed for the primary coils. What is odd is that the orange wire and grey wire that go from the coils to the ignition module are also 12v+. The ignition module breaks the circuit causing the primary coil to dump to the secondary coils and fire the plugs, but if they have constant unbroken positive voltage, theres no way to break the circuit. From what I understand about these ignition systems, these wires should be negative and the ignition module opens the circuit by breakign the ground. But these wires are positive, all the wires at the coils are positive. Doesnt make sense. Thats the only thing I can come up with as odd with the system or a possible cause, but that appears to be how it is supposed to be in this system. I dunno

From the Vision Ignition pages:

"The TCI module uses a "switching" transistor to "fire" the coil. This is how:

- The coil gets a +12 volt input direct FROM the battery (via ignition sw). It is grounded (the circuit completed) BY the TCI. The TCI transistor switches "OFF" the coil ground to collapse the coil and cause the secondary coil winding to spark. If you test the Gray (or Orange) wire FROM (that's right... from!) the coil you'll see +12 volts. If you look at the TCI pin you'll see near ground until the fire signal. Then the TCI actually pulses a +12 volts at the pin. This is a "forceful" way of "cutting"off the PRIMARY wire ground and forcing the SECONDARY winding spark."

And, shred's got a good point. The YZF stator cover is visually the same but not functional with the FZR flywheel and vice-versa.


It's 0.5Vdc from the TCI to the pickup coil. Check for continuity to ground through the pickup coil wires. (there should e NO continuity). You should be able to wave a soldering gun in front of the pickup coil (key 'on' kill switch 'on' ) and make all four plugs spark.
http://www.michiganmobileservice.com/


Image

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”-Douglas Adams

http://www.youtube.com/user/reelrazor
User avatar
cad600
1000+ Posts
1000+ Posts
Posts: 1413
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 3:41 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by cad600 »

Have you visually verified there is no spark coming from the plugs? The coils have three areas that need to be ohm tested. I had good coils and good wires with one bad end cap and that caused me not to be able to crank up once.

I only ask because it sounds like you've done a lot of looking and retracing of steps and parts. Might be time to look at the mechanical side of things. How is the compression of the engine? I had mine running one day then two months later cylinder 3 had only 30 psi of compression. How about the crabs? When was the last time you cleaned them? If you tried cranking for a while and almost had it running then let it sit for a long period of time, the carbs might be crapped up again.

Just ideas to look at.
Yes, that is a Single Sided Swingarm FZR600 that I built.

Something is lurking, waiting, wanting to be built......It calls to me from the darkness....

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel....Then I realize that it is the train coming to run my ass over....
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

the carbs are off a fresh rebuild/rejetting/cleaning, so theyre as clean as theyve ever been since Ive owned it. I havnt checked compression. I need to pick up an adapter to fit the block, ill do that this weekend. The engine ran like a champ before the teardown though, even with the carbs running redicuously rich thanks to missing 3 of 4 starter jets. Having all the correct components present should be a help not a hindrance.
'
Ive tested every aspect I can of the coils without a dynamic spark tester to test end gap. the primary and secondary coils test proper resistance, as well as the caps. Im pretty certain that no spark is the current problem. I very well may have other issues, but that is the first and foremost problem.

And the stator cover was bough as NOS and was identical to the other 3 caps I had at the time. I wish I had not thrown them out, but they were all pretty trashed.
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

Found another issue that wasnt there a few days ago. I checked my grounds very carefully to make sure the frame and engine were grounded. And both were grounded. I checked again today and my frame had no ground. This didnt make sense to me since the engine was grounded and it was bolted to the frame(and the holes had been cleaned of paint/powdercoat) but more importantly, my subframe was not grounded either where the VR ground was. So I made a quick ground strap going from the battery directly to the subframe. That seemed to help considerably and now my frame is grounded again. I think the reason for losing my ground to the frame was installing these crash rails a few days ago. The top engine mount bolt was painted, where mine had bare spots inside the engine creating a ground between the bolt and the frame.
yamaha_george
5000+ Posts
5000+ Posts
Posts: 5853
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 8:46 am
Location: west london UK

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by yamaha_george »

MrF,
I was going to say check the grounds as this is the most flawed thing on bike electrics that causes alll sorts of weird sh*t.

Bike firing problems I head for the grounding spots and clean them thoroughly. The test that the grounds in the light bulb skts are working and then clean the kill, & ignition switch contacts. I would then do as you have done check the "safty" circuits.

Carbs i would leave until I saw aset of Fat sparks ( I presume that when you checked for the presence of a spark the plug was on bare metal NOT on a painted engine or frame?)
User avatar
mrfreeze5
Level 8.0
Level 8.0
Posts: 811
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:15 am
Location: Denver, Co

Re: Im out of ideas

Post by mrfreeze5 »

yamaha_george wrote:MrF,
I was going to say check the grounds as this is the most flawed thing on bike electrics that causes alll sorts of weird sh*t.

Bike firing problems I head for the grounding spots and clean them thoroughly. The test that the grounds in the light bulb skts are working and then clean the kill, & ignition switch contacts. I would then do as you have done check the "safty" circuits.

Carbs i would leave until I saw aset of Fat sparks ( I presume that when you checked for the presence of a spark the plug was on bare metal NOT on a painted engine or frame?)
Yes, the plugs were tested on a spot that had been checked for continuity with ground already. The stop and start switches are nice and clean. I had them open recently when wiring the up(07 R6) and they were spotless inside. The grounds for the light circuit have been tested several times when I made the custom harness for my headlights and when I wired in my Acewell guage. But their grounds were wired into the harness and not grounding to the frame or engine. That was where the issue came in. When I installed the new crash rails from Thatkid, the engine bolt was painted and did not transfer the ground from the engine to the frame anymore, but a ground strap directly from the battery to the subframe solved that problem. My next step is going to be replacing the stator/pickup coil, unless I can find someone willing to sell me just the pickup coil. I am hoping that solves the problem. If not, it will be like that video on the internet of that guy unloading his automatic rifle into the side of the FZR. Except my rifle is only semi-auto.
Post Reply

Return to “Electrical: MODs/How-To/Issues”