No spark

[mrbrink]

Hello all,
I just joined a few days ago, and have learned tons from what I've read so far. I Just bought a 1980 gs850 thats plagued with wiring gremlins. I had it running the first day I brought it home, but due to 3 stuck floats I had to do a carb cleaning. I put it all back together and it ran, but was puking gas out of the carbs again. I got that fixed, but now I have no spark.

My dash lights come and go, but the contacts are good in the key for on/off and the kill switch is good too. With the key on, I have power at the coils on the orange/white, black/yellow wires, and the white has no power to it. I'm at a complete loss as to why I'd lose spark overnight without touching anything. I also cleaned and tightened the grounds. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm thinking its just a short somewhere but I've gone over the wiring harness numerous times

[tom203]

Hello all,
I just joined a few days ago, and have learned tons from what I've read so far. I Just bought a 1980 gs850 thats plagued with wiring gremlins. I had it running the first day I brought it home, but due to 3 stuck floats I had to do a carb cleaning. I put it all back together and it ran, but was puking gas out of the carbs again. I got that fixed, but now I have no spark.

My dash lights come and go, but the contacts are good in the key for on/off and the kill switch is good too. With the key on, I have power at the coils on the orange/white, black/yellow wires, and the white has no power to it. I'm at a complete loss as to why I'd lose spark overnight without touching anything. I also cleaned and tightened the grounds. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm thinking its just a short somewhere but I've gone over the wiring harness numerous times

I'll overlook the carb cleaning and jump to wiring gremlins! Be sure to visit Basscliff's site for decent wiring diagram. With key on and kill switch on, the coils have power via orange/white wire- the ignitor grounds out the other leads to coils - probably one black/yellow and one black/white- when told to by signal coils. Connections on these bikes are always suspect, so check and clean all. Since it was running, I'll quess some vital wiring got disturbed when you did the "carb cleaning".

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. mrbrink,

It's going to take a little more than a slap and a tickle to get the old girl running again. What ever you do, don't do these: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes.

I hope the following gets you started in the right direction. Anyway, let me dump a TON if information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[mrbrink]

thank you all for the replies. Work has kept me busy but tomorrow I'm busting out my electrical tester and checking ohms and all that fun stuff. I've fixed about 3 shorts so far but still no spark. I have good power to the coils so I'm thinking its something with the ignitor

[mrbrink]

Found my issue today I ohm tested the signal generator and it was grounding out. Upon removing the protective sheath over the wires, I found a spot where it looks like the wires pinched and broke. Couple of butt connectors later it was running, kind of. The rubber boots for the air box are rock solid and wouldn't slip onto the carbs so I couldn't get it to stay running but with my hand over the carbs it would fire. Few more hours working on the lights and new boots and it'll be on the road

[tom203]

Found my issue today I ohm tested the signal generator and it was grounding out. Upon removing the protective sheath over the wires, I found a spot where it looks like the wires pinched and broke. Couple of butt connectors later it was running, kind of. The rubber boots for the air box are rock solid and wouldn't slip onto the carbs so I couldn't get it to stay running but with my hand over the carbs it would fire. Few more hours working on the lights and new boots and it'll be on the road

Progress is good, but follow Basscliff's advice and check for common problems- nothing fun about breaking down miles from home!