buying 850 g with probable spark issue

[ron bayless]

its an 81 850 g.he said his friend was riding it around the block and it just quit.it turns over but wont start.I couldnt test it since his battery was down, had been sitting for 5 months.i know on some bikes there are relays for either the sidestand switch,starter, or the sidestand switch or clutch switch themselves can cause no spark.I will be taking the bike from his house to mine day after tomorrow.he had taken the 'ignition " loose to see if that was the problem.What he had done was cut the wires coming from the starter button and killswitch and tried to make the loose ends start the bike.has nothing to do with the ignition system.His starter button though does have a direct connection to the solenoid if i understand the bike wiring correctly.first thing i will do is reconnect the wires he disconnected.Then I will hit starter button with bike in neutral and clutch lever pulled in and see if it starts.if not, look for blown fuse.fuses ok, look at connector down by sidestand switch.Also see if any hot wire disconnect from battery, to main fuse, to r/r, to ign switch.I will also check grounding.Also check for loose or messed up coil wires.What else should i do?

Question; do these bikes have cdi or tci?

[Steve]

i know on some bikes there are relays for either the sidestand switch,starter, or the sidestand switch or clutch switch themselves can cause no spark.

The closest that any GS comes to that is the clutch switch that has to be pulled to engage the starter. There are NO devices that will stop the engine except the RUN/STOP switch and the ignition key.

Question; do these bikes have cdi or tci?

They do NOT have "CDI".

Not sure what you mean by "TCI", the only thing I can think of is "Transistor-Controlled Ignition".
If that is what you mean, yes, it's there, that is what we call the "ignitor". "Ignitor" is actually a poor choice of terms for the device, as it does not really "ignite" anything. It's just a box of transistors that takes the place of the points from the earlier bikes.

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[ron bayless]

Yamahas have tci.Dont know what it means either.Ig niter i am familiar with.Doubt its that, it was running and suddenly quit.

[rustybronco]

Ron....

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/Repair_and_Fault_finding_GS1000G_Ignitor.pdf

[ron bayless]

Picture of connector

I tried downloading a picture of the connector only.Will try again.

[ron bayless]

dont know where to begin.

I suppose you start trying to pull these bigassed harness out through a space that is too small to pass through, then unplug from the old, fish the new back through, replug back in and hope it all goes to the right places.This has me maxxed out with selfawareness of my inability to do this. IMG_20131003_162654.jpg (67.8 KB)

[Redman]

Ignition fuse also powers the starter button-solenoid circuit.

Only interlock on the starter solenoid circuit is the switch on the clutch (1980 and after). Doesn't matter what gear or netural. Doesn't matter about any sidestand swtich (if there is one).

[Steve]

The mass of the harness is greatest in the middle, near the battery box.

Pull all of your original harness toward the battery, then locate that part of your new harness and feed it toward the front and rear.

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[ron bayless]

Thanks Steve and Redman.

[ron bayless]

Ground wire is toast everywhere I looked.I need wiring 101.Why was it the ground wire was so burned up.I thought it grounded, not conducted electricity. I don't understand flow,please explain.IMG_20131004_115247.jpg (48.1 KB)

[JayWB]

Ground wire is toast everywhere I looked.I need wiring 101.Why was it the ground wire was so burned up.I thought it grounded, not conducted electricity. I don't understand flow,please explain.IMG_20131004_115247.jpg (48.1 KB)

Conducting electricity is precisely HOW it grounds.

Electricity always has to return to its source. On a motorcycle the source is either the battery or the rectifier / regulator. You don't really get to decide where the electricity will return to, it needs both, and that is why both have the exact same return path. We call that return path "GROUND".

[ron bayless]

Conducting electricity is precisely HOW it grounds.

Electricity always has to return to its source. On a motorcycle the source is either the battery or the rectifier / regulator. You don't really get to decide where the electricity will return to, it needs both, and that is why both have the exact same return path. We call that return path "GROUND".

OK.Then why did the ground wires burn up.If their job is to return the flow, what caused them to overload and burn? I would guess a short ie some broken area in the ground wire touching metal as in the frame. But, I thought that was what you wanted, the ground wire touching the frame.

[JayWB]

Technically speaking, ANY point in a wire that is properly connected to the frame (ground) may be also considered to be ground. So if you have a wire that is connected to ground at one end, touching ground with it ANYWHERE along the length of the wire does exactly ....... nothing. It's like touching the wire to itself, or touching ground to ground.

As for why your ground wire burned, it's for the same reason any other wire would burn: an excess of current went through it, it got hot, and it burned. Just being a ground wire doesn't change a thing, it's just like the positive wire. In fact, every electron that goes through the positive wire from your battery has to go back to the battery, through the negative wire. It's exactly the same current.

[ron bayless]

Technically speaking, ANY point in a wire that is properly connected to the frame (ground) may be also considered to be ground. So if you have a wire that is connected to ground at one end, touching ground with it ANYWHERE along the length of the wire does exactly ....... nothing. It's like touching the wire to itself, or touching ground to ground.

As for why your ground wire burned, it's for the same reason any other wire would burn: an excess of current went through it, it got hot, and it burned. Just being a ground wire doesn't change a thing, it's just like the positive wire. In fact, every electron that goes through the positive wire from your battery has to go back to the battery, through the negative wire. It's exactly the same current.

That is exactly the kind of explanation I wanted.Thank you.

[ron bayless]

Ok, what might be the cause of that happening? An excess of current.