CDI coils?

[flyingace15]

What color is the spark?
Red is dead
Blue is cool
White is best

If your spark is blue/white, you're good

The spark plug caps do go bad, coils not so much

Check the voltage at the coils

All the plugs have a light tan color.

[flyingace15]

All the plugs have a light tan color.

Sorry - misread. The spark that I saw appeared to be white.

[Guest]

my bad sounds like you have it handled.

[Tom R]

I’d start with the plug caps. Check the voltage going into coils.... several connectors in between the coils and battery that can corrode over the years. On my gs1100 it was down to 9.8 or some low number. After cleaning up the harness I got it up around 11 volts... now after coil mod relay I’ve got 12 volts. Still original coils, but new caps.
Check the resistance on the plug caps themselves... should be about 5 ohms if I remember correctly.

[Steve]

Check the resistance on the plug caps themselves... should be about 5 ohms if I remember correctly.

5 THOUSAND ohms, but who's counting?

.

[Tom R]

Doh! 5K caps.

[Big T]

Sorry - misread. The spark that I saw appeared to be white.

Then your problem is not with the coils or wires

Valve adjustment is warranted

More likely a carb issue

[flyingace15]

Then your problem is not with the coils or wires

Valve adjustment is warranted

More likely a carb issue

Installed the new coils, wires and caps today. It didn't want to start at first, but I waited a few minutes and then it fired right up. This seems to have solved the problem, but it's still too early to conclude that. Time will tell.

Thanks again for the replies.

JK.

[Tom R]

Out of curiosity... What coils, wires and caps?

[flyingace15]

Out of curiosity... What coils, wires and caps?

Because my bike is fully depreciated (and them some), I went cheap. I got an after market set of coils, wires and caps from Amazon for around $45. I kept the old coils just in case.

They aren't Dynatek, but they work.

[Steve]

. I got an after market set of coils, wires and caps from Amazon for around $45. ...

They aren't Dynatek, but they work.

Dynatek are "aftermarket", too.

.

[flyingace15]

Dynatek are "aftermarket", too.

.

I guess so - just not priced like it.