Hey motorcycle nerdz ...

My buddy is finishing up a restoration on his 1985 Harley with an "80 inch, 1st Gen EVO" engine.

He has no spark and asked me to help him test the ignition.

I have verified power to the coil KOEO.

I bench tested the coil by hooking up power and turning the ground on and off, I could not get it to spark doing this.  The coil was flowing about 2 amps (roughly) of current when I was doing this.

I suggested a coil, but decided to head over to his place and check the coil control.  It gave me a good excuse to use my DSO Nano :D

It appears that the ignition module/stator/whatever you want to call it, is not grounding the coil when cranking.  There is steady B+ at both sides of the coil.

We pulled out the module/stator, and verified that the fly weights were ok and the magnetic targets on the little plastic wheel were ok.

It's looking to me like both the module and the coil are junk.


Can anyone give me any insight into proper testing of this system?  Am I heading in the right direction, or did I miss something big?

Thanks guys.

Hey Derreck, The only thing I remember about those old style ignitions is they are junk, the modules were crap. I know guys that have actually converted to points ignition on those bikes for reliability and cost.

I know that does not answer your question for i am still looking. I have some friends in low places ;D in the harley world that I am questioning.

One response so far is: if the bike has a tach. check for a thin pink wire (he thinks) going to the coil from the tach make sure its not pinched or shorted to ground, fairly common creating a no spark condition.

Still looking I will update if I find out more.

HarleyMike wrote on Apr 29^th, 2014 at 9:55am:

I know guys that have actually converted to points ignition on those bikes for reliability and cost.

Yeah my buddy said he had considered that, but as of right now he is just trying to get it to run and wants to use the original setup to do so.

It has a tach wire, but it actually wasn't even hooked up to the coil while I was doing the testing.

Thanks for your help Mike. :)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CDUQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.v-twinforum.com%2Fforums%2Felectrical-wiring-lighting%2F167378-1999-evo-ignition-coil-problem.html&rct=j&q=how%20does%20a%20harley%20ignition%20work&ei=8DtgU8nKNdGmyASXtIKYBA&usg=AFQjCNGsuv4_GCAiSCgoTK1gbYOmwBQrIg

Possible some useful info here. I brought my scope home to get a capture from mine or my wife's bikes but they are way different in design than the one you're working with.

Thanks for all your help, Mike.

I did a little googling myself and found a couple sites with some decent info.  I haven't been back over to the bike.  Despite my please to wait a little longer, he is anxious to get it running and just started ordering parts :D

I'll try an see if I can get back to it before the new parts go on and figure out exactly what the problem is, just to satisfy my own curiosity 8-)

Ok this bike is running again.

Turns out that he never actually ordered any parts for it, which was a good thing.

Another friend of ours stopped by to see him yesterday evening, and found out about his ignition system woes.  "I've got just the thing for you.  I'll be back in the morning", he said.

He showed up at my buddy's shop this morning with an un-used points ignition system for this motor.  Turns out that a few years back, the owner of this bike had sold a rebuilt motor to this other guy, and he ripped out the points and installed an aftermarket ignition before he ever even started the motor.

The points system had been laying in a shop drawer ever since.  It's good to have friends :D

The points are now in this bike, and it's running.  Once he finishes wiring up his cluster and putting on the odds-and-ends, he will be ready for a test drive.


Thanks Mike for your help.  I appreciate it.

No problem, Glad to hear of another older H.D on the road.

Man the sound of those older evolution motors Idling is music to my ears.

a good simple upgrade from points it to get the dana (or dyna) ignition pickup. will replace the point plate and you have a simple electronic ignition system with fly weights, magnetic pickup (no point and condenser problems) coil, plug wires and spark plugs.  it is very simple and very reliable.  I did the conversion on my 1994 XLH1200 in about 1998 and 70,000 miles ago and all I have done to the ignition since is lube the fly weights 3 times, changed the plug wires once, and spark plugs every 10 to 20,000 miles. the split fire plugs will give a little more performance but they do not last as long as the factor HD (champion) plugs.

I have an 83 Low Rider....One of the last of the Shovels.  Never had any ignition issues with it......

Speaking of Champion plugs....Why is it that they only work in Chryslers and Harleys?

Who said they even worked in those...   ::)

:)

---