Trouble shooting Boyer ignition

smokenjoep01

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My precious XS has failed to start. I havent rode it in about a month. It has been parked in my garage hooked to the battery Tender. Ran fine when parked! I have 12.8 volts at the coil, but no spark. 13.2 at the battery.
Anyone know of trouble shooting procedures for the Boyer Branson ignition?
 
Cant find info on how to resolve my issue. I have plenty of battery voltage and have power to the blue Boyer box and power at the coil. Idid notice that there was also power at the negative coil terminal. Unplugged wire going to the negative battery terminal and it still has 12v. Should the coil have voltage at both terminals? Anyone know of a test procedeure for the coil with the Boyer ignition?
 
Most ignitions work basically the same.
With points, 12 volt is applied to the coil, from the coil to the points, where when closed they ground the circuit. When they close current flows through the coil. This creates a magnetic field in the coil, when the points open, the current stops, the magnetic field collapse. This collapsing field causes current to flow in the secondary windings to make the coil spark.
Electronic ignitions do the same, but with a transistor.
So 12 volts into the coil, 12 volts out of the coil, to the ignition where the ignition controls the ground of the circuit.
When you unhook the lead to the ignition you should read 12 volts at both sides of the coil. With the lead to the ignition hooked it should read 12 volts when the circuit is open.
From what the Boyer site said the ignition turns off when the engine is not running. So with the ignition switch on and the engine not running there is no current flowing through the coil. This will give you a 12 volt reading at the ignition side of the coil.
They listed a phone number on the Boyer site, try calling them.
 
Smokenjoe, with the Boyer you should read battery voltage or close to it from either terminal of the coil with the ignition on and the engine unstarted; your readings are normal. Have you checked primary and secondary impedance?
 
For the newer Micro Power with a little squarish coil supplied by Boyer, primary impedance should be 0.6 ohms. You'll need a good digital tester with a Rx1 ohm range setting to measure that; cheap testers won't give reliable results for impedance that low. First disconnect the coil. Then clean the probes, set the meter, touch the probes together to find their latent resistance (often as much as 0.2 ohms), and touch the probes to the primary terminals. Subtract latent resistance from the reading and you have primary coil impedance. If the result is a little to the high side of spec by a couple tenths of an ohm, that's fine. If it's at all to the low side, clean probes, recheck latent resistance, recheck coils, and if the result repeats, change the coil. If you're using the older Micro Digital ignition, your primary impedance will depend on the coil you're using. Boyer's recommendations wandered a bit over the years, but coils with primary impedance of 3.5 to 5 ohms will work. In my experience the system works better with coils rated from 4 to 5 ohms. Use the same procedure given above.

To check secondaries, you'll need a meter with a high impedance setting. Remove the spark plug caps; this time don't bother measuring latent resistance, it's not significant. Touch one probe in each coil wire socket simultaneously, or, if your wires are permanently fixed to the coil, push a probe into each plug wire end. A reading in the neighborhood of 30K ohms +/- 10% is usually good with conventional coils; specifics depend on manufacturer's specs, but what you're looking for is an extremely low reading that would tell you that secondary windings have shorted, or an extremely high reading that would tell you that windings have burned out or broken.
 
For the newer Micro Power with a little squarish coil supplied by Boyer, primary impedance should be 0.6 ohms. You'll need a good digital tester with a Rx1 ohm range setting to measure that; cheap testers won't give reliable results for impedance that low. First disconnect the coil. Then clean the probes, set the meter, touch the probes together to find their latent resistance (often as much as 0.2 ohms), and touch the probes to the primary terminals. Subtract latent resistance from the reading and you have primary coil impedance. If the result is a little to the high side of spec by a couple tenths of an ohm, that's fine. If it's at all to the low side, clean probes, recheck latent resistance, recheck coils, and if the result repeats, change the coil. If you're using the older Micro Digital ignition, your primary impedance will depend on the coil you're using. Boyer's recommendations wandered a bit over the years, but coils with primary impedance of 3.5 to 5 ohms will work. In my experience the system works better with coils rated from 4 to 5 ohms. Use the same procedure given above.

To check secondaries, you'll need a meter with a high impedance setting. Remove the spark plug caps; this time don't bother measuring latent resistance, it's not significant. Touch one probe in each coil wire socket simultaneously, or, if your wires are permanently fixed to the coil, push a probe into each plug wire end. A reading in the neighborhood of 30K ohms +/- 10% is usually good with conventional coils; specifics depend on manufacturer's specs, but what you're looking for is an extremely low reading that would tell you that secondary windings have shorted, or an extremely high reading that would tell you that windings have burned out or broken.

Thanks for the reply. I will try this tonight when I get home.
 
I am getting zero, nothing when I check the secondaries. Also noticed it was a Gills coil. I have replaced those before on American Iron horse bikes. Its a shame because I throw the set away when one is bad. If I would of saved one, it would of saved me $100.00
 
If your meter doesn't have a 100K ohm or higher range capability you'll show an open circuit across the secondaries. Be sure the issue really is the coil, not the meter. Also I assumed (oops) a single double-tower coil. If you have a 2-coil system, you'll show an open circuit across the secondaries; do the secondary impedance check from the plug wire socket to the primaries.
 
I do have a single with double tower. My multi meter is auto ranging, so I am confident in the readings.(fingers crossed) I lost all faith when I read GILL on the coil. They have lots of problems with them on the AIM.
Has anybody else had the new style mini coil fail on them?
 
Xs 650 hi friends Anyone Have video of a forum set-up wiring to Give boyer reward of € 3,000 is a joke to be desperate Before hand thanks greetings
 
Get a Pamco.British are famous for crappy electronics.I had a Boyer ignition on my kawi triple.What nightmare.
 
The customer service is much better with the Pamco. It helps whem the inventor/manufacturer is part of this board.
 
The Pamco is looking a lot better. I just got my new coil and still no power. I have 12.8v to the blue box and 12.8 at the positive coil terminal. Still no fire. Did a visual of the cam trigger and it looked fine.
I tried calling Boyer had now luck with the number I have.
 
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