2014 Buildoff Thread "Smokin' Armadillo"

Most of the fabwork is done on the tank, but when we cut the hole for the cupholder (I know what you're thinking, but my 9-year-old thinks it's the coolest thing ever) we discovered that the tank had more surface rust inside than initially thought. Also, at one point it had one of those liners in it, and the edges were starting to peel. After some research, I plugged the petcock and sight gauge holes and filled the tank with muriatic acid. I let that sit for a day or so. The acid does a number on rust, and is slowly working on the liner, which is being very stubborn. I then totally submerged the tank in a bucket and cut the acid about 50/50 with water. More liner has come out, and now the paint is starting to bubble, which suits me fine as we wanted it bare anyway. Once the tank is totally clean, I'll pressure test it and weld up any holes we find.
 
A few things to keep in mind when cleaning out a steel tank with muriatic acid:

1. It will make short work of the rust.

2. If your tank has a flaky old liner like mine does, the acid will take care of some of it, but the thicker stuff down in the seams is tough.

3. And that thicker stuff will outlast those freshly welded Bung King bungs you just had your buddy weld in to your tank, forcing you to grind them out and order 4 more. Might even corrode the sweet new filler neck you welded in for that cool diesel cap.

4. And you'll probably kick yourself for not taking it out of the acid sooner... The acid that you diluted with water in the first place...

Live and learn
 
Got the bike fully assembled yesterday, added gas and tried to fire it... nothing.

A quick check found that the bike isn't getting spark. Tested the grounds and scratched our heads, then scoured this forum for info until about 1 this morning. My dad came over this morning to help us and we haven't been able to figure out the problem.

The motor is from an 83 heritage. The electrics, with the exception of the coil (aftermarket dual output from Mikes) and the stator (83) are all from an 80 special. Both the 80 and 83 were running when I took them apart.

I don't speak electrical, but after reading my Clymers and scouring the site, we tried a few things.

To check for spark, we pulled the plugs and grounded them against the motor, then cranked the motor. No spark.

The wires going into the coil were at about 2.6 ohms resistance. Testing across the plug wire terminals at the coil gave me 13,700 ohms resistance. Plug cap to plug cap was about 22,700 ohms (I think this should be no more than 20,000, but wasn't sure if that would keep it from sparking altogether).

The resistance to the pickup coil was a high, so we installed the one from the 1980. Still no spark.

There could be something painfully obvious I'm missing. Or something I just didn't understand in all of my forum searching. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. We leave Wednesday morning for the buildoff trip, and if the bike's not running by then, we might as well not go. I don't want to see that happen.
 
We also check the voltage coming from the orange wire on the tci, and the orange wire gong into the coil. Both read battery voltage.
 
And if I didn't make it clear in my ramblings, I'm running bone stock electrics with a battery. I got a harness from DaddyGCycles.
 
If you got a test light handy go threw the steps
You could use a meter too
You have two wires coming from the TCI to the coil Different colors one is also the same color on the TCI plug RED/WHITE ORANGE you should have voltage there. Check the TCI PLUG should have voltage there too.Also make sure you have the three wire hooked up from the pickup on the ALTENATOR.
The wiring on a stock TCI setup is as follow
3 wires plug that comes from the ALTENATOR TCI Box 6 or 7 pin connector and 2 Wire connector for Coil.
If you have 12 volts to TCI and to Coil with key on you should have spark
Could have BAD COIL - BAD TCI Box- BAD PICKUP on ALTENATOR
Let me know how you make out and here is a stock diagram for 1981
 

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gggGary said:
Check here; The bottom link on the LH side, "650G/SG Supplement (836k)" has the factory TCI troubleshooting guide, it's about 5 or 6 pages down, as good as any, better than most.

http://www.biker.net/650_service/650service%20main.html
Click to expand...

DADDYGCYCLES said:
If you got a test light handy go threw the steps
You could use a meter too
You have two wires coming from the TCI to the coil Different colors one is also the same color on the TCI plug RED/WHITE ORANGE you should have voltage there. Check the TCI PLUG should have voltage there too.Also make sure you have the three wire hooked up from the pickup on the ALTENATOR.
The wiring on a stock TCI setup is as follow
3 wires plug that comes from the ALTENATOR TCI Box 6 or 7 pin connector and 2 Wire connector for Coil.
If you have 12 volts to TCI and to Coil with key on you should have spark
Could have BAD COIL - BAD TCI Box- BAD PICKUP on ALTENATOR
Let me know how you make out and here is a stock diagram for 1981
Click to expand...

Thanks guys! I just came in frustrated from the shop (tried another TCI i had, no luck) so see y'all's responses. I'll check this stuff out right now!
 
gggGary said:
Check here; The bottom link on the LH side, "650G/SG Supplement (836k)" has the factory TCI troubleshooting guide, it's about 5 or 6 pages down, as good as any, better than most.

http://www.biker.net/650_service/650service%20main.html
Click to expand...

This manual is great! I'm definitely bookmarking it...

According to the troubleshooting chart, my TCI box is bad (weird because I took it off a running bike, but I'll bite). So I took the TCI off my 83, which also was a running bike (7 pin instead of 6, but I saw one of your posts that says they are all plug and play, so I tried it out). Still no spark.

So here's what I'm thinking:

A) both TCI boxes are bad, which I think is unlikely
B) I've got a bad connection somewhere that I missed. Maybe if I check each wire at each connection (well each connection affecting the ignition) for continuity it would solve this?
C) Bad ground? I eliminated the motor mount ground, maybe I should put one there? The motor is grounded through the mounts, but maybe it's not enough?
D) Maybe the damn thing is sparking, but I just can't see it? I'm going to widen the gap on the plugs a little and turn off all the lights in the shop, just in case.


DADDYGCYCLES said:
If you got a test light handy go threw the steps
You could use a meter too
You have two wires coming from the TCI to the coil Different colors one is also the same color on the TCI plug RED/WHITE ORANGE you should have voltage there. Check the TCI PLUG should have voltage there too.Also make sure you have the three wire hooked up from the pickup on the ALTENATOR.
The wiring on a stock TCI setup is as follow
3 wires plug that comes from the ALTENATOR TCI Box 6 or 7 pin connector and 2 Wire connector for Coil.
If you have 12 volts to TCI and to Coil with key on you should have spark
Could have BAD COIL - BAD TCI Box- BAD PICKUP on ALTENATOR
Let me know how you make out and here is a stock diagram for 1981
Click to expand...


Thanks Rich, I've followed all of these steps. I have battery voltage at the TCI plug and the coil plug. The coil tests within spec for resistance, as does the pickup. So your suggestions also point to the TCI. I've tried the 2 I have with no luck. Maybe the measures I listed above will help.

Thanks guys, please let me know if I'm on the right track, or if there's anything else you think I might be missing. I'm gonna head out to the ship right now to try these things.
 
We have spark! Gotta get back out to the shop and get everything put back together, but I'll post the dumb mistake later on this evening. Thanks so much for yalls help!
 
SEND me some pictures of bike when done. So it can get put up on the shop wall with all the other builds. Have fun on the ride WISH I could go but still stuck here in NJ for a couple more weeks. HAHA
:thumbsup:KEEP CHOPPIN
NEW HARNESSES READY TO SHIP THIS WEEK!!!!!!
 

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Ranger said:
We have spark! Gotta get back out to the shop and get everything put back together, but I'll post the dumb mistake later on this evening. Thanks so much for yalls help!
Click to expand...

Forgot to post the dumb mistake! I had a buddy come over to help me route the wiring and just be available to answer questions since I don't speak electrical... He had tested the yellow wire coming off the alternator and found that it read "ground"... so he ran the ground from the igniter box into it! If you do that, you get no spark!

Wiring harness was awesome! Glad Rich was able to get it knocked out as quick as he did. I've got 2 more xs650s in the shop, though, and I think I'm going to buy some spools of wire and see what kind of trouble I can get in on those :)
 
DADDYGCYCLES said:
SEND me some pictures of bike when done. So it can get put up on the shop wall with all the other builds. Have fun on the ride WISH I could go but still stuck here in NJ for a couple more weeks. HAHA
:thumbsup:KEEP CHOPPIN
NEW HARNESSES READY TO SHIP THIS WEEK!!!!!!
Click to expand...

The harness was definitely worth the price! PM me your cell number and I'll text you some pics... or I can email some in a few days.
 

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