Bad tci diode? Please take a look

[xjwmx]

somewhere along the line in years gone by I got ahold of a big roll of solder.... which is the worst solder I ever tried to use on ANYTHING !
it's a rosin core solder but it absolutely will not stick to anything not even copper ! I have no idea what that stuff is but take it from me there is solder that simply does NOT work worth a darn ! HAHAHAH!
.....unfortunately I still have some... it's all I have and I should throw it out but know it's better than nothing ....maybe !
.....
Bob.......

Bob you probably had 60/40 lead/tin. The good stuff is 60/40 tin/lead. The former has a higher melting point, I think i remember it gets used on soldered assemblies that need to be soldered on, so the assembly solder doesn't melt. When I was a little kid my parents would buy me little electronic science things that needed to be soldered. Late tube technology.... I had that kind of solder and didn't know any better. It was like slathered on globs but it worked ok with that low speed high current stuff.

2M, yes that is the good stuff. I bought one that size (one pound?) for $10 thirty years ago and still have about half of it.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

in the late 1980's I built many heathkit projects including a ham radio and Morse code keyer and antenna tuners and after having to send the Ham radio back to them to get it working ( their instructions were not the best) it finally came back almost working right ... after a few more weeks I finally had it working and started my studies on the ham radio stuff I finally got the morse code down fairly good theory was simple but listening to the tapes as a pre-lim test was really hard... I could send and receive Code at over 20 words per minute but the 5 words per minute gave me heck ! finally a breakthrough came when I finally had the SOUND of each letter memorized even today I do Code in my head ! LOL I spent many an hour in front of that radio late at night and early morning.
once I got the Novice licenses the rest was fairly easy I went up to advanced but never could get Extra Class because I could not write fast enough !
when chatting with my buddies we always pressed for speed and we were close to 60 wpm most of the time but I didn't write a thing when chatting....
that was my down fall on the Extra class test... LOL
all My ham and electronic test stuff went up in smoke when the Ranch burnt down years back and I've not been able to replace anything but a Cheep'o VTOM ! LOL
such is life !
......
Bob.......

 

[xjwmx]

No ham experience, but I have a portable shortwave for when I want to be weirded out by radio The thing I was talking about, the first month they would send you maybe something to make a power supply, then the next month they'd send parts to make something else, so all the parts were cumulative and the projects got more complicated, and you didn't know what it would be. I was trying to find out the name of it just now, but didn't have any luck I did find Things of Science though, which I also got. There was a third one at least, that I remember less about. I realized I was getting these things as early as the 3rd grade -- I remember talking to my teacher about one and I remember the person was my 3rd grade teacher.

 

[azman857]

Back in the early 70's, Dad got a Short Wave Radio just so he could set the clocks by WWV time standard.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

I used to tune just off the 80 meter band for WWV time... or went to 40m and found it there most all my antennas were for 80 meters and big !
hehehhe what I've give for an Icom 747 radio now with a cw filter in it ! HAHAHAHHA ! i'ed be hanging antenna wires all over this property in a hart beat !
HAHAHAHHA
Bob.......

 

[azman857]

Back in HS....Jr and Senior yrs.....I was in the Ham club at school and had an antenna at home 40 meter long for my rig. Untill a windstorm blew it down...broke a mast...

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Anyway, back on the topic ( sorry for the high jacking)
Xjwmx : that solder I have is the worst stuff I have ever seen I have no idea what it originally was but it went through the fire at the ranch and most of the Rosin in it has gone away and obviously the box it was in burned up... I found it in a pile of ashes so knowing I had no solder at home brought it back home with me .... I think it needs to be tossed out ! LOL
I wrapped most of it around a stick some of it hangs together and some of it brakes in half at the slightest touch.... 60/40 tin/ lead is what I am guessing it is because it has to be really Hot to melt it...... which to me is useless ! ...
at one time I had a can of flux looked like a can of shoe polish ( metal can) but had a green, grease like flux in it... not a powder like in braising....
but that flux really worked good I soldered many things with that because it made the solder stick to almost anything !
.....
I normally just pick up solder at "Radio Shack" but that's been a few years back ( obviously ! LOL) I guess I'll start looking for solder that isn't Plumbers solder !!!!! ..... HA !
.....
Bob.......

 

[Paul Sutton]

In the EU there is the RoHS Directive which means lead cannot be used in most electrical and electronic equipment. This put an end to good old fashion lead solder. If I bought a hotter iron then I would be able to use the silver solder without hassle and without having to call it crap. The temperature tolerance of electronic components was also upgraded to cope with silver I was told. Hence the reason I was able to repair an HP Laptop graphics chip at 220 Celsius under an IR Heater.

Bob Kelly III, that flux you mention will be Fluxite. On the tin lid it had a picture of a devil/pixie with an old type soldering iron, the sort you heat in a flame. Fabulous stuff but can look a bit untidy unless you wash it off with something like methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) or rubbing alcohol. As mentioned above a tooth brush is ideal for cleaning. Do not use acetone, it dissolves the plastic on the components.

 

[Jaydela180]

Lots of good info here guys... all appreciated.

So i button up the tci box and threw it back on the bike. Mostly because i called around and cant find anyone that will touch a circuit board with a solder gun. Almost seems to be a disappering/lost art.

Also, because it is only a only a left cylinder issue ( even with swapping sides with spark wires). I cant understand that a bad diode would make a symptom cylinder specific.

Gonna dig into left carb some more and possibly look at rotor pickup. Fyi this issue is unchanged with reg/rec unplugged.... magnet seems to still have good pull when tested with feeler gauge.

But while on that subject, when testing rotor magnet with feeler gauge, i found myself fighting a stong magnetic pull from shift lever. Weird or explaininable?
Thanks

 

[Bob Kelly III]

sounds like it could be a sticky valve too..... or bad plug.but more than likely the carb as you have surmised
good luck
Bob.....

 

[gggGary]

I'm pretty sure the biggest killer of TCI's over the years has been MIG welding with the TCI still on the bike.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

OH yah That would do it ! OR Arch welding for that matter !..... you want high voltage spikes? that will give ya a bunch !
..... Hay Gary ! take back this Rain will ya, I don't want it any more ! it's been raining for almost a week and I'm sure it's because you did your anti-rain dance up there and scared it off ....now it has come down here ! ....BUMMER DEAL DUDE !!!!
....LOL
Bob.......

 

[Jaydela180]

I will admit that during a ride my licence plate bracket had broke. Stopped by a buddies house for a quick fix.... and that fix was mig welding with tci box still on bike.

So, is there a specific negative outcome for welding with tci box on bike, or do we just know that it is, in theory, bad practice?

 

[xjwmx]

I will admit that during a ride my licence plate bracket had broke. Stopped by a buddies house for a quick fix.... and that fix was mig welding with tci box still on bike.

So, is there a specific negative outcome for welding with tci box on bike, or do we just know that it is, in theory, bad practice?

Ordinarily I'd say the welding circuit is from the rod to ground and the tci circuit is from the tci stuff to ground, so there's no actual path from the rod to the tci. But high voltage is strange stuff and I couldn't say it's impossible that the tci got a high voltage shot through induction, or some other means.

 

[Paul Sutton]

I think LittleBill31 recently mentioned his TCI was killed when the repair shop did not remove the TCI before welding???

 

[xjwmx]

Now that I think it about it welding isn't really high voltage, but just looks like it

 

[Jaydela180]

New info..
So she sparks, she runs, but poorly. That has been established.

Now gettng 10.3 at coil primaries on a full good battery. Could bad tci be limiting power to coil?

 

[Jaydela180]

And swapped sides with plug wires..... symptoms followed plug wire. So now what?

 

[Jaydela180]

Update.... bought a pamco. Thanks everyone

 

[gggGary]

I will admit that during a ride my licence plate bracket had broke. Stopped by a buddies house for a quick fix.... and that fix was mig welding with tci box still on bike.

So, is there a specific negative outcome for welding with tci box on bike, or do we just know that it is, in theory, bad practice?

More than theory It's happened a bunch of times. Welding with the TCI on the bike is ignition Russian roulette with about 5 bullets in the gun.