Frustrated but optimistic first owner

[RustyXS]

Been lurking around here a bit but seems most of the lurking happens when I am broke down on the side of the road. I picked up a used 75 about a month ago and I think I've put a total of 50 miles on it in between all my issues. I guess that's what I get for buying a 30 plus year old bike hhaha.

Finally got the bike running decent enough to feel comfortable to venture away from the house. All was great till it coasted to a stop about 15 minutes out. Pushed it over to the side and simply had no spark. Lights still worked but no spark.

A few days ago I was checking compression and I fear I may have damaged the coil by not properly grounding the plugs but it still seemed to work ok.

What are the chances I did just enough damage to have it fail after about running it for 10 or so miles?

Guess I need to get out the ohm meter and my wallet again.

 

[xjwmx]

Mine was running perfect in my backyard for about two months before I ventured out the gate.

 

[sgallaty]

My mantra - start with the basics.

If you don't have spark, you have 3 systems to look at -

primary ignition circuit, secondary circuit, charging system

easy to test and isolate each one.

Start by testing the primary ignition circuit. Do you have 12V on the + side of the coil? Do your points break properly?

Test the secondary circuit. If you manually open the points, assuming all of the above tests are good, does it spark? Do the points arc?

Do you have 13v at idle? do you have 14.4 at 3k?

Once you find a system not doing what it should be doing, then test, observe and isolate.

 

[RustyXS]

I have Pamco

 

[Jawknee21]

same thing always happens to me. i start to trust my bike and something else breaks. at least I didnt have to push it home that far...