Is this a valid test for suspect TCI?

[aldo5468]

My '82SJ (see pic) with original TCI system died suddenly on the road two days ago - I suspected the TCI might be bad and after getting the bike back home, tested the TCI by hooking up a tach and dwell meter to the orange wire that drives the coil. I've used the same meter and connection in the past and have gotten reliable rpm readings with the engine running. I can't think of any reason why the meter wouldn't respond when the engine is turning on the starter motor, as long as a signal is appearing and disappearing on the orange wire as needed to drive the coil. Removed both spark plugs (and grounded them to the frame) so I could get enough cranking rpm to move the needle off zero if the TCI was working, but the needle never budged off zero. Does this sound like a valid way to determine if a TCI is good or not?

 

[xjwmx]

I doubt anybody else has done it, but what you're saying makes sense, especially since you've seen it work before. But, I wouldn't be so sure that that connection wouldn't hurt the TCI, if the parallel resistances of the coil and the meter was too low.

I have a spare TCI that I've used for testing by substitution several times. Good to have a spare.

Also - it might not be the TCI. I had a pickup coil go bye bye. The TCI won't do anything if it doesn't see a good signal from the pickup. Check the pickup and its connections with a meter.