SlowMaintenance
'76 XS650 Chopper
Hey guys, need your advice. First let's give some background so everyone can be up to speed. Bike has a PMA, Pamco, E advancer and the red andrews coil. The bike runs on a capacitor but this evening I had it hooked to a battery for timing purposes. All of the discussion below is with a battery hooked up.
The bike is wired according to this diagram with the exception that there is an e-advancer between the ignition and the coil and there is no kill switch there, and there is no neutral light. That slot is empty on my fuse block.
I had just replaced a breaker cover oil seal so I had to reset the timing.
Put the timing plate in the closest spot to where it was before and hooked up the battery. Battery had good voltage 13V but I plugged it into a charger at the same time it was plugged into the bike so I could be sure I was getting consistent voltage. Coil read 12.5 volts at both sides.
Started kicking and it wouldn't start. Realized I left one of the plug wires off (oops) so I plugged it back in and still nothing. Figured maybe that messed something up so I opened up my wiring box and sure enough the 7.5amp fuse was blown. I replaced it with a new fuse. There's a light that comes on in the block when the fuse is blown and the light went off when the new fuse went in. Good sign.
Went to start it again, still nothing. Pulled the plugs, pretty black. No bueno. Grounded plug to engine and kicked, yellow spark. Not the usual good blue kind. Also no bueno. Alas, I didn't have another set of plugs so I put them back in and went to check coil voltage, one side still reading 12.5v, this is the side where the green wire from the e advancer runs straight to the coil (its the orange wire in the diagram above). The other wire is the red wire which splits into two with one end going to the fuse block and the other end going to the other side of the coil. This one was now reading only .5v at the coil. I tested the voltage at the fuse block terminal and it's getting 12.5V. So the issue must be between the fuse block terminal and the coil. Which leaves only that splice joint and the wires themselves.
It was late, I was tired, and I was done for the night but glad I was able to narrow down WHERE the problem was. What I don't understand is WHY. The wires were soldered and shrink wrapped at the joint, this exact same wire has run the bike before. Why the sudden change?
Next steps wise, I have three ideas that I need your advice on.
1. Try another 7.5amp fuse and see if the problem persists.
2. Recreate the splice with a new wire (I'm getting dangerously close to the e advancer housing and running out of wire so I don't want to do this again if I can avoid it)
3. Change the wiring setup to run the red wire from the e advancer straight into the fuse block, and the empty slot in the fuse block to the coil (eliminating the 2-1 splice). Idk if this will work though as the two terminals might not actually connect to each other like that.
What are your thoughts? I desperately want to finish this bike so I can ride it to the chopoff, and I'm losing time quickly.
Thank you for your help
The bike is wired according to this diagram with the exception that there is an e-advancer between the ignition and the coil and there is no kill switch there, and there is no neutral light. That slot is empty on my fuse block.
I had just replaced a breaker cover oil seal so I had to reset the timing.
Put the timing plate in the closest spot to where it was before and hooked up the battery. Battery had good voltage 13V but I plugged it into a charger at the same time it was plugged into the bike so I could be sure I was getting consistent voltage. Coil read 12.5 volts at both sides.
Started kicking and it wouldn't start. Realized I left one of the plug wires off (oops) so I plugged it back in and still nothing. Figured maybe that messed something up so I opened up my wiring box and sure enough the 7.5amp fuse was blown. I replaced it with a new fuse. There's a light that comes on in the block when the fuse is blown and the light went off when the new fuse went in. Good sign.
Went to start it again, still nothing. Pulled the plugs, pretty black. No bueno. Grounded plug to engine and kicked, yellow spark. Not the usual good blue kind. Also no bueno. Alas, I didn't have another set of plugs so I put them back in and went to check coil voltage, one side still reading 12.5v, this is the side where the green wire from the e advancer runs straight to the coil (its the orange wire in the diagram above). The other wire is the red wire which splits into two with one end going to the fuse block and the other end going to the other side of the coil. This one was now reading only .5v at the coil. I tested the voltage at the fuse block terminal and it's getting 12.5V. So the issue must be between the fuse block terminal and the coil. Which leaves only that splice joint and the wires themselves.
It was late, I was tired, and I was done for the night but glad I was able to narrow down WHERE the problem was. What I don't understand is WHY. The wires were soldered and shrink wrapped at the joint, this exact same wire has run the bike before. Why the sudden change?
Next steps wise, I have three ideas that I need your advice on.
1. Try another 7.5amp fuse and see if the problem persists.
2. Recreate the splice with a new wire (I'm getting dangerously close to the e advancer housing and running out of wire so I don't want to do this again if I can avoid it)
3. Change the wiring setup to run the red wire from the e advancer straight into the fuse block, and the empty slot in the fuse block to the coil (eliminating the 2-1 splice). Idk if this will work though as the two terminals might not actually connect to each other like that.
What are your thoughts? I desperately want to finish this bike so I can ride it to the chopoff, and I'm losing time quickly.
Thank you for your help
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