Please stop me from selling this...

[rowdyrandy]

Great! That narrows it down.

Exactly what I thought! Although jogging home @ 11 o'clock wasn't my idea of the perfect birthday...if this is the problem I may just make this trip work yet.

I'll grab the multimeter when I'm home and get at it, thanks guys

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I used to run 10 miles @ 7000ft every morning, just north of you, 44 years ago. Still catching my breath. Take 3 days off and recover...

 

[rowdyrandy]

So I'm getting power from the r/w - I checked the coils, good too. Whats the best way to check the condenser? I charged it up on the battery and held some voltage, I also had a spare condenser I put on and it made no difference so I want to say that's not it ...

Any other good tests for ignition? Points are good too and everything moves, just no spark..

 

[rowdyrandy]

So I'm getting power from the r/w - I checked the coils, good too. Whats the best way to check the condenser? I charged it up on the battery and held some voltage, I also had a spare condenser I put on and it made no difference so I want to say that's not it ...

Any other good tests for ignition? Points are good too and everything moves, just no spark..

Well after putting everything back it suddenly fired up - took it out, got about the same amount of time out of it and then deadso.....luckily I was closer to home this time.

Something to do with heat?

 

[rowdyrandy]

Did A LOT of checking tonight...but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to this. Tested the engine stops switch, that checks out. Ran the ignition straight off the battery, again fine. Then, after reconnecting things, it fired up normally I've been pouring over the wiring diagram with a buddy but I'm stumped... I'll get power through the points but no spark.. all signs point towards the secondary coil but they (coils) bench tested fine and both at the same time..? seems unlikely..

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

How old are the coils? 1 year? Were they some suspect/cheap brand? One cheap brand doesn't have the same kind of mount/grounding post, relies on mounting nut for ground, might check nutside of coil mount plate. Also, check that redundant grounding wire going from condenser to upper frame mount. If you get power to points, do they spark when finger flipping? Points plate needs good ground. Also, try retorquing some engine mounts.

I had one coil go intermittant last year, found small crack in it's case, aged 42 years.

3 years ago, had another intermittant ignition, was bad multi-connector up by the coils. Ordered batches of repro-replacement connector hardware...

You could be chasing similar gremlin, broken wire, bad connection to crimped connector, poor/corroded grounds.
Rhyme/reason is out the door now. As you continue to fool with it, it should reveal itself...

 

[XSLeo]

One sign of coils going bad is they are fine cold but as they warm up they fail. Take your meter with you, ride it till it quits, test the coils while they are still hot. You may find they fail the test. If so you need new coils.
Leo

 

[rowdyrandy]

Well lads, looks like I finally flushed out the problem... The process went something like this;

I had removed the starter some time ago but never bothered to jettison the solenoid, relay, and all the other bits related to the starter, so I started there and removed all that junk from the circuit. Took it out that morning and it ran just fine, problem solved or so I thought... confident in my assertion, I left for work in just enough time to get there.. bad call. Died on me a mile away from the house and when I looked under the seat, I found I had tripped the 20a fuse..frustrated I decided to bypass it (dumb, I know) and push on. Well, as soon as I put current through it, smoke started rising from the headlight bucket and the engine start switch.. sealing my fate and my tardiness to work. I jogged home, for the third time, and came back the next day. Ran it home straight off the battery and when I cracked it open, I found a short in the headlight bucket, among a bunch of charred wire casing, right where the flasher relay meets the engine stop switch (I had been having problems with the left signal being intermittent, so things were starting to make sense..) cut the stop switch out of the circuit and fired it up again - all was well...again, confident on my findings I set out for work the next morning only to find it running on one cylinder.. Off the tank came and that's when I saw the left coiling bulged out to all hell and everything finally came to head - I had a spare old coil laying around and after a quick swap she's been running fine ever since. A short.. a bad coil.. whatever the order, this was the cause the whole time..I suspected the coil all along but the symptoms just didn't add up..cool down made no difference and perhaps that's where the short came in.. Just thought I'd share and thanks for the help along the way

 

[peanut]

well its not the first time that wiring in the headlamp bowl has been contributory to a seemingly unrelated fault!

Well done for tracking it down and persevering where others might have thrown in the towel.

Better take your trainers and running shorts next time out