No spark, no start, pamco, coil?

Shifty

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Bought a Pamco original unit in 2008 .. the 1st unit he came up with. At the time Mikes #17-6803 coil was recommended and this combo has served me well for 5 years. I am electrically challenged. Bike quit yesterday, it has always worked great. Here is what happened:

Went for a ride as usual ... got home, parked, and hit the kill switch ... I noticed 10 - minutes later that I forgot to turn the key off. Tried to start the bike and no-go.

Whirls over like a champ (new battery this year). Took out plug , grounded on engine, no spark. I know one cannot do that with plug unattached as will fry coil ... that was not the case.

I tried a few of Pete's tests from this thread http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11271 .... primary to primary I got 0 ... same as touching the leads together. Also ... with key on and kill switch set to RUN, I get zero volts from red/white wires to ground. So, did the coil fry ... did the pamco fry? I dunno where to go from here? Appreciate any help.

I was Shifty waaaay back in another forum a long time ago.
 
Welcome back! When you left the key on, you allowed the coil to destroy itself looking for a way to ground all that voltage. Thus, you killed the coil. Sounds like time for an upgrade.
 
Bought a Pamco original unit in 2008 .. the 1st unit he came up with. At the time Mikes #17-6803 coil was recommended and this combo has served me well for 5 years. I am electrically challenged. Bike quit yesterday, it has always worked great. Here is what happened:

Went for a ride as usual ... got home, parked, and hit the kill switch ... I noticed 10 - minutes later that I forgot to turn the key off. Tried to start the bike and no-go.

Whirls over like a champ (new battery this year). Took out plug , grounded on engine, no spark. I know one cannot do that with plug unattached as will fry coil ... that was not the case.

I tried a few of Pete's tests from this thread http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11271 .... primary to primary I got 0 ... same as touching the leads together. Also ... with key on and kill switch set to RUN, I get zero volts from red/white wires to ground. So, did the coil fry ... did the pamco fry? I dunno where to go from here? Appreciate any help.

I was Shifty waaaay back in another forum a long time ago.

I'm not sure what you mean by "hit the kill switch". If you mean you left the kill switch in the Not Run position , which is the normal way to do things, there would be no power to the ignition coil or to the Pamco unit, even with the ignition key left on. If you mean you killed the engine and then returned the switch to the Run position, then you may have had current flow to the coil and the Pamco.

If you measured 0 resistance, then the coil is shorted out and so its finished.

With 0 volts on the red/white wires, maybe the ignition fuse is blown.................have you checked it?

You will have to buy a new coil, and then run Pamco Pete's test (spin the Pamco rotor by hand) to see if the Pamco unit is still working.
 
Thanks for the help guys. Guess I need a new coil. Took it off and it appears like part of the plastic melted. and yes RG a fuse was blown so Red/White wire (from kill switch I guess) now has power. I do have a spare Pamco unit if needed as bought one 3 years ago and finally found it in the garage. 1st time I left the key on in 5 years ... this may remind me to turn it off!
 
Shifty, there was another Pamco thread that suggested putting a 7.5 amp fuse inline with the power feed from the kill switch to the coil. That way if you leave the ignition on for an extended period it will pop the 50 cent fuse and not the $75 coil. I'm gonna do this on my 73.
 
A lot depends on how the ignition is wired. If you wire the coil to hot then the Pamco to the engine stop switch this will kill the engine by stopping the Pamco from working but not kill the power to the coil.
I would recommend that on any ignition you should wire it up so the engine stop switch kills the power to both the coil and ignition. This way when you flip the engine stop switch to off it stops the power flow to both the ignition AND coil.
Leo
 
Its not clear how you shut off the bike. Since you over heated the coil and blew the ignition fuse, I assume you returned the kill switch to RUN after shutting off the engine. You should form the habit of leaving the kill switch in the OFF position. By doing that it still protects the coil if you forget and leave the ignition switch ON.

I'm assuming you have the stock wiring.
 
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