First off, I’ve been lurking and learning a ton from this forum. I was a Harley guy but have turned toward parallel twins like old triumphs and now the xs650.
Brand new build 1979 XS. HHB charging system and capacitor, mikes xscharge ignition, new advance everything, new rod, new wiring harness I did myself that’s perfectly done, I don’t mess around with electrical. Mikes dual output single coil 2.4ohm (I have Honda coils on hand)
First ignition had weak spark from the beginning, wouldn’t start. Decent spark first kick, and then would fade as kicked. Mikes gave me a replacement and the thing started right up. New vm34 carbs took a little tuning at 6000 ft above sea level here in Montana and ran great. Cold it was a 2 kick bike, warm it would was a 1 kicker. I got the clutch adjusted and was putting on my helmet to test ride. To my dismay there was a problem.
Now the timing light story… the replacement ignition shown the mark right on FIRE, cam chain and valves were adjusted correctly and things were good. After a couple days of testing the light started shining on TDC yet still running like a top aka one kick pony. The first ignition was doing this right off the bat and I thought I was crazy. Advance rod pins lined up great, True TDC was on the money. Yet never ran. The second ignition started doing the same thing, started shining on TDC yet running great and then all of a sudden, dead. Thing won’t start. Has weak spark, just like the first one. Why? Why would it do this? I tested coils, capacitor, wiring over and over and everything checks out but seems to keep burning down this ignitions or maybe I have bad luck? The only thing I can think of is my spark plug/cap/wire setup but wouldn’t think it would fry it that fast. As it were, running the best, i had stock wires/caps and ran bpr7es on plugs. Could this really screw things up this bad? Thank you in advance fellow XS people.
