Won't start, no spark

[Yamahaulin]

I bought a used 1990 Venture. I went on a trip to OH. I parked it at night, it was running fine. The next day it start skipping and popping. I worked on the kill switch and it seemed to fix the problem. Since I returned home, bike had been running good. I went for a short ride recently, parked it, and it has not started since. No spark! All other electronics work properly. Any and all ideas greatly appreciated.

[Pappa Bear]

Kill switch finally died!

[mbrood]

On a roadside, you can pop pin D out of the housing, this removes ALL safety interlocks to the ignition (sidestand, tip over relay, etc.) but you STILL have to have a good kill switch to put the battery volts on the TCI (pin 1).

 

http://www.bergall.org/temp/venture/tci/tciplugs.jpg

[GeorgeS]

Check the 15 amp Ing fuse, holder prongs. make sure good contact and fuse OK.

 

Check the side stand switch.

 

Check the plug enroute from the Pick up coils ( under lft fwd case cover ) going to the 6 pin plug on the TCI. Its located left side, just about under your left knee as you sit on the bike.

 

Follow cable from Kill Switch forward to behind the headlight. There is a plug there, check that plug.

 

Make sure you are getting voltage to the 8 pin plug of the TCI.

 

Remove and clean the Plug from the Barometric Pressure sensor, located , forward and above the Left forward ( #2 ) Carb. There is a rubber boot covering this plug, it might be full of water and crud. This powered pin gets power from the Ignition Fuse. Might be a problem there. ( not likley, but possible ) I know of at least one 1st gen that would not start because of this.

 

A few places to start looking.

 

However, most of the time, its the side stand switch. Follow cable from switch, about 10 inches to a 2 wire plug, ( its black ) open and clean the contact of this plug.

 

Find the Two large plugs going " TO " and " From " the Rectifyer/Regulator unit, open them, and Inspect, and Clean the Pins in both of these Plugs !!!! These TWO plugs are very common trouble spots. Do this, even if you find some other problem. !!!!!!!!

[Yamahaulin]

How do you pop pin out? My '90 TCI has different color wires than pictured diagram. Same positions in plug? My 8 pin connector only has 6 wires. Which one is the 12v power?

[Venturous Randy]

How do you pop pin out? My '90 TCI has different color wires than pictured diagram. Same positions in plug? My 8 pin connector only has 6 wires. Which one is the 12v power?

 

 

On the 8 pin, which six wires do you have?

With the switch on, you should have 12 volts on the red/white wire.

On the 6 pin, check continuity on the black/white wire. There should no reading. If you have continuity, one of the safety switches is closed.

Then unplug the connector and put a knife blade on the backside of the terminal on the B/W wire to release the latch and the terminal will pull out. Then plug the connector back up and try starting the bike.

Another thing to check is to take the headlight out and up under the dash you will see a box held in place by a rubber strap. This is your tilt-over switch. Make sure it is held securely in the rubber stap. If it is hanging down, you have found your problem.

RandyA

[CrazyHorse]

1990 and above have digital TCI's but I dont know if the wire colors are different.

[Yamahaulin]

As per mbrood's TCI diagram my 6pin has these colors into TCI- A is B/R - B is B - C is OR - D is B/Y-E is BL/R - F is B/W. My 8pin has #1 empty -#2 is R/B- #3 is GRay -#4 is OR - #5 is Y -#6 is W/R dots -#7 is B/R dots -#8 is empty. Already hooked kill switch wires together. Side stand switch has 3 wires coming out- B, G/BL, BL/Y. Tip over switch in place & in rubber. When it first happened it started to spit&sputter out of the blue. Was on a 1800mi. round trip. Everything working properly, then it started to die out. Rocked kill switch on & off, took off with a big backfire! I would go a little ways & it would happen again&again until it quit in the middle Allegany national forest.

[Yamahaulin]

I probably should finish story. Sorry:starz: Worked on kill switch-took apart & WD-40 treatment. Thought maybe water in gas, drained bowls& put isoprophyl in tank. It started up but only idle. Drained bowls again & started. Only idle at first but let it idle and after few minutes seemed fine, so took off. 5 miles it just died- no backfire- no nothing! Did same stuff again then pulled spark plug. No spark at first few cranks, then got one. Thought i just grounded wrong place. Put back in & took off. YEE-HAA! Never had another problem until now- 2 months later& 2000mi more.

[mbrood]

A large bobby pin (look in the bathroom) has the flat side that is the perfect extractor tool... with the connector off, push the wire INTO the connector, push the bobby pin into the square cutout next to the wire (this releases the pin locking tang)... holding the bobby pin in the slot, pull back on the wire. (what do you mean you don't have three hands?)

 

We DO need to get a layout for the CDI units.