I've got a miss....

[timgray]

Anyone have a 83 TCI they are willing to sell? if it will run the bike I'll take an 84.

[timgray]

Figuring I have nothing to lose I opened up my dead TCI. it looks good except for every diode has something growing on it and when I touch one it crumbles to dust.

 

AHA! So I go to radioshack and pick up some power diodes, install them in place of my dead diodes... Put it in the bike and....

 

Still not spark on Cyl #3. at least until I hit 3000 rpm then it start sparking. so at least it is now sparking above 3K on #3.

 

does ANYONE know anything about the insides of these things?

 

I am desperately trying to get it to run before winter.

 

I'll post photos of the board later.

[timgray]

A bit more troubleshooting....

 

I started the bike, got it idling and then set a voltmeter to AC and measured between 12V+ on the battery and the output of each Cyl on the output of the TCI. I get 3.4 volts on each one EXCEPT for #3 I am getting much less, at around .9 volts. so I borrowed a friends Oscilliscope and checked. #3 is firing, but very weak. after 3000 rpm's it looks like it is sparking to the eye, but it's really only sparking every 5th or 6th firing.

 

I dont know if this will help anyone, but I thought I'd post it.

 

Honestly a cheap handheld Oscilliscope is a great device to troubleshoot Ignition stuff. I was able to use it to see the output of the pickup coils.

[timgray]

 

Here's a photo of the "growth" I was talking about. Also notice a Diode is missing, it was rolling around in the case.

[edtheguy]

Ok Guys,

 

Looks like I'm running on 2 cylinders.Pulled both caps off left side and no difference in idle.

Left side from riders point of view. Pulled battery and box out and can see coils and TCI unit.

All the screws are aimed forward so I guess you need to pull the fairing. How difficult is that.

Is there anyway to pull the coils and TCI without removing it? Noticed the coils are stacked in pairs towards front, doesn't look like you can get to any of them for testing, but maybe I'm wrong. Hope so.

 

Thanks for any light you can shed on this. Also what are the cylinder numbers and locations?