TOPIC:

Help i have now been trying to get my bike A! with A3 engine and the dodgy ignition everyone seems to hate running for 8 months had her running last week but the guy seems to think a wire shorted and may have damaged a transistor which is being replaced he also changed some wiring to the coils very frustrated and i am going to remove the bike from this guy being a carpenter builder electrics etc are not my forte but i am going to have find someone who is and really feel like i need to start again not bothered about expense really just want her running these are very complicated bikes i have just done a Z1B which i plugged together away she went so all said what i need is a list of where i get some one who knows what they are doing and ask them to go through the following checks which i would be grateful if someone could supply where i would start after 8 months going insane even starting to think the guy wants to tire me out with it so i say mate I'm over this you can keep it and walk away

Sorry to hear of your troubles Ager. Electrical problems are not fun. It's like dealing with Ghosts.

One of the best tools I made was a 11" X 17" copy of the wiring diagram and then had it laminated. when you go to trace out circuits, the larger diagram is easier to follow and having it laminated, lets you mark it up with waterborne markers as you do your tracing. Then when you're done, you can wipe it with a damp cloth and Presto!! it looks like new and ready for the next time you need it.

That is a great idea Kawboy. I'm going to do that myself for future reference.

Does it run at all? Does it even try to fire? Run then stall?

First question. Do you have power to the dashboard and cranking ability when you turn the key on? Have you checked the fuses, and not just visually? If not, check both sides of the fuse block to make sure current is passing through.

I ask because the former owner of mine ran a bunch of new wiring to bypass the ignition switch and the main fuses because he thought the fuses looked good but they weren't. Barrel fuses sometimes they blow or break at the ends and not in the glass center. Silly, but easy to miss.

After just browsing through the FAQ I've discovered there is a wealth of info in there.

My next move was to buy some fuses and plugs yes she turns over and ran a week ago but i am at the mercy of a guy who i am now sure does not know what he is doing i ami not about to stand for this and tomorrow he will be relieved of the project one way or another there will be only one winner there anyway going to get a new set of plugs has it has spent a lot of time turning over and not starting he did say he was tidying up the coils wires and it has not fired since but since my lack of confidence with this guy i really want to go through the whole thing and make sure its all correct

If he had it running less than a week ago I'd suspect coils, wiring, or igniter. I don't know how good you are as a mechanic but an easy way to check for spark with no meter is take a plug out, put the cap on it, set it against the engine and watch for spark in the gap when you crank it over. If there is no spark at all, check the next one and see if any of them are getting spark. Then you can at least narrow it down to one coil. If no plugs are sparking I'd say it was the igniter or the wiring which feed the igniter or coils.

I'm not an expert in this by any means but its a quick dirty way to check.

I use one of these: (see eBay item 391198593498) A Gunson's Flashtest

www.gunson.co.uk/(S(ri12l545xlw5pmajeyyrf3jy))/news/pdf/Gunson_06_Catalogue.pdf (see page 34)

or at least I used to before it broke. One side has a gauge which shows how far the spark gap is. I think K recommend 7mm.

My Dyna ignition and coils will spark across at it's maximum extent no problem.