Weird spark

Bike is a 1980 Yamaha XJ 650-- I have officially decided it is haunted. More plausible explanations welcome!!

Okay so I have search and searched and am not getting anywhere. So I will start with the problem:
Bike has spark when it wants to.
Headlight works when bike has spark, but not when it doesn't- blinkers always work.
Getting shocked intermittently through handlebars/frame when I forget to not touch metal (erm).
Will spark when ignition is on, randomly without starting it.
Needs extra juice to fire, but doesn't always work with more.
Both coils work, but only one coil will work at a time.
- all of these issues kind of come and go. One or two times it has fired up for no explainable reason.

What I have done to fix/check:
New regulator
new stator
new battery
checked ignition
checked all wiring
checked grounds
checked kill switch
checked all fuses

-only think left to change is CDI ignitor box.

I am in the process of finding a CDI but wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions in the mean time. Have been trying to fix this for a week now. Thanks in advance!!

 

you have a pinched wire somewhere or a bad ground wire going to the engine.
have you cleaned the ground wire at the engine?

 

thanks helmet, i knew some one would chime in over here for him. my brain's fried (this XS is killin me). rm, when you checked the grounds/wiring wiggle the wires around. if you got a pinched wire it may change your reading and pin point your problem. not sure if it's related but since your in the electricals does the bike still have the oe glass fuse fuse box? if so that could be a pile of gremlins right there. good luck

 

There is no way you have checked all the wires and grounds. The only thing that could cause the shocks you are getting is a power short to ground. Somewhere on the bike, you either have wires in the wrong spots in the connectors, or you have melted insulation on a wire or wires and that is shorting out.

 

Yes the ground at battery, and at motor, and at coils etc are cleaned and connected. Short of unwrapping the entire wiring harness, all wires are good. None of the insulation is burnt, rubbed, worn. I'll go over it again this weekend. is it possible that something in the actual coil pack is shorting?
Yes still have the original glass fuse box- will take a closer look.
Thanks!!

 

You don't have to unwrap the entire harness. Start checking for cross continuity, or continuity between wires where there shouldn't be. If you find that, then you might have to tear into a harness to fix it. But problems like that hardly happen within all the deep wrapping. I am willing to bet your problem is at or near an actual connector, or where wires meet a component. The start switch, horn, ignition switch, etc.

 

just curious but stepping back a minute, have you done anything to the bike recently? ie tank off or change anything before this happened. just judging myself but sometimes i tend to overlook the obvious while trying to prove what i think it's going to be

 

Re: Weird spark~ Update

Figured that I would follow up since (knock on wood) I found the problem. Finally received a new CDI. All the oddball electric issues went away. Surprised by that result because the original CDI didn't appear to be that bad off. Thanks for all the input!

 

Rmaerdicul, have you opened up your TCI (no CDI on these bikes)? The solder runs tend to crack and develop corrosion. Simply cleaning up the joints and reflowing them could fix your problems and set you up with a spare TCI box (nice to have around). If you don't want to monkey with it, I do repair them in my spare time. PM if interested.

 

Thanks Robert! I did open it up and took a look. Didn't look horrible. Will have to look into that though.