No spark diagnosis

Alright so, I'm getting no spark out of my XJ650RJ. Over the winter I had a hard time starting it - I got a new AGM battery in the spring, still wouldn't start so I cleaned all the grounds nice and clean and it fired right up. Went for one ride in the little nice weather we had and then 3 weeks of non stop rain. Keep in mind the bike is parked in an unheated garage.. it's covered but the air is pretty moist I suppose when it rains that much.

I recently tried to start it up again but I'm not getting any spark. I've ordered spark plugs online and they should be here in the next few days. In the meantime I'm double checking the rest of electrical system, grounds, ignition coils, etc..

Mostly following this guy's video as I don't have much experience with electronic side of bikes.


From what I've read the coils primary should be reading around 2.5 with the multimeter. However.. my primary is reading 0.28 with the multimeter set at 200. It could just be where the decimal is positioned, but I found it odd... Secondary are reading fine.. around 11,xxx. Does this seem like a decimal issue or could be coils be bad with a reading like this?

 

If both coils are reading .28 then yes it sounds like a meter problem. The meter should place the decimal point for that reading and that scale so you get a reading such as 2.8. For the coils to read that low the primary winding would have to have melted shorting the windings together. Try the 2K scale and you should get a reading of about .003, which would be 3 ohms.

There are quite a few things that can cause no spark, including testing methods. This is a pretty good write-up for testing:

http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/how-to-ignition-troubleshooting.21932/

 

specs for ignition in this link
The Ultimate Relay, Switch, Sensor, and Diodes Guide

PICK UP COILS
1982 XJ650RJ Seca (non-yics engines): 700 ohms +/- 20% = 560 ohms to 840 ohms acceptable range
1982 XJ650RJC Seca (yics engine): 650 ohms +/- 20% = 520 ohms to 780 ohms acceptable range

Ignition Coils:

Primary side (input from main wiring harness):
2.5 ohms +/- 10% = 2.25 ohms - 2.75 ohms acceptable range

Secondary side (spark plug wires, without their end caps):
11K ohms +/- 20% = 8,800 ohms - 13,200 ohms acceptable range


Spark plug caps:
5K +/- 20% = 4,000 to 6,000 ohms per cap acceptable range

Spark plugs:
0 ohms per plug


test for 12 volts at the red white wire at the tci . could be as simple as the run/kill switch in the handle bar control needs to be cleaned.
still using glass fuses? may be time to change that.

 

Perfect, thanks. Primary were reading .28 (which I'll retest - secondary were both reading 11 000 with the plug caps off. PO did a really sloppy job when putting in a new fuse box so that's another thing I have to investigate.. it held up ok for the past few years tho.

New plugs should be coming in today or tomorrow - I'll do the test with known working plugs. I've also ordered a new meter off amazon to double check my measures. I suspect that it may be the grounds.. a few weeks back before the rain I cleaned them and did a lite scuffing/sanding.. I wonder if that fresh bare metal could have corroded faster than usual with the unusually wet conditions. Should I coat the ground ends in dielectric grease so that the surfaces don't develop surface rust?