XJ550 NO SPARK MADNESS!!!

ok I bought the bike a few months ago, idled rough. Drove it 5 miles and quit. No spark to plugs. What ive tried: killswitch has been torn down several times and cleaned along with the start button. Everything seems ok. Kick stand safety switch has been removed, checked, unplugged. Seems to be working correctly. Fuse box has been removed and temporarily wired directly together. Battery has been removed, acid topped off charged and reinstalled. Charged during cranking. No spark? I bought 2 sets of coils. All the same, No spark. All coils spark very blue and well off the bike. The red/white wires to coils all have 12V to them. Bought 3 TCI Ignitor boxes. Still no spark. Every blasted wire has been disconnected, cleaned, and wire lubricated. No spark? WTF. I have even bought a few diode blocks. Nothing seems to help. Pick-up pulsers test 667ohms on one and 657 on the other. 10ohms apart. Im assuming is in the norm. If i test voltage on both orange and grey wires while cranking bike i get .2 to .4 volts on each pick-up pulse generators. Im sick of it. No spark. I can take the orange and grey wires off the coils, run them across the frame and get the coils to spark. But still will not spark when cranking........................Is there any updated/universal/performance parts i could buy to replace the spark units on my bike. Im too deep into it to junk or part out a bike i KNOW run when i bought it.....The only thing i remember is the oil light came on a mile before it quit. I popped clutch during a down hill roll. Motor turned over for better then 15-20 seconds and BAM bike kicks back on and runs like a raped ape? Got to flat surface and bike stalls again. Rolled down a smaller hill, same thing. Motor turns over for 20-25 seconds. Next thing i know spark came back an off I went until I hit a flat surface again. Bike stalls and havn't got a spark out of it since. If anybody knows what this stupid things problem is, shoot me some ideas. I am completely stumped on this one. Unemployed and honestly put myself in debt working on this dumb thing. so far this bike has really scared me away from the Yamaha XJ models. From what i've found in research a lot of these bikes have this problem. WTF. Anythings appreciated. Thx.

 

Take the left cover off, with the plugs out & grounded, ignition on, run a knife across the pick up coils, plugs should spark, if not, go to the cut out, (under the seat, about 3/4" square) pull that connector & bridge the 2 red / white, or red / black (not sure but you can't go wrong)

 

This sounds to me like it has to do with the oil level sensor in the bottom of the oil pan. When rolling down hill the oil moves to the front of the oil pan covering the sensor. When on flat ground the oil flows back to the rear of the oil pan.

Is the oil level correct. Bike on center stand. small bubble in window on the bottom of the clutch cover?

Ghost

 

How are you testing to see if you are getting spark? Also, fill out your profile and at least add your location. There my be a member close by that is willing to come by and help get you going again.

 

I thought your initial post said you fixed this problem by replacing the diode pack. What happened?

The oil level sensor won't (shouldn't) affect the ignition, it's simply an "idiot light."

"Bypassing" the sidestand switch requires jumpering the leads, not simply unplugging it.

It sounds to me like you have an intermittent connection at your neutral switch, and every time it suddenly "discovers" the bike is in gear it kills the ignition because it thinks the sidestand is down.

If you'll PM me with your email address I can send you the factory wiring/circuit diagrams and fault-isolation charts so you can actually diagnose the issue instead of guessing and jumping to (expensive) conclusions.

 

To test coils: Take battery run 12V to the Red/white wire, Ground spark plugs (If duel cylinder plugs, both MUST be grounded to spark) run a wire to the secondary wire on coil, in my case Orange/white wire. Run wire across the spark plug ground location. The split second the wire contacts ground and then is removed, The hot will channel the voltage through the plugs insted of channeling to the ground. Bright blue spark. Im positive coils are OK!

 

At first I thought i had the problem fixed due to a melted diode block and a mis-interpreted wiring diagram. The diode block (7 wire located inside headlight housing) did infact fix the starter cylenoid clicking but not responding. Other then that, no it still never fixed the spark problem. I even directly grounded the TCI box straight to the battery. No difference. I also had a bad connection to the headlight. Left side of coils, two main connections had to bypass the blue wire to keep headlight working. Might help sombody. But is the least of my worries at this time. Drained oil before the bike quit running. Made sure the oil level was proper, center stand down, oil was where it should be on the eye glass below the clutch plate. Shortly afterwards the bike quit. Really dont think oil sensor will keep bike from sparking though. Its a big agervation to me. Might have a parts bike for sale soon. Who knows...

 

Ok Problems fixed. Bike officially runs. Black/white wire disconnected, and spark came back. Kick stand switch seemed to be working fine. Even with the bike in neutral the kick stand switch WILL not allow the coils to fire. Disconnecting the kick stand switch is not enough to allow TCI to function properly. Black/White round male/female plug being disconnected with allow TCI to function and fire the coils. For reference information. The Black/white wire is located off the left side plug into the TCI box. Keep in mind. This should NOT be a final fix. Only a troubleshooting step to getting your bike functioning properly. Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Sorry to dig up an old thread but:

So yea I did this on a bike I am working on for a friend and I had spark. This is after tracing the wiring harness to find any problems. Trying a new TCI unit. Then found this forum and read the "fix" and yep got fire. So my question is What is the final fix?

Thanks for your patience on this matter.

 

I have similar problem going on new coils new solenoid cleaned the kill switch new ignition switch new battery unhooked the kickstand switch and twisted the wires together

 

Please ask this question in your existing thread about electrical issues.

 

How do i get to my thread and im pretty sure i had no response in my existing thread how do I check not to sure how to navigate

 

electrical-issues.119183

You had several responses.

One way to get back to your posts is to click on your name, which will allow you to navigate to your profile page. You can then select the posts that you created, and click on the appropriate one. The other way is to select the watch thread link that is in the upper right of your first post in the thread.

A third way (and this is how I do it) is to select new posts under the forums tab on the menu that is in the upper left of each page of the site. That will give you a list of all the threads that have had activity since you last logged in.