Fed Up!!!

Sorry to rant, but I've been battling problem after problem with this motorbike project, having left me stranded five times so far, ranging from two to 13 miles away... The final straw was this last stranding, 13 miles from home, on a now very heavy bike with much chain friction...and of course, all uphill home, because I suddenly lost spark. I know because I stuck a screwdriver into the plug wire and grabbed it with my bare hands while the engine was spinning. Five strandings in a row merely trying to get to work and back (20 miles each way) just plain bites.

So I've "killed" the kill switch, checked the magneto solder joints, made sure the "white wire" nor any others were grounded out. Connections all redone...still no spark. Only thing I haven't done, which I just thought of, is to see if magneto actually spins with motor turning.

If I were to use a multi-meter on the magneto outputs, what should
I see? High voltage DC? or AC? Low votage? Anybody want my whole kit I'm about to remove for good and never return to motorbiking?

I've never been stranded. I build for performance with reliability.

If all the connections and wiring are solid, you should at least register some wacky ac voltage (pulsed) from the magneto (take the plug out and spin)....

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ackkk! stop it, you're scaring me! i'm not really much of a mechanic and now i've invested my hard-gotten into this crazy motorized bike idea.

I'm going on year five and well over 4,000 miles. Only one time I had to pedal home and that was when my chain tensioner fell apart. But it was my fault, I adjusted my chain and forgot to tighten it back up.

Ahhh, I don't remember what my reading's were when I checked the mag and CDI. It's posted in here somewhere I'll see if I can find it.

Sorry to hear about all your trouble, it seems like you get a good motor or a bad motor with these chinese motor's.

Usually on my old bike the connectors would disconnect the wires and I would have any spark. I wasn't sure what you meant by killing the kill switch but did you check with an ohm meter to see if the switch isn't grounding out? If that fails, I think its time for a new plug and coil.

Yikes!

Don't give up yet. Take a break from your kit. Put it up for two weeks and come back to it after a rest. Get a little project done in between.

Now to test your mageneto. When I first has my kit together I did not know if I was getting spark. So what I did was take the plug out and rest it on the top of the motor. Then I took the cover off the mageneto and put the correct size socket on the shaft and spun it with my cordless drill. Even at a nice slow speed and I was getting lots of sparks. Then I knew the Magneto, CDI, wire, cap and plug were good.

What do you cary as tools when you go on a ride? Even on my first rides around the neigherbhood I tool a flat scewdrive, small needle nose pliers, two niterl gloves and a big ziplock bag taped to my back rack. This way I could pull the drive chain out if my motor died on me, or if I was having too much trouble with my motor's chain alignement. Then peddle it home with 7 speeds.

I am up in the East Bay and come down to Santa Cruz everyonce in a while for a construction project to UCSC. If you are still haveing problems, let me know. I would be happy to come work on it with you. Not that I know a whole lot, I only just finished mine. And if the motot does not work out for you, I would trade you somethign you would enjoy; beers, spirits, etc.

Good luck and let us know.
Andy-

How to troubleshoot CDI/Magneto when no spark

Won't start - no spark (possibly)

Trouble shooting the bicycle engine that won't start

spark problem

Scary thing is...i AM professional car mechanic, and the 40-odd carb adjustments trying to merely get the mixture dialed in, much less the multiple string of mechanical issues....I'm second...no, triple guessing this whole thing.


"killed the kill switch" meaning on the side of the highway I pulled apart all the wiring and bypassed the kill switch by biting off the insuluation and tightly twisting and taping the mag/coil wires together, ensuring no oil or goop or grounds jumping the circuits, and physically touching the spark output terminal without getting shocked.

I have a large box filled with known good Ford Lincoln Mercury parts that I've purchased and scrounged for, and daily use for diagnosis. However, I have no such parts for motorbikes, such as trying out a new CDI which I can't even locae online... and thus have to rely on actual testing.... Such as the actual output of the mag. If I had specific reading to look for, I could condemn one part versus another.

Maybe this is payback for the times when I've had a customer's car that defied all logic, and I have say that I'm literally guessing at a cause and that the customer is going to have to pay for the process of elimination?

I've been suddenly accustomed to the public transit sytem. It's kind of nice, despite the three mile from home, one mile from work distance. But my infinitely lighter pedal bike on the bus's bike rack after waiting 45 minutes to arrive, is better than the HOPE of motoring all the way.

Back to topic, mulimeter reading for no spark? Does the Magneto send out a somewhat high positive voltage that the CDI stores/amplifies/disperses?

Sorry about all this. Really is a bummer and always at the worst possible moments. I am sure you will get it worked out.
I "flight tested" one the other day. Feels good for about a nanosecond until you realize what you spent on the thing. But when they are humming along, true works of art.

Andy, that is awesome thunking. Man that would have saved me some hard pedal time. Thanks!
"....a big ziplock bag taped to my back rack. This way I could pull the drive chain out if my motor died on me, or if I was having too much trouble with my motor's chain alignement. Then peddle it home with 7 speeds."

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How to troubleshoot CDI/Magneto when no spark

260-280ohms...mag

2.3 at 200k....cdi