As I mentioned in this thread (
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26496), my bike has been suffering from the CDI changing its performance characteristics after the bike warms up. I will have to give thanks to
Racer x for taking this path first and his encouragement for me to do the same.
This morning I cut the two connectors for the old CDI off the '90 wiring harness and stopped by Advance Auto for a package of "7 quick connectors." I thought that was a coincidence, since there are 7 wires to connect!
After taking off the side panels, in order to remove the seat, I then removed the passenger seat and the rear cowls, which surround the lock mechanism that secures the passenger seat.
Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures while doing the mod. Instead, I went back after the fact and got the pictures.
The following picture details which bolts (yellow arrows) retain the lock, etc. The white arrow shows the relay that must be removed. After removing the relay and the bolts, the lock unit can hang off the left side of the bike (picture was too blurry to post).
Bolts being removed.
Removing the relay. Just lift it up and off.
The Igniter (CDI) can now just be lifted up and the harness connector removed. Here it is after removal.
After removing the original CDI and disconnecting the original wiring harness, I then used a razor knife and carefully sliced down the center of the harness and peeled back the electrical tape. This exposed the eight wires; however, only 7 will be re-used, since the '88-94 CDI only has 7 connections!!
Next it was just a matter of connecting 6 matching pairs of colored wires. The one remaining wire pair (solid Red ['88] and Brown with black stripe ['08+]) were then connected. Just to show how confident I was that this was going to work, I didn't bother disconnecting the battery. Just make sure the Red and Br/Bk are the last wires connected and DON'T let the plyers touch the frame.
This picture shows all the wire pairs connected, prior to being stuffed next to the CDI. Keep in mind there is only about 4 inches of wiring harness in which to place seven (7) tap connectors!
This is the connector used for taping into each wire:
Here is the CDI in its final resting place, with the wires stuffed on the left side. The white arrows point to the rubber insulator mounting tabs. Notice that the right one had to be sliced on one end, since the '09 tab is too large to fit the insulator. I could have trimmed the plastic tab, but chose the rubber for modification.
This picture details the cut rubber insulator. That is the tip of the JIS screwdriver pointing to rubber cut.
At this point, I opened up the garage door, choked the engine with the bike in neutral and the kick stand up (more on this in a minute), turned the key on and hit the start button. YES, it started right up! I lowered the RPMs via the choke and turned the ignition off. I quickly replaced the cross piece and the lock mechanism for the passenger seat and put the rear turn signal flasher back on its post and ran inside to put on ATGATT!
Once I backed the bike out of the garage and started it up with the choke, etc. I made sure it was in neutral and put the kickstand down. The engine went DEAD! After getting my stomach out of my throat, I put the kickstand up and proceeded to start it up again...successfully. This time I put in first and eased the clutch out and it started to move. OK, took it out of gear and let the clutch out. The bike didn't move. Put down the kickstand....DEAD engine again. Fine, I got off the bike and closed the garage door. Got back on and put the kickstand up and fired it up again and went for a test ride.
As I hinted in the first paragraph, this is a completely different animal now...meaning increased performance. Before, the bike was idling at 1500 RPMs after warming up. Now it is closer to 1300 RPMs. Here's the kicker, it pulls harder (seat of the pants sensation) and keeps pulling to 13K RPMs. It would have gone higher, but I shifted there. Also, since I didn't reinstall the passenger seat and the rear cowls or the side pieces beneath the seat, my BUTT was really getting HOT! That's why I made the earlier statement about the CDI really gets hot. Even with that heat, the New ('88-94) CDI never varied. Sixth gear at 50 MPH was 6000 RPM ....cold, warm, hot, and hotter.
One last note, when I got home, I made sure the bike was in neutral and put the kickstand down. Yep, the engine DID NOT shut off. It DID slow down, like something was trying to shut if off, so I put it back up and the engine went back to normal. (See later post on the kickstand issue.)
The bottom line of this experiment is that I have spent less than $65 total and invested roughly one hour of my time for the installation. Just to take the bike into my non-believing dealer would have cost me more time and I would have been without the bike. So I feel it is a success.