Are the ignition coils grounded?

[Fishbine]

Long story short, have a 2010 race bike that currently has power to the coils but no spark.

Before we do any more troubleshooting I want to make sure the coils aren't supposed to be grounded, just bolted to the rubber mounts and no ground wire to them that I've missed some how.

[RacinNinja]

The bars that come out of the coils are grounded to the frame by the bolts. Check continuity from the coil bolt to the frame. If you have continuity, they're grounded.

[SLOWn60]

Will you be at Greg Moore on the 24th Norm? If so; what's your number or bike colour? I'll root for you from the stands.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Fishbine

......... Before we do any more troubleshooting I want to make sure the coils aren't supposed to be grounded, just bolted to the rubber mounts and no ground wire to them that I've missed some how.

The internal coils are soldered to the iron core, which must have electrical continuity back to the negative of the battery.

No ground = no sparks

[Fishbine]

Originally Posted by RacinNinja

The bars that come out of the coils are grounded to the frame by the bolts. Check continuity from the coil bolt to the frame. If you have continuity, they're grounded.

Makes sense, but I'm not seeing how those bolts touch the frame anywhere - the rubber mounts have the threaded insert the bolts thread into. If you remove the rubber mount there's just a big hole:

I will start by check for continuity tomorrow, thanks.

[Fishbine]

Originally Posted by SLOWn60

Will you be at Greg Moore on the 24th Norm? If so; what's your number or bike colour? I'll root for you from the stands.

Had planned on it, but if I can't get a couple practice days first in I'll skip the first round. First have to get the danged thing running
Bike is green, number 762. Can't miss me, I'll be in last place!

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by Fishbine

Had planned on it, but if I can't get a couple practice days first in I'll skip the first round. First have to get the danged thing running
Bike is green, number 762. Can't miss me, I'll be in last place!

First round is practice! Practice qualifying then practice racing!
I'll have a look at my coils tomorrow or Saturday and see if I can pass on an answer to the grounding.
You know I trust; if you show up on the 24th and mention you're having problems; you will be swarmed with good peeps, a deep pool of knowledge and willing hands to get you out on the track!

[InvisiBill]

According to the wiring diagram (which matches up for the PreGen, NewGen, and 500), the coils get power on the red wire from the Ignition fuse through the kill switch. The green and black ground wires go back to the igniter, which is how the spark is actually controlled.

[spooph]

I'm not sure what I'm missing here, but if the coils are grounded, wouldn't the spark go through the ground instead of to the spark plug?

Wouldn't the ground be the spark plug being connected to the engine? IE - the coils should ride in those rubber grommets and not be grounded to the frame directly?

Or, am I just thinking of the secondary coil and the primary coil needs a ground to create the field which collapses into a spark?

[sharky nrk]

Originally Posted by spooph

Or, am I just thinking of the secondary coil and the primary coil needs a ground to create the field which collapses into a spark?

This, the primary side receives the capacitor discharge, the secondary side gets the pulse induced spark.

[Racer x]

Are you still using the key? There is a 100 ohm resister in the key circut

[Fishbine]

Originally Posted by Racer x

Are you still using the key? There is a 100 ohm resister in the key circut

It has a keyless ignition.
Everything worked fine when I put it away in November, so it's something I've screwed up over the winter.

Installed a quick throttle, rejetted the carbs, put on a new kill switch/start switch, installed new bodywork, and snipped a few more unused wires from the harness... I suspect this is going to be where the trouble originates.

troubleshooting to this point has shown:

There is power to the igniter and we have tested with a known good igniter and ruled that out

There is power to the coil but they don’t pulse/no spark signal.

kill switch and starter button both work

checked the diodes per the manual and jumped all the safety switches.

The starter relay is good, not that that is really relevant since we know the motor spins

I don't like electrical

[Racer x]

My bike did this once and I never really did find the problem. I ended up replacing the wiring for another reason and it worked again. Keep diagnosis goin and be scientific about it.

[SLOWn60]

@Fishbine
Do you have a shop manual?
I assume so and you've done the coil check on page 16-36?
And followed the Ignition System Troubleshooting chart on page 16-39?

I ask because often there are relatively inexperienced posters to the forum and it's easy to misinterpret the experience of an OP. I don't want to presume a level of expertise and also help other readers regardless of their experience or knowledge level.

[Fishbine]

Bill, yes I have a manual… I suck at electrical but I've had some good help trying to figure this out. At this point it looks like the problem is the crank position sensor, which was about the last thing left to test before I shot the lock off my wallet and handed it off to burnaby kawasaki

I'll update this post once I've gotten in there. Thanks to all.

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by Fishbine

Bill, yes I have a manual… I suck at electrical but I've had some good help trying to figure this out. At this point it looks like the problem is the crank position sensor, which was about the last thing left to test before I shot the lock off my wallet and handed it off to burnaby kawasaki

I'll update this post once I've gotten in there. Thanks to all.

LOL!!!
Well that's ok as long as you make it there next weekend!
Cheers!

[bruce71198]

no