RatBob Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Hi everyone, Okay so bit of a dilemma, came home from work on my dragstar Friday afternoon with some rattle cans. I put some new handlebars on her recently, some Z mini apes, because the bars I had previously contacted the tank at full lock (instant MOT fail). Bars were just bare metal, so I wanted to prime them - took them off, sanded them down, couple coats of primer. Same story with the battery box covers/side panels, sanded and primed. Put it all back together and the bike won't start. In total, I'd spent roughly 1 and a half hours working on it. It was working fine before that. The lights work, horn works, starter motor works, and the engine turns over on the button, but it does not "catch". Here's what I've checked so far: Fuel lines fine, nothing touched or changed between parking it up and attempting to start it again. Definitely fuel in tank, flows freely from petcock, and definitely fuel in lines. Carb is properly seated onto air box, which is properly seated onto air filter. Engine is not flooded. Killswitch is in correct position, sidestand tried in different positions, bike is in neutral. Battery is fine and cranks the engine fine. Removed tank, did visual inspection of wiring harness and connections to coils etc. and all looks fine. Checked inside battery box, visual inspection of fuses shows them to be fine. Put screwdriver in HT lead cap, to check for spark against engine, couldn't see any spark when pressing starter button. Disassembled and checked handlebar controls for internal wiring issues - couldn't see any. The starter relay clicks on and works, obviously, because the engine turns over on the starter. So basically it seems like it has randomly lost it's spark, but I honestly can't see how it could've done this simply by having the side panels off and the handlebars off for an hour. I have recently fitted a new solo seat pan on springs, which required welding a plate just below so that the electricals were not exposed to the elements. This plate is obviously bare steel, so perhaps it's possible that there's a bare wire somewhere in the battery box touching this? I'm going to try covering the inside with insulating tape to see if that makes a difference. One thing I have noticed, is that in the past when I turned the ignition key to "on", the engine light would come on for a few seconds and then go off - now however it no longer does this. I'm thinking this might be indicative of a problem in the circuit, but I'm really not sure. Just so you know, by the way, I don't have an electrical tester, and the spark plugs are pretty much brand new, having been fitted only a few months ago - however I don't have a spark plug socket to remove them. But I somehow doubt they'd both suddenly fail at once, same with both coils. Other than that, does anyone have any ideas? I've looked through the service manual, and all I can see is it's either the CDI unit, pickup coil, or wiring harness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatBob Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 Okay so just a quick update since my last post, I had a brief look in the battery box to see if any wiring was touching the bare metal plate - I even moved it around a little just to make double sure, there's definitely no wires contacting any exposed metal surface. I have however, noticed that for some reason, the engine light is now working normally, and comes on for 1.4 seconds after the key has been turned. The engine still will not start and the battery is now too flat to keep on trying. I've organised for my mechanic to pick up the bike tomorrow (actually, my Dad is calling him in the morning for me, because I've got work at 6am) so if he does pick it up, and if he has found the cause, I'll post on here to let you all know what was wrong. At the moment I'm anticipating the worst, that the CDI unit is fried, in which case I've got my eye on one on ebay. I did notice that, when I tried to bump start it, pushing it in gear with the clutch in, there was a lot of resistance. Could this be the oil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Airhead Posted April 7, 2013 Moderator Share Posted April 7, 2013 ............ I did notice that, when I tried to bump start it, pushing it in gear with the clutch in, there was a lot of resistance. Could this be the oil? yeah thats just because the oil is cold and causing drag on the clutch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dt502001 Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 NO spark????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttaskmaster Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Trying to start in gear? Sidestand switch? Seriously, check all the silly little things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatBob Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 Trying to start in gear? Sidestand switch? Seriously, check all the silly little things. Unfortunately if it was either of those two things, the starter button would not work - I wish it were really that simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatBob Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 yeah thats just because the oil is cold and causing drag on the clutch I thought as much. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatBob Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 Okay, just another update. Mechanic picked up the bike earlier, and after checking it over discovered that the fault appears to be the HT leads were making poor contact, so these have been adjusted now and the bike starts and runs. He's keeping it overnight to recharge the battery and will be putting the battery back in the machine tomorrow to test to make sure that the issue is definitely solved. But basically it looks like the contact was so bad on both of them that the plugs were barely sparking! Might be worth noting that this is another problem on the xvs 125 that can crop up "suddenly". I'll post again tomorrow once I've got it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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