You'll never guess the problem I had today.

[crimsonride]

So my exciter has the headlight/guage assembly removed... I started it and ran it around the yard before heading up the mountain today. Once to the lot it had faint spark and would only run for a split second. After like three hours of parking lot tinkering I found my problem.

It was so simple yet odd that it took forever to figure out. Water had gotten into the headlight plug that is now just hanging there. Salt from the road had also gotten into it creating a ionic compound that conducts electricity and it was grounding out on my frame. Crazy huh? And that took three hours of frustration to figure out.

 

[nitris223]

Sounds something like the Gremlin I had in my garage last year. Guy drives his sled into the garage. I rebuilt the top end, only unplugging what I had to. Bolted it back together and no spark. Three days of racking my brain and about 6 other people looking at it plus call to a couple mechanics. Lucky I had another exact sled in the shop. I switched parts to no avail. Then by accident the plugs were touching a part of the frame that was Painted and for some reason I pulled the rope and be dam there was spark. Buttoned everything back up and he put 1000 miles on it after that day with no further problems. The only thing we could figure was that the coils or CDI discharged or a bad ground somewhere. I am still looking for that Gremlin in the shop. I don't want any suprises this winter.

 

[PZ 1]

The problem with the Exciter sounds as if it was caused by an overloaded ground. The ignition and light circuits are two seperate systems with each having its own generating coil and wiring - until it comes to the ground circuit which is the same for both. The capacity of the ground circuit may have been lowered because of age and corrosion and loose fitting contact points. Adding a ground wire beween the frame and engine may allow the ignition system to have a better spark as it may have a marginal ground now.

 

[crimsonride]

The problem with the Exciter sounds as if it was caused by an overloaded ground. The ignition and light circuits are two seperate systems with each having its own generating coil and wiring - until it comes to the ground circuit which is the same for both. The capacity of the ground circuit may have been lowered because of age and corrosion and loose fitting contact points. Adding a ground wire beween the frame and engine may allow the ignition system to have a better spark as it may have a marginal ground now.

I actually added one when I swaped this motor in. You can never have too much ground in my oppinion. Hmmmm....now I'm wondering. Once I blew the water out of the pulg and cleaned it out the thing fired up and has ran great since.