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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Igniter Box Checkout
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Message started by DragBikeMike on 09/28/22 at 19:41:04

Title: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by DragBikeMike on 09/28/22 at 19:41:04

In response to Yazman’s recent Igniter Unit problem, I thought it might be a good idea to try and capture resistance and continuity data on a known-good late model igniter box. The factory service manual offers a checkout table for the older igniter boxes (like 1988 thru 1997), but there’s no info on the late model igniter boxes.

I have an old junker box I bought off eBay. It’s my spare. Always need a spare when your relying on an electrical component powered by voodoo. I had never tried the jalopy igniter box. First order of biz was to make sure it worked.

Here you can see my concern. The potting on this thing looked like it had gravel aggregate mixed in. Also had a few chunks of the potting compound missing. Is this stuff polyurethane or silicone, anybody know?

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by DragBikeMike on 09/28/22 at 19:41:39

The pins looked good, and it looked like the correct box (8 pins).

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by DragBikeMike on 09/28/22 at 19:42:30

I threw the junker igniter box on my hotrod and fired it up. Ran perfect. Looks like she’s a keeper.

I removed the spare igniter box and did a thorough wring out. I figured the thing would probably be polarity sensitive. There’s gotta be a bunch of diodes in the contraption. So, I did resistance/continuity checks in one direction, and then reversed the meter leads and checked it again in the other direction.

Here are the readings on a late model box that is working. It might prove helpful if you are in a pickle.

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by DragBikeMike on 09/28/22 at 19:43:14

After I was done with the checks, I put the jalopy igniter box on my bike and made sure that it still worked. I used a digital meter for the checks, and as I understand, a digital meter is unlikely to fry any sensitive components. To be sure, I installed the box and verified that it was still working. It started up and ran fine. Success.

If you do these checks, I recommend you use a digital meter. The analog meters push a bit of current through the circuit and might harm something in the box. I’m sure we have some twigets on this forum. Any of you electrical/electronic gurus have any suggestions on wringing this thing out? Did I do OK?

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by Ruttly on 09/28/22 at 21:36:47

Next to cracking it open for a look , dam fine job. Not sure if you could use same technique for other components too. I don’t see why not. It will definitely work on testing stator too. Takes some time coming up with specs you can use. Haven’t needed any of it for the Savage , my old SR500 I had made my own tests for cdi & stator $ p/u and then I found those same tests in a Yamaha manual but their specs had a temperature to test at and then it gave you a range +/- to get you readings. Easy , time consuming!

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by Yazman on 09/29/22 at 06:40:20

Here's a readout on my busted unit. Looks like pins 4 & 5 are open/dead?

No joke, I'm trying to talk my electrical engineer buddy into making these for sale. The stealership wanting $800 is WRONG! I'm gonna go rogue and make these myself, and Suzuki can kiss my butt. A $1500 motorcycle that has a $800 part is just insane.

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/29/22 at 08:16:15

A $1500 motorcycle that needs a $800 part is just totalled.

FIFY

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/29/22 at 08:27:58

I'm no smart guy with electronics, despite the months of training that gave me a little bit more credits than necessary for an associates degree in electronics, but it seems to me that the Igniter box has an input from the timing pulse detector and runs that through some amplifying circuit and then that lights off the plug.
I wonder what kinda circuitry would have to go into that.
The pickup on the crankshaft has to produce a pulse. It's Not as if it's the size of the magnet and pickup on a lawnmower, it's not enough of a pulse to make a transformer fire the plug, right? So what can we do with it? Forward bias a big transistor and allow battery voltage to hit the coil?

Title: Re: Igniter Box Checkout
Post by DragBikeMike on 09/30/22 at 12:13:03

Yazman. thanks very much for the readings. I agree, your #4 pin looks exceptionally low. Did you try reversing polarity. What happens when you reverse the leads (black/red)?

Do you happen to have readings for black #3 to red #4, and black #6 to red #5?

I did a wring out on my other ignition box. The readings were different but not so super low like yours. The variations were confined to the pins with high resistance. For instance, instead of reading infinity on some of the pins, I got like 6 to 7 megohms. A couple had 20 megohms. A megohm is one-million ohms, so I'm not sure there's much difference between infinity and six-million in the world of 12 volts. Can anyone elaborate on this?