I was driving last night and my headlight went out and then my tail lights went out.  As I was pulling over, my engine died.  I realized my positive terminal was loose.  When it was loose I think it created a short with the battery case.  I replaced the taillights and they were both burned out.  Guessing the headlight is the same.  Now, what's the source that shorted out my spark?  CDI?  I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to test the CDI to rule it out

Both wires at coil have power

I have no power at the 2 wires running from CDI to generator.  Should these have power with key on?

Attempting to test the CDI -Orange wire with a white stripe, and the black wire with a white stripe on a voltage meter = close to battery voltage
Instructions say blue wire w/ yellow stripe (looks to me like a black wire with yellow stripe with black wire with white stripe on volt meter = close to battery voltage as well
And that's where I'm getting lost in the instructions

Yes, that's the case.  I don't think the cable came in contact with the case but may have been close enough to bridge a spark.

And yes, first the headlight went, then I noticed the tail lights (but it was one after the other because I checked and they worked at first) then the engine died and seemed like it was losing spark while dying.  

The voltage regulator is on my radar.  How do I check that?

I think the other scenario you mentioned about the cable coming loose and that leading to a high charging voltage seems probable as well.

My focus at this time is to confirm if the green and orange wires going from CDI to the generator are suppose to have power with the engine on and to test the CDI for function.

Ah, thank you for that clarification.  So, my primary suspects are CDI and voltage regulator, do you agree?

If I did overvoltage the system what would be the likely suspect for no spark now?

JohnsonLager wrote on 03/09/20 at 19:45:04:



I think spark is inductive pickup to TCI which sends a burst of 12v to the ignition coil low voltage side which then turns low voltage to high voltage in the coil using a turns ratio type of thing.
So you can check if tci is working to see if inductive pickup is letting the 12v come through to the low side of ignition coil. If you're getting that voltage burst at low then the coil itself is bad. TCI also controls the spark advance but that's harder to test.
BTW test your regulator - test for voltage at the battery with it idling and at about 3000 rpm (duh - its not running - sorry about that). If its over 14.7 at any rpm, the R/R is dead. Replace that before more trouble shooting. You can not trouble shoot these with a higher than spec voltage. That's a recipe to burn more stuff out.
PS: The battery should not have more than 14.5 or so V and should have close to that when you test the rest of the circuit.

Cool.
Srinath.

srinath - if I'm understanding you, I should be able to see a voltage burst at the coil? If that's the case, I don't believe I am getting a burst.

I have replaced the coil because I had one from a previous misdiagnosis and if I assume because it is new it is in working condition, I can rule out the coil as the culprit.  
I will go ahead and test it and I will test the regulator and if both seem to be in working order I am going to order a CDI.

JohnsonLager wrote on 03/11/20 at 16:51:12:



When the inductive pickup sees the holes in the alternator rotor it would send a signal to the TCI, that will send a short burst of battery voltage to the low voltage side of the coil. If the coil is definitely good, you can just check for spark which is on the high voltage side of the coil. Its kinda hard to see that split second burst with a digital gauge. It might not even catch it. Analog gauges with the right range setting may still only make a short kick but if you keep looking at it you may catch that. Testing a coil is much easier on the spark plug side.
The inductive pickup does not have battery voltage running to it, I would assume it is safe in this situation. It basically sees metal and has one inductance and suddenly sees no metal and its inductance changes. You can measure across its plug for a change in resistance and turn it to the solid part of the rotor, then holes and leave it there and take your 2 measurements. They should be significantly different. That's a clue its working as intended. For good measure check its specs in the manual and compare.
Some bikes like my GS500 have the opposite type too, they see no metal till the nose of the ignition advancer flies past them. They sense rpm using the duration the metal is close to them. We grind off 1/2 that and it thinks its at a higher rpm and gives you higher advance. In a savage we need to fill the last hole in the rotor, a much harder and imprecise thing to do to get the same result.

Cool.
Srinath.

batman wrote on 03/14/20 at 11:23:39:



Yes, that's just static advance, on the bikes like GS and katana we can cut the nose in 1/2 making the bike think its running 5000 rpm when its running 2500 and give you full advance by 2500 or some like that. We cut like 40% off, so we get full advance ~3500 instead of the 5K.
Cool.
Srinath.