Hi everyone. I hope you are all well during the strange times!
I have been browsing these forums for quite a while but I have never actually posted before. (I wasn’t a registered member until my registration was approved today!)
I have owned a 1992 Suzuki savage for quite a few years but unfortunately it has been off the road for several years due to electrical gremlins. I was hoping that the community here may be able to help me get to the bottom of it!
The bike is a bobber and has had the wiring cut and simplified. This was done previously to my ownership.
I am having trouble with the ignition system on the bike. I currently have no spark at all. (But using an inline spark plug light I do have a faint flash of light as I crank the bike)
I am going to write the history of the problem in chronological order to try and make things clear:
1 - Bike was running fine, starting and running perfectly.
2 - During the winter the battery went flat and the battery was replaced with a new one as the battery was very old. When the battery was replaced I caused an accidental short within the battery box. I am not sure what shorted as the wiring inside my battery box is quite tight.
3 - The bike would not start and had no spark.
4 - I tested all of the ignition system components as per the Suzuki service manual:
Ignition coil primary coil - 1 ohm
Secondary coil - 20k ohm
( I noticed that the HT lead has a spark plug cap on it which has a 10k ohm resistor in it) so secondary coil resistance is actually 10k ohm.
resistance across pickup coil - 208 ohm
battery voltage 12.8v
12.2v when cranking
5 - from here I came to the conclusion that the Igniter (TCI) box must be causing the issue. I opened up the TCI box and found the transistor was burnt out.
6 - I managed to find a used TCI box on ebay with the same part number 32900-24B00
7 - Fitted used TCI box. Bike had a spark and started. I tried to rev the bike and the bike stalled. Bike stalled due to lack of fuel.
8 - At this point ignition is still ON. I went to fill the bike up with a jerry can of fuel. During this time (2 mins or less) I noticed a burning smell and found that the transistor had burnt out again.
I have now read on the forum that leaving your ignition on without the bike running is a bad idea as this can happen. But would this have happened in the 2 mins it would have taken to fill the bike up with fuel?
I have managed to source some replacement transistors to solder onto the board (Fuji D1071)
I am apprehensive to install the new transistor if something else in the circuit is causing the issue of burning the transistor out.
I have also just purchased a voltage regulator / rectifier as the one on the bike was looking old and a replacement was fairly cheap.
I have checked all of the wiring and I couldn’t find any shorts between wiring or to the frame so,
My questions are:
Could the pickup coil cause the transistor in the TCI to burn out?
Could a faulty ignition coil cause the transistor in the TCI to bun out?
Is there anything else I should be looking at before I replace the transistor again?
Many thanks and sorry for the long winded question! Looking forward to getting the bike back on the road soon!
Cheers,
Tom