Ask the Editors: A No-Spark Mini
Anyone seen sparky around here?
Were we to guess, it sounds like an exposed wire making contact with metal and shorting out before the voltage makes it to the plug wire. The plug wire is good, right?
We wish there were an easier way to diagnose this one but unfortunately the tried and true (but oft time consuming) method of grabbing an electrical multimeter, setting it to measure continuity. Since it sounds like you’ve already measured voltage response from both the coil and magneto, now it’s time to trace the wiring from there. Place one of your leads at one end of the system and the other at the closest junction. Each time you measure equal ohms, you’ve proven that length of contact is conducting.
Continuity requires at least .3 ohms. If the screen displays a smaller number, this is a section of wire you’re going to want to investigate for exposure, breaks or frays.
The good news is that since the kill switches have been removed, you can eliminate the possibility of a faulty switch being to blame. Our guess points to a short instead.
One other factor to consider- in 1986 Suzuki offered a tether cable kill feature as well for additional safety. We’re not sure when you say that the kill switch has been removed as to whether this one is also included in your investigation. Failing to bypass this safety feature can also result in a machine that will not produce spark.
