1. N/A no kill pin
2. 12.40 V
3. on the 2k ohm scale it registered as .148 which i assume means 148 ohms.
4. I measured .1 volts here, but my lowest AC volts scale is 200V.
5. THe numbers on my meter did not change from zero on this test.

 

It sounds like your CDI is not getting triggered. Since your meter resolution only goes down to 0.1 volts AC (and that's what you measure) it could be a little less than that. Does the meter reading go from 0.1 volts AC to 0.0 volts AC when you stop cranking the starter motor? Sometimes meters can have an offset such that they don't read zero volts even when no voltage is applied.

Is it possible for you to find a meter with more resolution? If you can see for certain that you do have a trigger signal then the problem looks more like a bad CDI. If you don't have a trigger signal then it point to the stator.

Here is another simple test fixture that can be constructed out of parts from radio shack for just a few dollars:



Plug the two leads from the timing trigger pin to ground and crank the engine. The two LEDs (light emitting diodes) should both flash at about ten times per second.

Here is the actual waveform coming from the trigger coil in the stator:



Notice how the peak voltages are quite high, but average out to a very low voltage due to the large periods of zero volts in between. LED's only pass current when the barrier voltage is surpassed, which for green LED's is about 2.2 volts.

Just to cover all bases do this measurement also:

With the CDI unplugged make sure the resistance of the Ignition coil pin at the CDI connector to the ground pin on the CDI connector reads a low resistance like 0.7 ohms. It should not be zero ohms. I just want to eliminate a shorted coil primary winding, which would short the CDI output to ground even though it trying to fire. This should really should have been in the generic procedure in the last post. I'll add that step for future posts.

 

I tested it again today and the meter stays at zero when the motor isn't cranking, and jumps between .1 and .2 while it is cranking, and then back to zero once I stop cranking.

I have not had a chance to run to radio shack to get the supplies to do the test you drew out for me above, but I will let you know the results of that when I get the chance to make it out there.

And for the last test I measured the resistance from the ignition coil pin on the CDI with it unplugged, and the meter would read 0.00 for a little bit and then jump between .1 and .3 repeatedly. But just to be clear, I was supposed to take those measurements on the actual CDI pins, and not the wiring harness, correct?

 

I measured the resistance on the ignition coil again today, but on the wiring harness just to save time in case measuring it on the cdi was the opposite of what i was supposed to do and i got 1.6 on the 200ohm scale.

 

Good plan since I've been buried in work the last couple days. You were right to measure the coil side (not the CDI). 1.6 ohms sounds high from all the coils I've measured, but there was another post recently where the coil resistance was about the same as yours (and the quad worked). Besides, I was only trying to make sure that the coil wasn't shorted - which it is not.

So we're back to whether you have sufficient trigger signal. A meter with more resolution or the trigger fixture above is the next best step.

 

I took a leap of faith, and instead of purchasing a better voltmeter, I went out and bought a replacement CDI. I plugged it in, and she fired right up! Thanks for all the help on identifying the problem! Now I just need to start working on that transmission lol

 

Well darn, I rode the thing for like 2 hours and then went to eat dinner. I came back out and took it out about 2 miles and it just died while i was riding and wouldnt start again. I brought it back to the house, and now its not getting spark again.

 

Dang, I was just about to congragulate you for fixing the quad .

There have been a lot of examples lately of CDIs that seem to fail after a short amount of run time. The way chinese CDIs are tested is that they plug them in to a test fixture, if they produce spark for a couple seconds it gets put in the "good" bin and shipped. But there are many things that can be manufactured wrong and still pass a short go/no go test, only to fail after a short while.

It is quite possible that you just replaced a bad CDI with another bad one, but I would do some of the previous tests over just to see if your symptoms are any different from before. It's possible you have an intermittent problem

Did you buy the CDI locally? Can you take it back and have them test it?

 

I went to remove the CDI, and bring it back to the shop to be tested, but as I was doing that I realized that two of the ground wires I had hastily spliced together had come apart while I was riding, causing it to not trigger the new CDI. I put them back together, and it has been riding well for a few days! Thanks again! lol