<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: cornell22

ok black /red .374

next i got 84 as the highest ac voltage this is a kick start bike so this was hard to test.

the next test was the timing trigger wire i got .4 volts ac again this is a kick start bike so its hard to know if thats right or not now that i am typing this i wonder if i move the magnet if i can get i higher voltage on the timing trigger. i think thats what the magnet does it hits on a little part that sticks out and sends the voltage thrue the magnet am i right on that???</end quote></div>

I assume that is 0.374 KOhms (which is 374 ohms). That sounds right, plus the voltage of 84 volts AC is right on.

0.4 volts AC sounds right for the trigger wire also. The timing pickup should *not* hit anything. The voltage on the pickup is induced magnetically, and the air gap is important. You do not want to change that air gap, nor do you want to get higher voltage out of the pickup at idle/cranking speeds. The reason is that the induced voltage is directly proportional to engine speed. Higher RPM's equals higher output voltage. The CDI uses the voltage level to measure engine speed and advances the spark accordingly. If you lesson the gap and raise the voltage you will be advancing the timing a lot at higher speeds. That said, a narrower air gap isn't going to keep the quad from firing.

Your stator is working (fix the rubbing pickup though). With the CDI hooked up, what is the voltage on the kill switch line (on the CDI, not the wiring harness if you still have the blk/wht wire cut) while cranking/kick starting? Measure both AC and DC voltages - this is a complicated waveform and has both AC and DC components. This is measuring the internal high voltage supply inside the CDI, and it will have substantial voltage on it so watch for fingers while doing this.

 

ok testing the kill switch line i get 34 volts dc and 12 volts ac. The pickup was never rubbing i was just adjusting it dont think i ever really changed it thou just moved it a few times. now it has a small gap in it but not to much. thanks alot for the help you have given

 

The two voltages are too low in my experience. I don't think the CDI is working right (see below for some caveats).

Lets cover all bases just to be thorough:

1) Ohm out the ground wire on the CDI to engine ground. It should read shorted (zero ohms).

2) Measure the resistance of the ignition coil wire on the CDI to ground and report back.

3) Measure the resistance of the Ignition coil secondary winding to ground. Do this by unplugging the spark plug wire and measuring from the spark plug wire to ground and report back. This reading will be high, several Kohms.

CDI Caveat: You would think that CDI's that look the same would operate the same. It is not necessarilly true. A while back I compared two working CDI's side by side and was very surprised at how differently they operated. I documented the results on another forum which can be seen here:

CDI waveforms

If you find the text cut off in the link, click on "Print View" at the top of the thread to fix it.

These are a different CDI package, but the point is the same. CDI's are black boxes performing a function, and there a different ways to do this function. It is always possible that your CDI is much different than ones I've seen. That said, I still think your CDI looks sick.

But do the other tests. When we have complete info we will be in the best position to make the best call.

 

ground was fine at 0 ohms
ignition coil wire i got .4 ohms
ignition coil secondary winding without kicking it i got 7.45 ohms. should i have anything without kicking it over???

 

I think you meant 7.45 KiloOhms (7450 ohms). If so that's good. The other readings were good also.

It is really hard to measure voltages on the primary side of the coil with a voltmeter. The voltages are very narrow pulses at a low duty cycle which then ring in the 30 KHz region. Voltmeters don't respond to this in any predictable way, so we are left with measuring winding resistances and making educated guesses.

Do not try and measure voltages on the high voltage secondary (spark plug wire) while kicking it over. If you somehow managed to get spark you might blow up your voltmeter.

The CDI looks like the most likely suspect at this point. eBay is a good source for this part.

 

do you think it is worth doing a up graded cdi or should i just stick with a stock one. i dont need more speed as it is only for a 7 year old just want something that will last longer.

 

I'd get stock, but that's just me. I don't need to go 2% faster, or whatever the real number is. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if a lot of the performance CDI's are stock CDI's painted a different color. How would you know? Butt dynamometers are inaccurate, and susceptable to the power of suggestion.

 

ok cool i was just wondering if one would last longer than the other. thanks alot for your help i am going to order one off ebay today sometime