Recent content by AlexH

PM sent for the Seca tank

This tank is very rusty but I think could be cleaned out and used again. I know tanks are hard to come by, so if someone wants to put some work and a ton of vinegar in this thing, it might be worth it. It was on a bike with no gas cap for a year, so it had water running through it for a while...

That's a real nice bike you've got there! I'm not interested in buying it, but I look forward to the day my '82 XS400 looks that clean!

Sorry for the late update, I gave up on this project for a few weeks. In late september, I had the new coils back on the bike and tried everything to no avail. But two days ago, I decided to try it again on a whim and it started right up, with spark on both cylinders. It's got some other issues...

Yes, after sitting for 18 hours off the charger, it's stable at exactly 12.8V. I put it on the bike and turn on the key, the battery drops to ~12V and the coils show 10.5V. With the starter on, the coils bounce around 9V. What's the minimum voltage it takes to get a spark out of the coils?

My bike doesn't have a kick start ('82 400R) unfortunately. I've had it sitting on the charger for a whole day, I'll unplug it before I go to bed and update in the morning. It's usually been around 12.8V, it just drops so much when running the starter motor. Do you have an XS400 or are you just...

When trying to start the bike, I measure about 9V going into the coils. This seems like it has two causes: When the starter is engaged, the battery voltage drops to around 10.5V (from 12.8V). Does your bike drop that low amc or is my battery bad? Without the starter, but with the key on, the...

That's what I'm leaning towards, but I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong. I'm planning on moving past that for now and assuming the coils work, but that the bike isn't providing enough voltage to the coils. With a fully charged battery, I was only measuring ~10V on the positive side of the...

I'm at a complete loss at the moment. I got some used coils off of ebay from a salvage XS400 that test correctly for primary and secondary coil resistance. I got new spark plug caps with 5kOhm resistance (I have non-resistor plugs). I trimmed the plug wire to make sure the connections were good...

It's the caps. I removed them from the spark plug wires and one doesn't show continuity and the other shows the 0.5Mohms. I'll get right to replacing those

Ooh, and the spark plug wires are not great. One doesn't have continuity, the other shows 0.5Mohms on my multimeter. Do you have any experience with replacing spark plugs wires and/or caps?

I had to use a breaker bar to remove some panels, but I got the coils out. Unlike what it shows in the service manual, I have two separate ignition coils. I tested them as you said and neither one produced a spark. Both primary coils show a resistance of ~2.7ohm, within spec. One coil shows a...

I'll see if I can do that tomorrow, but one of my problems is that I can't reach the ignition coils on my bike. They're tucked up in the frame and I don't have the necessary tools to remove the engine to reach them. I'll try that if I can though!

I'll get the battery tested and I just bought a battery charger as well, so I don't have to keep going to BatteriesPlus. And I just bought brand new plugs, that's why I'm not worried about them. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! And I was so worried about the spark plugs... I don't know anybody with an analog voltmeter, but could I put the bike on the center stand, put it in 1st, and turn the rear wheel to test the pickups? And with that same setup, would the spark plugs fire without the starter...