coil bench testing

[darkside]

Aside from visually checking the spark plugs for spark, how can I run a test on the coil to see if its faulty?

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[drewpy]

check for continuity and use an multi meter set to ohms.

tell us if you have dohc or sohc. points or contacts

 

[darkside]

Its an 81 xs 400 special 2 . I don't know much. Its my first bike. I'm kind of learning on the fly, the hard way. Any help is appreciated greatly.

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[lhaolpa]

The manual will tell you how to check it and give the values for your model. you can download a manual on this site. lha

 

[bcware]

In the past I tested mine when I was having troubles with the bike; don't be alarmed if the values you read are outside the acceptable range by a bit. Resistance is temperature-dependent among other things. My coils have been working just fine and they were reading out of range.

Just be absolutely sure before you dump them and buy new ones.

 

[lhaolpa]

In the past I tested mine when I was having troubles with the bike; don't be alarmed if the values you read are outside the acceptable range by a bit. Resistance is temperature-dependent among other things. My coils have been working just fine and they were reading out of range.

Just be absolutely sure before you dump them and buy new ones.

That's absolutely right,on my dirt bike,the coil tested far off,so I bought an Emgo universal coil for 6-12 volts.As it turned out,that wasn't the real problem,and after cleaning every connection on the bike,including the ignition,and greasing them all with di-electric grease,it barely started.So I changed back to the original coil[36 years old?],and it fired up and ran well.from working on old tractors,trucks,and cars from the 30s,40s,etc,I've found that sometimes a coil can just go,and other times it will heat up,then die,then when cool will start again,making you think it may be any of a million problems. lha