Hi guys. I have an odd issue with the ignition boxes. These are actually off of my VF750S Sabre, but I imagine the VF1000 boxes are nearly identical. When I bought my bike I was having issues with it not running and backfiring while cranking, I swapped out the ignition boxes, and it ran great for about 15 minutes before exhibiting similar issues. I checked a few things and tried another set, and it ran poorly and would sometimes quit running on one cylinder bank, it did this for about a week before they completely stopped working again.
I checked everything in the ignition system and everything was within the manuals specs. The only issue I found was that the ignition coils had the wires on backwards (the ones going into the coils from the boxes) and my rectifier plug was very dirty, it also had strange readings (12ish volts at idle and a continuous climb to 14 volts at 6k rpm, didn’t test any higher than 6k) The readings came back to normal after cleaning, and the fourth set of ignition boxes is running well after swapping the coil wires. I’m assuming that the coils being wired backwards was the issue, and now I’m looking at repairing my 6 bad cdi boxes. Does anyone have any advice to offer on fixing these? What might’ve burnt out or gone bad, or any resources on schematics or repair instructions. And if anyone has any thoughts on the issue of burning them out any input is greatly appreciated, as I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
(Also, the one symptom they almost always exhibited when they began to stop working, was an extra spark 3-5 seconds after I let go of the starter button. I noticed when it wouldn’t start I’d often get a violent backfire several seconds after I stopped cranking so I pulled the plugs and could see one very strong spark after the motor had already stopped spinning)
Why not just get updated/improved igniter boxes from Carmo.?? I believe the VF750 Magna/Sabre boxes are different to the VF1000FE’s. Assuming you have an FE as you mentioned “boxes”…
The cost of repairing or replacing them may outweigh the cost of new ones. I fitted new igniter boxes, coils, leads and plugs on my VF1000RE and couldn’t be happier with it’s performance.
I would love to upgrade but I don’t have the money at the moment, new boxes are $150-$300 USD for 1 set, and I have three bikes I would like to get running. I’m hoping it’s a cheap component like a capacitor or a bad solder joint, and I would love to learn how to fix these myself for future projects. Eventually my bike will get digital boxes and a COP conversion but for now I just need to make one good set for the bike I’m trying to get running.
How much do the TCIP4 sets cost? I’ve seen a few people on here that have done that for their 1000s, and would eventually like to do that to my VF1000F (USA model)
Oh. I thought I had read on one of the threads that you had to program them for specific setups. I’ll try to fix what I have for now just so I can get the bike on the road, I had to steal the last set from my dads bike to fix mine and he’s been talking about getting his bike ready for fall. But I will definitely look into the ignitech units a little more.
Ignitech will preconfigure the unit for your bike. Afterwards, if you modify the bike you can adjust many parameters of the ignition to suit. It’s as customisable as you like or you can just leave it as it’s supplied.
You’ve got some good advice about replacement units here.
I note that you’ve got a few bikes and modules, and would like to fix them.
The most common fault with them is ‘dry joints’ where heat or vibration has loosened the solder of components. I have fixed one by resoldering any suspect joints, and have heard of others being successful doing this also.
It’s worth a try if you have any units that look ok, you’ve got nothing to lose if they’re not working anyway?
That’s also a good idea, I will probably reflow all the solder joints before putting it back together and testing all components. As long as its not the IC everything on the board looks like off the shelf parts, wanted to post here to see if anyone knew of a good place to start or specific component that goes bad in this situation. I stayed up and read about the Ignitech units last night and it seems like a really good candidate especially for the price. Will update when I find anything on the boards.
The unit that I had dropped I believe had cracked joints, after resoldering its seems to be running good. I heard from a member of the forum, I forget who, but the voltage regulator has a ground wire and when it gets dirty/corroded or loose, it can no longer regulate voltage, and you’ll often see 18-20v at the battery. Unfortunately it cooked my igniters in the process. But it was one of the last things I had done before putting the current set if igniters on.
It’s worthwhile adding an earth lead from one of the mounting bolts, (with a star washer to ensure contact), terminated to a good earth point on the frame. Since trying this years ago I haven’t had any problems with burnt out or arcing at connectors.
Just wanted to update you guys. Cleaning the rectifier plug fixed my issue I believe. After my final set of igniters died (I hit a nasty bump and most likely broke the joints) I went ahead and bought an ignitech TCIP4 programmable ignition module and it has been working great.