Hey guys. Posting a more dedicated thread to this question. The ignition system between my vf1000f and my vf750s seem nearly identical, and I’m contemplating borrowing my 1000F’s igniter boxes temporarily so I can continue to ride my 750 (I accidentally dropped one of my igniters and now it doesn’t work ) I tried resoldering the board but its still giving me strange issues. I want to make absolutely sure there’s nothing else in the system that may damage the 1000 units.
My main question is what electrical issues can kill these igniters? The last issue I fixed was the wires going into the coils being backwards. I ruined 3 sets of igniters before I found that issue, and the fourth set seemed to have been running fine for the last 1000 miles after I fixed the coil polarity. (until I dropped it).
Can something as simple as having the coil wired backwards hurt the igniters? It feels like an obvious answer since the issue went away after fixing the wire polarity, but as someone who has very little electrical knowledge I want to be sure.
(considering using the 1000 units after being told 700/750/1100 units were mostly interchangeable with very slight differences in timing)
I’ve contacted Ignitech about buying digital replacement units but it will be probably over a month before I will be able to purchase them. I know I should probably just wait until I have the digitals but the weather is soooo nice right now and I need to ride!
The digitec system is different from the standard set up.One forum member I know off is running it with no problems.One previous member who raced a bored out version of the R model removed the digitec system as it was no improvement over the standard system.You pays your money you takes your chance.Dry joints, tight bends in wires and over amps from boosting from a car battery are the main reasons I have come across for units failing,as the coils I have had aren’t marked +ve and-ve I can’t be sure mine are wired correctly but they work ok
I’m not sure. I’ve not jumped it, I briefly had a battery tender on it when it was sitting but I don’t think that would be the issue. The last two things I did before putting the last set of units on was clean the connecters on the rectifier (I was reading 12v at idle and a steady increase to 14v at 6k, didn’t test any higher rpms than that, after cleaning I get 14v from idle up to 8k) and fixing the polarity on the coils.
To further clarify the situation with the first three sets of ignitors. The set that came with the bike weren’t working properly, I was getting very weak intermittent spark, bad enough that it wouldn’t even run. I swapped out the units for a set off of one of my other bikes, and it ran great, I started it and ran in the driveway 4 or 5 times, with 5 to 10 minutes of run time on each startup, and then they quit working, they wouldn’t keep the bike running, and I was getting nasty backfires. I put the third set on and it fired right up and ran great. Similar issue, I rode the bike a few times on super short trips, and started losing spark intermittently, before they finally quit firing altogether, again with the nasty backfires when cranking. I fixed the coil polarity and put my final set of igniters on and have had no issues in the last 1000 miles. (until I dropped the igniter and it quit working)
I resoldered the entire board last night and have done two 10 mile rides with no issues so far, hoping it holds.
Edit: The current board that I resoldered I’m assuming had cracked joints from the impact, but other than that it has worked great since installing
UPDATE: I was talking to some members about the electrical system on these bikes. The regulator/rectifier has a ground wire on it that often gets corroded/dirty and makes poor connection. I was told that if that wire loses connection overvoltage issues can happen. That may be why after cleaning the connector the issues I was having went away.
Sounds like you’re on the right track with the ground connection theory. My friend had similar issues with his vf and it turned out to be exactly that.
) I tried resoldering the board but its still giving me strange issues. I want to make absolutely sure there’s nothing else in the system that may damage the 1000 units.