No Spark

[Chieftan]

HI guys, thought I would start up the RD500 as I wasn't doing anything (like everyone else), get it ready for the good weather. Unfortunately I cannot get it running as I have absolutely no spark
It was running before I had the carb leak, took all carbs off, cleaned and fitted in line check valves for the oil pump.
Now I haven't got even the slightest of sparks, nowt, nothing, nada etc.
I changed the CDI unit with a spare, disconnected the side stand control unit, still nothing.
Cleaned all the block connectors, nothing.
I removed the Magneto, cleaned and re-fitted, still nothing.
Obviously not a coil as the other would still spark.
Anyone got any ideas or had this problem?

[silverstrom]

Kill switch or ignition switch? Have you opened the kill switch and checked/cleaned it?

Fuse?

Do you have any power anywhere?

When you disconnect the side stand switch you need to use a jumper on it or you'll have no spark.

[Chieftan]

I tried the kill switch and the ignition looks to be working fine.

I don't have a side stand switch, I disconnected the control unit as per the manual.

[Jeff B]

Make sure your grounds are making good contact.

[silverstrom]

I tried the kill switch and the ignition looks to be working fine.

I don't have a side stand switch, I disconnected the control unit as per the manual.

You used a jumper wire on the wire harness when you removed the side stand switch? If that plug isn't jumped you'll have no spark.

[Chieftan]

Hi everyone,

I posted an electrical problem I was having with my bike and would like to thank everyone who replied.

I have been having the same problem for a couple of years in that my bike would be fine one day and the next "no spark", I also had times where I did have a spark but it was too weak to run the bike, this happened until eventually the bike simply had no spark at all.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I had had enough so I stripped the bike down to where I could access the harness, I started checking all wiring as per the troubleshooting information in the manual even though I had already gone through everything and was pretty sure all was ok, as it was this time.

My next step was to go through everything that had been said on the owners group tech forum, moving the pick-up closer, check all earth wires etc, none of this worked, however, there was a comment on the tacho not working and I had noticed that mines had stopped working, so I started from there to unravel all the wiring harness and check all the wires as I went.

What I eventually found was that there is a black/white wire that loops from the CDI unit (Number 10 on diagram) to the YPVS Control Unit (Number 5 on diagram), there is also a grey wire that connects to this loop and goes to the Tachometer (Number 15 on diagram), where these wires connect to one another the joint had broken down and there was zero continuity at this point, a simple fault but a pain in the proverbial none the less, the wires were repaired and the bike started right up.

Hopefully this may be of use to someone who is also experiencing a "no spark" situation, as for my bike starts up every time.

[silverstrom]

Good find.

Thanks for posting the fix. I'm sure others will find it helpful.

[tacky1]

Nice one. Thanks for putting up the fix. That just might save someone a ton of trouble shooting down the road.

[Kalim]

Great share, thanks !

And good to read the bike is firing well now.

[kfz]

My no spark issue was due to incorrectly connecting the black and grey wires on the tacho after front end repairs.
Swapped them over and it's all good again

Grey at the top, black to the right (looking at the rear) seems to be correct

The tip regarding Led test lamp on the pickup coil output wires was a good one.

Thanks for the info here, helped me a lot