anybody know about Honda m/bike electrics?

I'm hoping someone out there can help me with what appears to be an electrical fault on my 1996 Honda Transalp, the bloody thing won't start and iv'e traced it to a loss of spark, i have 12 volts at both coils but no switching, my understanding of the system is that something called a "pulse generator" sends a signal to the cdi box, which then switches the coils, i have checked the continuity of all the wires into the cdi box and there all ok, any idea how i can test the pulse generator? according to "Mr Haynes" it needs a special Honda tester, but surely there must be a way to do it with a multimeter, all replies (including **** takes) will be gratefully received

Try searching here: Transalp.org - Information on The Greatest Multi Purpose Motorcycle in The World. or here: The Honda Owners Club • Index page

I thought I might be able to help until you mentioned electronic stuff!

fit a new cdi its goosed

Thanks guys, i don't like replacing parts unless i can prove that their faulty, so i don't want to jump in and start a process of diagnoses by substitution

just a thought, its not picking up electro transmissions from something that immobilises it.
its been known for cars and bikes to be in a hotspot for unwanted electro transmissions that kill the electrics until the vehicles been moved away...

easye1 said:

just a thought, its not picking up electro transmissions from something that immobilises it.
its been known for cars and bikes to be in a hotspot for unwanted electro transmissions that kill the electrics until the vehicles been moved away...

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As above, if it has the Honda built in immobilser it could be locking out due to local 433Mhz tranmissions from all sorts of things, smart meters, wireless doorbells etc, even WiFi. Had it happen on a Blackbird in Spain due to a taxi office transmitter. Ended up pushing it up the road for half a kilometre and bingo away it went.
Don't know the trigger system on the Transalp, but it could just be a magnet on the crank with a pick up coil, generally reliable.

Def try the Transalp section of the Bikers Oracle site - much friendlier bunch than you'll find on here.......

I'd be surprised if you lost both sparks at the same time - is it turning over 'lively' or just barely spinning the starter? If the latter I'd look at the battery first. They can be a bit random on a bike - I've had 7 years out of one, then only 3 out of another, and they tend to just suddenly give up the ghost.

Or of course it could be what they said..... A

Thanks for all the info guy's, its too old to have an immobiliser, and its spinning over fine, i've also put the jump leads on it from the trusty p38! and that made no difference, rain and a very angry foreman demanding that i get on with the decorating has stopped play for today, i have signed onto the Transalp forum as recommended by wattfield, thanks mate, and i just need to sit down for an hour or two and trawl through all the info i can find on there, the more i think about it, it can only be one of two things the trigger or the cdi unit, may be i,l get on that interweb thingy and see if i can find a second hand one of either and give it a try

I know from the outboard side they have a generator (stator) and a trigger. The generator provides the power and the trigger tells when to spark. These are checked with a dva meter. They also have base resistance readings. Hope this helps.

worth checking side stand and clutch switches.

another thing that wont help you but i must say was this,
i put my daughters KA key on my landie key ring one day, then later went out to start my disco - nothing ??
sat baffled for a while then realised why.
took the KA key off the key ring, disco fired up instantly as usual.
why ?
well, I have an Imobiliser tag on my key ring, one that was being over ridden by the chip in the KA`s key = seperate the two = presto, works as normal....

lesson learned for this old bar steward

xat44 said:

worth checking side stand and clutch switches.

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+1 and the stop switch.
Just looked at my VFR workshop manual, it uses a pulse generator which feeds the ignition unit. Yours is unlikely to be identical but the peak voltage in the manual for the pulse generator is surprisingly 0.7volts minimum.
However the output of the pulse generator can be checked with a DVM but needs an adaptor, I would guess that if you can see anything from it when cranking the engine it's probably OK.

am i right in thinking that i should be getting some kind of voltage reading across the two wires from the pulse generator whilst cranking the bike over?

As already said- eliminate side-stand switch, clutch lever switch and handlebar stop/run switch first, before anything else.

i'm assuming that all of those must be ok, or as i understand it the bike would not crank over, or am i being a complete knob?

luckymark said:

am i being a complete knob?

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Yes.

yes to being a knob? or yes to all the switches working correctly? or even yes to both?

luckymark said:

am i right in thinking that i should be getting some kind of voltage reading across the two wires from the pulse generator whilst cranking the bike over?

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Yes according to the VFR workshop manual, but it's a very low voltage short pulse.

luckymark said:

i'm assuming that all of those must be ok,

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Assumption is the mother of all feck-ups. Start with the basic checks first.

GRATCH said:

Assumption is the mother of all feck-ups. Start with the basic checks first.

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+1 to that, but usually, from memory, on the Honda's I've had, those switches inhibit cranking.