
Picked up an 1978 Goldwing in non running condition in hopes to get it running and then restore it or at least get it safetied and cruisable.
Wing is in decent looking condition but with 80,000 kms.
First thing I wanted to check was the electrical/ignition system. Found out had no spark. Been reading through many forums and getting acquainted with the bikes systems.
What I've done so far not necessarily in the right order.
1. Contacts:
- Cleaned the contacts as they were not grounding properly
- I still get a bit of voltage when they are in contact. 1-2 volts on the one side, can't remember the other side will check that again.
- I have to verify the contact sides as I think I was getting some grounding on both wires when I was closing the one contact (which I imagine shouldn't be happening, figured each side should be isolated)
2. Pre Coils: From Contacts to coil connectors at harness
- Confused a bit as the connector from harness to coils has 6 wires vs the wiring diagram showing 4. I have the Blue&Yellow (coming from contacts), 2-Black/white (from kill switch according to diagram), 1 yellow HR (heat rated wire), 1 - black HR (heat rate wire)
- I get 12 Volts at the yellow & black HR wires with kill switch off. With kill switch on I get 11 volt on Yellow HR & 4.5volts Black HR
- White black wires both have roughly 4.5 Volts with kill swith on and ignition on. When holding start button (engine cranking) they jump up to 7-7.5 Volts
- The Yellow wire gets some voltage (ranges between 2 to 7 volts) when cranking.
- The Blue wire gets some voltage (ranges between 2 to 7 volts) when cranking.
- I imagine the yellow and blue wires voltages are due to open or closed points, and the reader can't be accurate as the voltage changes quickly
3. Post Coils: Cables, caps and plugs
- Found that almost all caps were not getting great contact, cut back 1/4-3/8" of cable and redone all of them.
- 1 Cap had fried resistor and is non repairable, so will get a new one.
- checked resistance across spark plugs and seems to be that all 4 are fried
- after repairing wires & caps, Now getting proper resistance across coils (tested with the coils disconnected from the main harness)
The last thing I've done so far is grabbed a spark plug from a similar year silver wing (completely different plug) that I'm also working on that was good (tested the plug which had proper resistance). I just wanted to use the plug to see if I got spark now that I've done a couple things on the bike (test method just slight touching the engine body) it sparked real good for about 4 to 5 rotations then it stopped and seems that the plug is fried. 2 conclusions to this test either the plug was not rated for what the Gold Wing puts out (doubt it would wreck a plug with just a couple turns) or there is something majorly wrong with the voltage going through the coils.
I don't know if the information I've provided in some beginning diagnosing would help any of you determine where I should be looking next or if I'm testing these correctly. I'm hoping I can try to isolate the problem before I go spend a bunch of money ordering parts that I don't need. Also don't want to go buy plugs just to find out that I'm going to fry them all just testing it out.
Thanks for any help you can provide. Sorry for the long message.