'97 TRX200D Type II

[ATC King]

Gonna be fun too, sometimes it's grounded sometimes not. Hopefully a skinned or burned wire somewhere.

Sometimes you just have to remove and unwrap the harness to find the problem. I've actually had wires inside the tape on the harness that the insulation had split. I guess they split from age. The most problematic area is usually where the harness goes to the handlebars. That section flexes a lot, whereas other parts of the harness are static.


As far as the CDIs go, if you could throw a timing light on it and see if the Ricks has a fixed timing, versus the OEM being curved, that would shed some light on it. The quad you're working on doesn't have a mechanical advance, so the CDI should take care of that. I know a lot of the Chinese aftermarket CDIs don't even have enough circuitry to produce a timing curve, they're just fixed. OEM or programmable aftermarket are the two best options for a CDI. Everything else is a crapshoot.

[Gabriel]

This is really pissing me off. Before I cut the harness, I detailed every pigtail and got the contacts good and clean....yeah, shoulda done that earlier....AND I thought I had solved my problem. It started firing with everything hooked up. Started...ran for a while, then wuhhh....and dead. No fire.

If the black wire at the switch gets ground from any of it's points, it stops firing. If I unplug the regulator and the switch, run a jumper wire from red at the switch to black at the regulator, it will make a spark as hot as anyone could ever ask for. Starts up and runs like a champ. It will also KEEP running if you unplug the jumper wire.

I hate wiring. It's very bad for my internal peace and balance. LOL!

[ATC King]

Even though it may be frustrating, I hope you can stay grounded.

[ATC King]

Have you done a wiggle test? That may help you find the problem without removing the harness.

There are times that wires are broken, but have a strand or two intact. If checked with a multimeter, they'll show continuity, but they won't carry current. A wiggle test may also reveal shorted wires.

A cheap way to do it is use a battery and test light. Hook the negative to one end of the wire being tested, and the test light to the other, then wiggle all the harness in different spots (turn bars side to side too). No light means a bad wire, even if the multimeter says otherwise. Bad part is have to keep looking at the test light, to see if it flashes. An audible device that sounds when it looses connection makes a wiggle test simpler, but it needs to be one that applies enough current.

The wiggle test will always be a diagnostic method as long as vehicles have wiring.


An example of where this is especially notable is when 70's-80's GM vehicles used solid aluminum wire for the rear harness. It worked fine, until the insulation was compromised and moisture was allowed in. The aluminum wire would corrode until a taillight stopped functioning. If checked with a test light, the wire shown as bad (why a test light is still a functional tool in the modern era), but if checked with a multimeter, it showed continuity. I've built several harnesses with copper wire to replace those, even on cars where it wasn't bad yet, because they all will be at some point. The bright colored, translucent insulation on that aluminum wire is pretty though.