this makes no sense.

[sugarshane]

lets see if any of you hoons on here have an answer for this.... My 91 has always had a very weak spark. It's my first 500 and I was pretty disappointed with the bike and wanted to sell it because I thought it was way overrated. So it just sat in the garage and I stuck to my 250. I rode another 500 and loved it, so I bought a nice 2000 with a fresh top and bottom end with regular maintenance for $1400. I love riding that bike and used it to help troubleshoot my 91. I have bought a new coil and stator and still no spark. I have also swapped the coil, cdi, rotor/stator from the 2000 and still nothing! both individually and the system as a whole. the 91 system works on the 00 but the 00 doesnt work on the 91. Makes no fucking sense. the only thing that I can think of is that somehow the 91 is grounding out somewhere or maybe my crank is out of balance and causing the rotor to wobble creating a larger gap at the pickup. I have checked the air gap and even moved it closer and further and I have also played with the timing the little bit that I could move the stator. The kill switch is not hooked up and I have tried new plugs. I have never had this much confusion troubleshooting electrical gremlins on F-16's and i am about to part this fucker out. Any help you all could give me would be greatly appreciated

[eyesky2002]

My 94 ignition always showed weak to no spark; ran and started fine, but always a weak or non visible spark when I would check. I got a 99 250 compete set up and when I check you can see a nice bright blue spark every time.

The hype of the 250 giving you more power, more top end, gotta have life insurance... blah blah! Is over rated, but what it does give you is a much better working ignition and a small flywheel that helps the bike track better IMHO.

Try to find a setup and swap it out, worst case you re-sell it and part the old beast out.... But 10-1 it will bring the beast back to life and the only thing you will be selling will be the junkie 500 ignition

[2strokeforever]

i hope you disconected the kill switch already

[south central hoon]

i hope you disconected the kill switch already

did you read his post? not hooked up.

[2strokeforever]

sorry i missed that part

[gregrobo]

i would be checking for broken wires in the harness but if you work on f-16s you probly allready have

[sugarshane]

So I have been fucking around some more with this P.O.S. and looking for some more info from you guys that more familiar with 500's.
there is ground on the entire system and continuity at every connector. Please let me know what you all think and I am open to ANY suggestions at this point. Looking like she will get parted out soon because everything is testing good and working on my 2000 but my 91 still wont run....

exciter:
Bu - W = 23 ohms (spec 12 to 40 ohms)
22 vdcp

Pick up coil:
Bu/Y - G/W = 249.5 ohms (spec 180 to 280 ohms)
7.9 vdcp

0.7 ohms primary coil (spec 0.4 to 0.6 ohms)
19.21 K ohms secondary coil w/cap (spec 13 to 23 k ohms)
13.73 K ohms secondary coil w/out cap (spec 10 to 16 k ohms)
5.47 K ohms cap

kill switch:
pushed = 0.7 ohms
not pushed = OFL

ground for coil = 0.3 ohms

CDI: (1991)
off bike; Bl/W - G = 43 K ohms
on bike; Bl/W - G = 967
Bu/Y - G/W = 269 K Ohms
Bu - W = 43.9 K ohms
Bl/W - G 43 K ohms

CDI: (2000)
Bu/Y - G/W = 1.577 M ohms
Bu - W = 42.9 K ohms
Bl/W - G = 42.1 K ohms

Stator: (1991)
Bu - W = 23.1 Ohms
Bu/Y - G/W = 247.9 Ohms

Stator: (2000)
Bu - W = 21.4 Ohms
Bu/Y - G/W = 258.4 Ohms

W/exciter plugged in, 105 pvdc @ CDI box connector
w/ pulsar plugged in, 5 pvdc @ CDI box connector

[sugarshane]

ANYONE?!?!?! 237 views and all of these hoons that talk shit and make fun of people asking questions that they dont know the answers to and now none of those same shit talkers have any suggestions or know how to answer this....

[AlisoBob]

..... the 91 system works on the 00 but the 00 doesnt work on the 91.

Obviously your 91' is a big piece of shit.....



If the 91' electronics will fire off the 00', they work. Not sure why your wasting all this $$$ buying parts willy-nilly.

I bet the 91' has the piston in backwards, or some shit like that. Pull the reed cage and have a look.

Is that the answer you were looking for???

[rsss396]

get someone to pull start you and see if you truely have no spark.

It is normally very hard to see the spark and most of your problems may be do to carburation.

[sugarshane]

[quote=

I bet the 91' has the piston in backwards, or some shit like that. Pull the reed cage and have a look.[/quote]

you know what? I have never thought of that. now you mention it i have had a few bikes where the piston just decided to turn itself backwards before. I might be upside down as well now too!
I should have thought about that a while ago

[craigf40]

lets see if any of you hoons on here have an answer for this.... My 91 has always had a very weak spark. It's my first 500 and I was pretty disappointed with the bike and wanted to sell it because I thought it was way overrated. So it just sat in the garage and I stuck to my 250. I rode another 500 and loved it, so I bought a nice 2000 with a fresh top and bottom end with regular maintenance for $1400. I love riding that bike and used it to help troubleshoot my 91. I have bought a new coil and stator and still no spark. I have also swapped the coil, cdi, rotor/stator from the 2000 and still nothing! both individually and the system as a whole. the 91 system works on the 00 but the 00 doesnt work on the 91. Makes no fucking sense. the only thing that I can think of is that somehow the 91 is grounding out somewhere or maybe my crank is out of balance and causing the rotor to wobble creating a larger gap at the pickup. I have checked the air gap and even moved it closer and further and I have also played with the timing the little bit that I could move the stator. The kill switch is not hooked up and I have tried new plugs. I have never had this much confusion troubleshooting electrical gremlins on F-16's and i am about to part this fucker out. Any help you all could give me would be greatly appreciated

I would think its definitely a grounding fault may be use some make shift grounding cables you know with those small croc clips and double ground the motor and coil and retry but if it works on the oo it must be wiring loom or grounding maybe a bent crank as you say but it would have to be pretty bent

[dannygraves]

sounds like grounding to me too combined with a weak CDI.I bet if you cleaned up all the contacts and tried the 2000 cdi on the 91 bike youd get a hot spark.
Electronics can be tough, I has a stator mess up on my '86 and it would run fine, but when hot you couldn't shut it off or you wouldn't get it restarted again until the next day. was a $30 stator coil from ricky stator

BTW, pistons installed backwards are very common in 500s, but sicne you say the spark is visibly weak, I'd definitly lean towards CDI. the stators ohm out correct and if the coil also ohms out correct, it has to be wire/grounding or the CDI.
With the plug out one good kick should get a several good rotation, any healthy ignition would be giving a solid blue spark.

I had a coil on my gen-3 that ohmed out good, but I didn't realised the sealing glue was gone and it was arching out the side against the frame. I messeg with jetting until I was blue in the face until one night I was working on it and noticed some sparke from under the rad shroud every time it would miss. New coil fixed that bitch right up.

[100hp honda]

lets back up to the beginning. you know the '00 system works because the '00 bike runs good. the '91 system also works good on the '00 bike, according to your first post. i have to agree with bob your '91 is just a big pile . jk brotha. sounds like both systems work fine, problem must be with the '91 chassis and/or motor, i would start looking there.

[AlisoBob]

I have never thought of that. now you mention it i have had a few bikes where the piston just decided to turn itself backwards before.

You said it has ran like shit since the day you bought it.

There isnt much else to make a CR500 run like shit ( besides Clyde's tuning) except having the piston in backwards.

Its happened a few times on this board.

[sugarshane]

I have never thought of that. now you mention it i have had a few bikes where the piston just decided to turn itself backwards before.

You said it has ran like shit since the day you bought it.

There isnt much else to make a CR500 run like shit ( besides Clyde's tuning) except having the piston in backwards.

Its happened a few times on this board.

Now I see what you're talking about. It has been underpowered and I did redo the top end with a pro-x piston and had Jerry Hall hone it out. yes, I did install the piston the correct way. I have yet to make that mistake because I have a buddy that did that on his YZ so I make damn sure it is right after his mistake. I bought the spare stator and CDI thinking that had to be the issue. I have taken it to a couple shops here and i have had 4 HONTECH instructors working on it and they say they wouldnt believe this if they didnt see it. You are right tho.... This one is a piece of shit. although i have just been refering to her as the "pig whore" it slipped out one day working on her it just stuck.

[eyesky2002]

500 spark is always weak... Have you done a compression test?

[sugarshane]

500 spark is always weak... Have you done a compression test?

yes I have, a while ago. i did it on all 4 of my bike at the same time so I am not positive what it was reading, but I wanna say it was like 186. I know that both of my 500's were good. Im not to concered about the weak spark visually, more so about it sparking enough to give it power. The very few times it has fired off the throttle response was pretty good and it idled well. i played with the jets and still sucked under a load. I bought a PWK from sudco for my 2000 so i installed its OEM carb on the 91 and the same applies. compression is good. reeds are good. new plugs, piston installed correctly and fresh gas.

[dubious01]

vacuum test / leak down !
I am betting the crank seals and bearings are bad...

[AlisoBob]

I did redo the top end with a pro-x piston and had Jerry Hall hone it out.

Jerry does great work. You didnt mention that you had it apart before.

[dannygraves]

Jerry is the man! I bet no problems there

[ellett]

I have never had this much confusion troubleshooting electrical gremlins on F-16's...

WTF is it with jet mech's on this board that you gotta show them everything?!

[sugarshane]

I have never had this much confusion troubleshooting electrical gremlins on F-16's...

WTF is it with jet mech's on this board that you gotta show them everything?!

WTF is up with people talking shit here and NOT offering a solution?!
You sir, have yet to show me anything....
So since you seem to know the answer based on your know-it-all response, please enlighten myself and everyone else that has taken the time to think of what the problem is....

[MojoScojo]

I have never had this much confusion troubleshooting electrical gremlins on F-16's...

WTF is it with jet mech's on this board that you gotta show them everything?!

WTF is up with people talking shit here and NOT offering a solution?!
You sir, have yet to show me anything....
So since you seem to know the answer based on your know-it-all response, please enlighten myself and everyone else that has taken the time to think of what the problem is....

Relax. If you have been reading here long, you will recognize who made the post and who it was really directed at. That was plainly a fun jab at a certain other Jet Mechanic to try and get him to wake up, not you. At least that's how I read it.


Have you replaced the plug wire and cap? 19 years is a long time.

[rsss396]

please try and pull start the damn thing and let us know the results so we can go from there.