Recent Posts  By   (Read times)

it was hard enough in person. what I don't get is I was getting the same voltage at the end of the plug - it was only when I plugged it in some connection was lost internally.
I'm now thinking of how I could have found it a different way or any sooner. I was just trusting the plug because of the readings at the end of the plug.
anyway, it is all back together and starts every time. thanks for the support folks. hopefully this scooter won't be back for a while.

John, if you were directed at me mine is an 8 pole but do you agree end result voltage can be directly related to resistance. My high resistance could cause the loss of voltage. I ask to learn and better my diagnosis. I usually work on cars and motorcycles, not ac fired scooters.
Here is my thought process so far:
The cdi needs ac voltage at a decent level to charge the capacitors. It needs a trigger to tell the cdi to throw 'power' to the coil. It needs a good ground and it needs the kill wire not to be grounded. I have provided a known good ground, and taken the kill wire out of the system. With no known good values I have shown 50volts ac unloaded and .7 volts ac from the trigger at the stator. I have not verified the pulse on the trigger because honestly I didn't want to hook up the scope but every test I can find says look for at least .5 vac to fire. Might do that with the new stator and the scope. I have known good cdi boxes, known good spark plug, known good spark tester and known good coils. To me the 50 volts is the lowest I have seen but in theory should show some spark. If in fact those 4 things are the only things needed to spark by process of elimination everything is ruled out except the stator in my case. If the stator doesn't work I am going to put everything in a box, tell him to come get it before I set it on fire and not charge him of course

even with the black/white wire unplugged from the cdi? that should completely rule out the kill, switch and safety circuits right? I agree it should show something as far as some type spark at 50 volts....I've read even down to 20. Oh, I'm not using the spark plug to check for spark, I have my spark tester on the wire and have it dialed down to as low as it will go. As for the coil/plug wire I have swapped for a known good one on here with no change. If the cdi won't take a charge it won't make it to the coil anyway though right?

You know, I guess I shouldn't say they are crap because I don't see them enough to make a qualified statement about them. I only say that because I have a hard time believing I can get a quality part (cdi, plug and coil) for around $12 shipped. With that being said, it did work last time for him.....
I'm either going to find a scooter to borrow so I can parts test or I will take my cdi boxes to a shop and see if they can test them for me. Only concern I have about the shop is when I called them to see if they had ever seen a problem like mine they guy said they don't know anything about the voltages I am seeing because they don't test them that way. That tells me they just swap parts around until something works.

so far the cdi's came from ebay. One was the cheapo orange box that comes with coil and plug and cdi. that fixed him last time. when this started I ordered him another one of the same because it worked last time. when the second one didn't work I ordered one that is gold and says 'best tech' on it, has some connectors on it and from a different seller. I made sure the ad said ac cdi boxes, not dc.
I'd be glad to get a cdi from you John but first let me see if I can get up with another scooter and swap to see if these cdi boxes are in fact all bad. I'm not ready to put all my eggs in that basket just yet but this is hurting my brain.

still no spark. I'm getting .7 volts ac on the trigger wire and around 50 volts ac on the power wire UNTIL I plug in the power wire to the CDI. Good ground on green wire and black/white wire disconnected from the cdi plug.