95 gs won’t start after charging battery?

[tbounds]

Checked coil again

With my ohm meter set at 20 olms I Hooke up to the in flat spade terminals and it started at about 150 and rapidly fell to negative side . Once it reach negative slowly went to negative 50 olms and I quit it was slowly changing to more negative.

 

[cseltz]

Something funny about that meter. To the best of my knowledge there is no such thing as negative ohms. Ohms are a measure of resistance. When there is no resistance (dead short) the meter will read 0.

 

[tbounds]

Don’t know how to tell


I have video but it won’t let me down load

 

[m_stock10506]

If you are trying to measure it using the 200 setting showing in the photo, then you are on the wrong setting. You’re trying to measure ohms that are expected to read around 20,000 ohms. You should try the 200k setting or the 20k setting and see what you get.

 

[cseltz]

First, my use of the multimeter is primarily volts and open or closed circuit so anything I suggest regarding specific resistance readings should be confirmed by anyone who knows more than I do. My meter has an automatic range selection feature so when it is set on ohms, I just read the screen. Your meter is currently set at 200 which, I believe, means the meter will display resistance between 0 and 200 ohms. If you put the meter to a circuit of 20,000 ohms, I would expect it will read as if you have an open circuit. Perhaps in the 20k setting the meter (which is what you are referring to as 20 ohms?) is reading a range between 2,000 and 20,000 ohms and if that is the case, anything below 2,000 might show as a negative number? If that isn’t the case (and realistically I don’t see how it can be) I think you have a funky meter. Giving a negative number in the resistance field just doesn’t make sense. I would expect that the lowest reading you should be able to see on an ohm meter is 0.

 

[cseltz]

With all the discussion around your meter, don’t lose sight of the fact that you have some advice earlier in this thread that comes from some pretty serious sources of knowledge which relates to your problem. If Anton tells me he thinks the coils are not the problem, I’d stop looking there at least for the time being and see if you can follow his suggestions to a conclusion. Same with Paul and all the other regular contributors who really know their $#!+ about this stuff and are generous with the time and knowledge.

 

[tbounds]

Retested coils

I tested my coils with meter set at 20k and 200k.
Same thing starts about 20-30olms and falls to negative numbers .
It gives same reading on input and out put side of coil?

 

[omega man]

A low battery is likely to cause wildly anomalous readings.

Did you check the battery in the meter?
OM

 

[guenner]

With the multimeter set to 20 or 200 kOhm a reading of "20.something" means 20 kOhm.

You can get a negative reading for a short moment when measuring e.g. a capacitor's or a coil's DC resistance. But eventually you should get a stable positive reading.

I just went out to my R100GS, pulled the spark plug cables off the spark plugs and measured between the spark plug caps: "20.0" or 20 kOhm.

Puzzles me why the readings seem to start at an expected value but then becomes negative.

How long did you keep the probes of the multimeter attached?

What are the numbers for the NEGATIVE readings? Is it a stable value or, still changing?

I guess the coil is OK.

/Guenther

 

[20774]

What reading do you get when you touch the meter probes together?

 

[tbounds]

No reading

Did you check the battery in the meter?
OM

I checked batterywith meter set olms no reading in dc voltage 13.9

 

[omega man]

I checked batterywith meter set olms no reading in dc voltage 13.9

Your multi-meter probably has a battery in it. As mentioned, it needs to be good in order to have accurate readings.
OM

 

[tbounds]

Touching probes togeter

What reading do you get when you touch the meter probes together?

With meter set on 20k starts at 3.5olms then drops to negative 40-50 depending on how long I hold it together

 

[PGlaves]

With meter set on 20k starts at 3.5olms then drops to negative 40-50 depending on how long I hold it together

It should go to near zero and stay there. First suspect: the battery. Second suspect: the meter.

 

[tbounds]

Checked and replaced battery all good

I gues it could be meter is bad . Everything else seems to work correctly

 

[happy wanderer]

So the bike starts and runs now?

 

[omega man]

Seems to be a fair amount of confusion. I’d still be interested in knowing if the original battery was taken out and replaced......unless I missed that.
OM

 

[tbounds]

No still no spark New battery

Bike still doesn’t run I replaced battery in bike with New one . Also new battery in multimeter

 

[tbounds]

Ordered icu

After talking with Rick at Motorrad he believes the ICU is the mostl likely cause and the cheapest to replace . . He said my coil was the late model and almost never fail. He to thinks my multimeter is not working correctly

 

[happy wanderer]

Yes, the meter reading make it evident your probes are flaky or the meter is not working correctly. Don't toss out your used battery until you've tested it with a proper load tester. Cheap at Harbour Freight and well worth the cost.

Shame there is no airheads close to you so you could test a working ICU before paying for a new one. Anton did describe some tests you can do to figure out if it's the ICU or the bean can. Jumpering the bike _might_ have injured an already failing ICU though. That coil you have is indeed known to be pretty bullet proof. The older black plastic ones like the one that failed in my 81 G/S are well known to fail and the tell tale is easy to see. They were called the "CrackO'Matic" for a reason. That's a big long crack. And of course it happened to break down in the passing lane on the 3 lane Port Mann Bridge into Vancouver in heavy traffic doing about 110kms/hr or close to 79mph. I was lucky that the guy driving right next to me heard the loud backfiring and noticed my bike was stumbling. He backed off and waved me over in front of him. ASAP he moved over to the travel lane and let me in front of him again. Basically shielded me till I got to the shoulder. A bit of adrenalin flowed that day. Once cooled down she fired up and I made it to where I was going; ironically that was my local BMW privateer, Shails Motorcycles.


The one you have (left one) compared to my CrackO'Matic. You can see they look very different. You have the good one as Anton pointed out.