95 gs won’t start after charging battery?

[20774]

No, just remove the spark plug caps from the plugs...no need to remove the wires from where they enter the coil. Put the meter leads where the spark plugs would have gone and read the resistance through the wire/cap on one side, through the coil, and through the wire/cap on the other side.

Ignition is off, the key is in your pocket!

 

[tbounds]

23 olms

I tested straight from coil towers started about 50 then went down to around 22-23 olms?

 

[20774]

The measurement needs to be from one spark plug cap to the other spark plug cap. 23 ohms is way way low. The result should be in the range of 20,000 or 20K ohms.

 

[tbounds]

105olms

Tested thru spark plug leads 105 olms
New battery today

 

[omega man]

FWIW, I find measuring ohms is or can be a bit tricky if one doesn’t do it regular. Even multimeter use can get a bit fuzzy if your not using the same meter pretty regular.
I try to keep notes on what “known” I can look at to refresh my skills before I get into serious measurements.
OM

 

[guenner]

"olms"? Are you sure you're doing this right?

Look carefully what the units are: "kOhms" or "Ohms"

/Guenther

 

[omega man]

Probably the “auto-correct” making a stop on his “puter.
OM

 

[AntonLargiader]

If you have strong cranking and no spark, you have an ignition problem. There are two electronic components here: the canister under the front engine cover and the ignition control module under the tank. Both can be damaged or just go bad, and both have connectors that can be checked for basic cleanliness and proper engagement.

There is of course also the coil, but if you have the newer red/black coil then it is very unlikely to be a problem. If you have the older round gray coil then you should replace it with the red/black one.

If you have really narrowed it down to no spark, it's not hard to swap in other known-good parts there (anyone who had upgraded to a newer system like the Alpha may have the old parts lying around) or you can decide to just upgrade anyway. The Alpha sells for $380, and both the canister and the module are replaced.

 

[tbounds]

Motorad Electrik vs Euro Motoelectriks

I am going to try and new ICU and see if that solves my problem , can anyone tell me the difference between the units from Motorad and Euro Elecktrik?
Motorad is $95
Euro Motoelectrik is $48
Is one better different ?

 

[20774]

I'm not real sure and don't know how one would figure out the differences. In reading the EME blurb it sounds like you might have do some of your own mounting. Motorrad Elektrik says theirs is easy, bolt-on replacement.

 

[tbounds]

Coil testing

I removed coil from bike today to test with ohm meter.
With coil in my hand and olm meter set at 20 olms the tabs on input side started at 100 then dropped slowly to a negative 50olms.
Test the two output towers and they had no reading.

 

[tbounds]

Any thoughts here

What does this mean?

 

[20774]

I'm still scratching my head about the readings you're getting. I can't be there so I don't have much to say about your process and results. But things don't sound right. 20 ohms, 100 ohms, negative 50 ohms...these are not good results.

I still had hoped to hear what the resistance reading was for the installed coil and spark plug wires from left cylinder to right cylinder. A reading for a "good" systems should have been in near 20K ohms. I believe you could then measure just the wires after you pulled them out of the coil towers. You should have 5K ohms for each separate wire. The readings for the coil should be around 10K ohms...the ohmmeter probe should be stuck into each coil tower.

 

[guenner]

What about a picture of your voltmeter when you measure the Ohms between the two orange connectors?

/Guenther

 

[GTRider]

What about a picture of your voltmeter when you measure the Ohms between the two orange connectors?

/Guenther

Best if he starts with just a pic of his meter so correct setup can be determined. He either has very bad readings on his components or maybe doesn’t have it set correctly to read ohms.

Best,
DG

 

[omega man]

FWIW-

and I still like my 2 Simpson 260's

OM

 

[beemeruss]

Multimeter

That was a fine tutorial. One thing to check, though I haven't seen mentioned, is the condition of the meter's internal battery. They most often use a single 9V battery. A low battery is likely to cause wildly anomalous readings. DAMHIK....
Russ BMWMOA 131079 ABC 9960 '76 R90/6 '78 R80/7 '78 R100RS

 

[stevenrankin]

Airhead magazine

In my latest Airhead magazine, Oak, comments these coils are pretty much junk from BMW. They are prone to failure and case cracking. So, you may have a bad coil pack. You sound like you may be on the correct path for finding your problem once you get the meter reading straightened out. Good luck. St.

 

[GTRider]

IIRC, the problematic coils were the earlier gray ones. As a ‘95 this bike should have the later coils that didn’t have the cracking problem or failure rate of earlier models.
IIRC...

Best,
DG

 

[AntonLargiader]

I think your coil is fine.

The ICU fires the coil by pulsing power across the two input terminals. 12V "charges" the coil and when the power is interrupted the coil will fire the plugs. You can test this at the coil itself, and then you can also test it at the 3-pin connector for the canister, which will test both the ICU and the coil. I don't remember what pins you use on the 3-pin connector to do the latter, but it will be easy enough to look up. You don't use external power for that, you just jumper one pin to another (with the key on of course).

I suspect you will get a spark when you test at the coil.

If the test at the 3-pin connector doesn't give a spark, that points to a bad ICU. If it does, then you may have a bad canister.