Author Topic: bandit 400 troubles ignition  (Read 3006 times)

Offline sebamax2

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bandit 400 troubles ignition
« on: July 26, 2012, 01:41:07 PM »
ello everybody i cdnt find a new member welcome link so i decided to say hi to everybody here.

i have some serious problem ith my bandit. i have bought the bike and the guy said it needs top emgine rebuild so recentyly i have swaped the engine woth a 92 gsx400f engine. same engine just diff oil pan. my bandits model is gsf400p 1994. well with the old engine there was a spark all the time. right now when i swaped the engines the spark sometime shows up and most of the time aint there. i have swaped what i think was a pulse generator from the old engine (left hand side cover) and no luck still the same and i just dont know what to do. i chave checked all the wires a milion times. sorry for jumping straight into my problems but i want to get it going before the summer runs out.

Offline stormi

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Re: bandit 400 troubles ignition
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2012, 03:21:45 PM »
Hi!  Welcome to the alley. 

When checking out your registration, I came across this link, it will help others out to see what you've already done.
(Don't feel bad, I do it with a lot of our registrations, it's part of the reason that it takes some time to approve members here)
http://www.banditforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=50726.0

After reading it, yes I read all of it, I would strongly recommend that you put all of the parts that belong to each engine back together exactly how you found them, and start from a known position.

The engine you bought on ebay was sold as working, correct? If that's the case, until you have tested compression, it's best to assume that's correct, especially because it looks like you bought it from a mechanic / former  mechanic. 

I'm also not positive that both engines can share the same ignitor.  The part numbers being different indicates to me that the "timing" of the ignitions may be a little different, but that's something better answered by someone who's done an engine swap.  We (the other half and I) have only done a remove, refresh and replace.

As for your battery and charging, are you charging this new battery on 6v or 12v?  It's a 12v battery, it should be charged at 12v. ( my other half once tried charging the B4's battery on 6v til he realised his mistake.  A shame too, because we wouldn't have bought a 6v charger if he'd realised earlier.   :rofl:)  Since you're completely killing the battery, then trickle charging, it may not be getting a full charge between starting sessions.  Start simple.  Can you charge it faster with another charger (or set yours to full charge instead of trickle charging) to ensure that it's fully charged?

Also, I noticed that no one on the other forum mentioned that you can boost a bike with a car, but you must never have the car running.  Was the car running any of the times that you boosted the bike? Having the car running while boosting supplies way too much power to the bike.  This can ruin parts like the ignitor.  It -may- be the source of your new issues, but I would strongly suggest that you test it first before racing out to get another one.

Now some general help.   

This project will end up being a huge source of frustration and a severe lightening on your wallet and shortening your riding season if you continue the way you have been.

I understand that you're very enthusiastic to get this bike running.  I respect that.  But you need to slow down and walk first.  You took on a huge project for a layperson. (non-mechanic) Most of the time, I would recommend that a newbie start with a known good running bike, and learn about it as it throws new issues at you, and trust me, a 20 year old bike will throw interesting challenges your way
regularly.  That's the main reason we exist here.  Since we're well past that point already, we'll help you to the best of our long-distance ability. Any photos you can supply will be very helpful.  This is because we may be able to spot something that you didn't know to mention, and because it really is true, a picture says a thousand words.

My best recommendation for this forum, since we are fairly quiet these days, is to make sure that you do what some of our seniors suggest, and only what they suggest.  When someone suggests checking the ignitor, they mean use the service manual and go through the tests to make sure you can isolate the problem, not change out the "pulse generator", stator and buy a new ignitor.  If you go changing a bunch of things without it being recommended, it makes it incredibly hard to troubleshoot, and frustrating for the people helping you.  You may find that some will not come back to help.  At this point you need our help, and we're offering it freely, please respect the time and energy that we're putting into this for you.

I noticed that in the UK forum that you mentioned that you're essentially a mechanical newbie as far as electrical systems and "bigger bikes" and such go. (I assume by that that you have some experience with dirtbike like bikes.)  There are excellent tests in the factory service manual, and they're fairly straight forward.  We will often recommend one or more of them to you.  If you don't understand something, please ask, one of us will help you through it.  I believe from the uk thread that you do have a multimeter now, yes?  One small thing I disagree with from the other forum is that amps is a necessary test, not just for the "eleccy-geek".  That may have something to do with my charging issues with my own B4 though.  I use the amps setting on my multimeter quite often.

Get a torque wrench.  One of your questions on the UK forum was if something needed to be put on with a particular torque.  General rule of thumb?  With an engine, yes.  Everything should be put on with a torque wrench.  There are torque values at the front of each section of the manual.  They're there for a reason.  Over or under tightening can cause more issues you don't want to introduce.

Try to find a friend who knows bikes.  Buy them a keg of beer.  This project is now this big.  (Don't let them drink til after they're done for the day though.  Trust me on that one.)  Let them help you learn.  Some things will be easier to learn / see in person if you have that option.

Other than that, welcome.  Hopefully we can get you up and running so you can enjoy that little machine, and it can start doing what it was designed for again.
stormi

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Offline tomacGTi

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Re: bandit 400 troubles ignition
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2012, 09:16:32 AM »
-Ohm out the pickup coil on the LH side of the motor, if not within specs, replace. This sends the signal for the coils to fire via the igniter. These go bad often enough, the bikes are damn near 20 years old now.

-You sure you have the right signal generator/igniter for your bike in the first place?

-Did this thing run before you got it?

-Ohm out your coils as well as make sure the spades are in good shape

Try that, I'm betting it's the pickup coil on the cover.

Offline sebamax2

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Re: bandit 400 troubles ignition
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2012, 10:09:43 PM »
thank you guys lately i have discovered that on the left hand side underneeth the cover the rotor wheels are different and this is probelly 90% of the foult with the inregural spark. i guess the igniter was programed differently for different rotors. http://www.banditforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=50726.msg537029#new

here is a link to uk forum showing the differences between my rotors, whats your opinion guys?