coil questions

[Mick77]

My bike ( 91 B4 ) just quit the other day.  Took off, got up to 4k in 1st,  then zero power. I get no spark from any cylinder, i sent my cdi to an electronic engineer friend who says he'll replace the caps in it for me.   I'm reading posts on my lunch break, and i see the words "pickup coil" .... are there coils AND a pickup coil?  I'm a bit lost here, is it the same thing and people are calling it different things, or is there a part on there that i HAVENT seen yet... (thought i'd seen them all by now, freakin' finicky old B4)  Just thought I'd ask.  *side note: Engineer friend tested caps and said they check out, but he'd replace them anyway.... NOW WHAT?

[GK75A]

check the wiring coming from left side-casing, mine got brittle over time ans snapped. cost a few quid for a soldering iron

[Mick77]

Unless I can take off the side cover and check under there for frays and breaks everything looks fine.  I'd take it off, but i'm not sure if there's fluid behind that and I don't want to go buy a new gasket just to find everything's ok under there.  Traced the wires coming out and everything looks to be in order all the way to the rectifier. 

What is a "pickup coil"?  Still working on picking up a multimeter, so between now and then, what else should I check?  All fuses are good, by the way.

[erik]

Have you got the manual? The pickup coil is the same as the signal generator in the manual. It says to "Measure the resistance between lead wires. If the resistance is infinity or less than the specifications, the signal generator must be replaced."
Specifications are 80-120ohms.

You don't need to take the cover off to check the resistance and yes, there is oil behind there.

Are you checking the sparks correctly? since each coil is connected to two sparkplugs, one of the plugs has to be in place with the lead on and you have to ground the body of the other one to the frame/engine (although maybe not the cam cover, I'm not sure how well grounded it is) to get a spark. Alternatively, I think it would work if you removed the 2 sparkplugs for one coil, connected the bodies together and then checked. The circuit has to go from one plug lead, jump the gap in one plug, then through the engine block, jump the gap in the other plug and back to the coil (as I understand it).

[Mick77]

Thank you for clearing up the Pickup coil question for me.  I am doing the spark test correctly, and no sparky on either coil.  I tested plugs 1&2.  HOpefully my cdi will come back to me in the next few days, and if that doesnt work, i will start testing everything. 

Now... is the pickup coil IN oil, or is it separated?  Seems to me like it would be separate.  Just thought I'd ask.  I have the PDF manual somewhere on disk.....somewhere.

[erik]

It's splashed by oil but not submerged in it. Here's a photo from the 2nd to last  time I had that engine cover off:



if I remember right, I was able to remove the cover without spilling oil by leaning the bike to the right a bit. Obviously have to be pretty careful to avoid it falling over.

[Mick77]

That looks like it couldn't be too hard.  I hope to not have to do it, but your pics showed me exactly what I wanted to know... what a pickup coil is and where it is located.  Thanks again for taking the time to post those for me.  Hopefully, when I get my cdi box back the bike will fire right up... if not, this thread will grow more