Re: Possible bd CDI (ignition) unit
Yea I ran into that site the other day. Cleaned all the connections as suggested and still didn't solve the problem.
Didn't see anything on checking the CDI though.
How about this site? I know is a Yamaha Vision bike, but it is close in most respects. To bad we don't have as good a site for our bikes.
http://www.jetav8r.com/Vision/IgnitionFAQ.html
I just finished having a problem with mine Max running on only 3 cylinders. the rear right one was cold and the power was way down. All the diagnostics from the manual showed good. I had the spark plug wires off, and spark plug out multiple times, couldn't easily swap coils or wires cause the wires are the Nology and are tethered with ground wires and the bolt was a pain to get to. The coils were modified cause the Previous Owner added T-Boost and (sadly) affected the connectors. So, I jumped to the conclusion that it must be that TCI (Not CDI!) box in the middle of the neck area and dug in. Got the box unscrewed and out the left side and disconnected the plugs. The thing looks very much like a computer hard drive. I unscrewed the 4 small screws to get the top off, to find it is glued on too. I took a sharp chisel and rubber hammer and smacked it all along the seam (knowing that these things are $400-500 new) and got the top off, mostly on the seam. I found I was looking at the back of the circuit board with the box connectors going thru the box and solidly soldered onto the board with 18 pins. Undaunted, and without a solder sucker, I figured that if I blew compressed air across the board after melting the solder, that I would suck out the solder and blow it away (using Bernoulli's principle). Didn't work, sprayed melted solder into the corner and everywhere in between. I was able to clean up this mess though and made sure that no pins were directly shorted to any others. Then I got out my dremel with a cut off abrasive disk and cut the box off on the side of the connectors. Mostly melted the plastic box but not too hard to do. This uncovered an absolutely pristine board that looked like it just left the factory, but at least now I know. I did take a bunch of pictures if people would like to see more than the crappy looking boards that I saw in the web. I was able to glue the box back together (love that gorilla glue) and used GE silicon to get a waterproof seal all around. Its just as solid as it ever was, now. But the damn bike still ran on 3 jugs after I reassembled it. Damn, now what to do! I still didn't prove that the TCI board was good, just that there was no obvious damage. Then it occurred to me that it was easy to swap the rear spark plugs, so I did and it started up with all 4 cylinders running strong, whee! One other thing I did along the way was to put the battery on a charger keep it charged while I was chasing the problem, but I don't think that was significant. My charging system seems good and the battery is only 2.5 years old. It's not an Odyssey tho, I'll get one of those for the next one. So, I still need to get new spark plugs, but it's been running great for 3 days now.
Hope this helps someone, but read the site listed above. I am more knowledgeable about the technology after having read the info at the site above. Start with the simple stuff, but really, I've been wanting to rip into that TCI box for a while now. Still haven't ripped open the oil pan to check the "dreaded O-Ring popout problem". But I am iching to do that too.
Steve
