Scooterotica

I went through 2 indian Cdi"s on the c2c the other week and ended up with a new Italin one from which has been fine until this afternoon when it died on me as I was accelerating away from a junction. No spark again I"ve still got to try another Cdi when I get it back home.

I got chatting to someone at the c2c who seemed to think there was anissue with 120 watt BGM stators frying cdi's, anyone else heard of this?

I've had a BGM 120W on mine for over 3000 miles, no frying so far...
this with a Ducati CDI unit.
all the wiring ok around there ??

Hi Jarv, yea, I don't really buy into the frying idea, it was something a guy I met up in Robinhoods Bay, he seemed adamant that indian cdi's couldn't cope with the high output from the 120 Watt BGM stators, it didn't seem prudent to point out that the lighting and ignition coils are completely seperate but I did resolve to try to find a Ducatti cdi the following day which I did with no problem. Also, that engine is my Mugello out of the other scoot which has the indian cdi which came with the electronic ignition kit I bought off ebay about 5 years ago and is still going strong. That cdi is mounted on a flexible bracket rather than directly to the frame and I've wondered before if vibration might me a factor in prematyure cdi failure.

All fine until yesterday when it just cut out dead with no spark. Thinking about it a bit, the other 2 failures were only apparent on re-starting i.e. the first one when In stopped after the forst 50 miles on the way up to Whitby and the 2nd when I tried to re-start it after I got to my B&B. Yeterday it just died, thought it had gone onto reserve at first

I;m now wondering if a wire has fallen off on the stator, I'll check it out with a meter when I get it out off my neibours trailor.

cheer

Have you tried the 'fried' cdi's in a working bike?
I only ask because a mate of mine had no spark - We fitted a brand new Indian cdi and it started- sorted...or so we thought, a few minutes later, it died and refused to start again, I put my ducat cdi on and it was ok again, so we took the replacement cdi back, got it swapped and refitted that...we couldn't start the bloody thing again, it turned out to be the pickup

Now I don't know if it was coincidence that when we swapped the cdi's the pick up worked or the fact that there was a new bit electickety added that made the pick up magically work albeit temporarily.

I guess what I'm saying is maybe the cdi is a red herring and your problem lies elsewhere?

You could well be right Dazza, I havent thrown the other 2 duds out but I don't have a working bike to try them on at the moment

We had pretty much exact same symptoms on one of our club members scoots
Knocking cdi's out left right and center
Think either the pick up or low tension coil was changed and this sorted it.
Indian stator by the way
CHEERS AL

Update,

I tested the stator with my meter on ohms and all the readings were there or there abouts so took the known good cdi off my LiS and bingo, we have sparks :bouncing:

Looked at the Ducatti one that I'd just taken off and noticed a section of the casing sticking up. prizit open with a screwdriver and saw this

Smells of burn electronics too.

Definately wondering about vibration now, as far as I know, there aren't many components inside a CDI, HT coil, Capacitor and a SCR (silicon controlled rectifier). I reckon the only thing that would blow out a lump of plastic like that would be the capacitor and they are suseptible to vibration. Some form of flexible mount needed I think.

i can feel a rubber mounted bracket comming on

to the shed!!!

i think they are a thyristor cotrolled ignition with a capacitive discharge.

cdi = capasitor discarge ignition :smug: