Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge HELP! Ignition Control Unit

hey all. looks like my ignition control unit has gone. but the shop hasn't got one to fault find with. So I have had to leave it in Canberra and catch a train home 7 hr trip. :-( I don't suppose anyone in OZ has one spare I could borrow. I told the shop to leave it till January. as i can't afford a new one. We have tried everything else. It is cheaper to leave the bike and come back and get it than ship it home. What a crock. Anyway any help would be appreciated.

Hi Ken,

Sorry to read about your CDI taking a dump. I moved your post here to the lounge for better visibility. Hopefully someone will be able to loan you a CDI so you can get your bike home!

Hi Ken
I have a spare CDI you can borrow,
I'm in Sydney so just send me a PM and we can sort it out.
Cheers Peter

Not ALL of us have "Spares", but MOST of us CAN RELATE!

That was awesome. That's why I love this site. It's "real".

Well Done! You have my respect Peter.

Well I bought a Procom unit thinking that was the problem with the bike running like crap.I tried everything That i thought was wrong with it not seeing a crack in the rubber manifold as I'm running pods the carbs must have been shaking and caused it to crack.Bought the new manifolds and the bracket to hold them still,problem fixed hence the spare CDI.

I've pm'ed Pete. However, apparently the early models (2001) ran a different type to the later ones. I think the post factory fire ones.Anyone ever hear of this? Eurotunes in Canberra were also trying to borrow one from Triumph. But no luck yet. Anyway, words just arent enough sometimes. But thanks anyway.

It would help to know what year Pete's bike is, and whether or not the spare he's offering is the old stock CDI or the new Procom. Pete?

My bike is the same year as yours Ken and they ran them Cdis for a few years No 1291100 so it will work,I' using the Procom on mine.

The earlier igniter units were slightly different to the later ones, not in the way they work, but physically. If you look at the unit from the front, the earlier units had a rectangular lump sticking out of the potting resin on the front left hand side.

Any 270 igniter unit will work on any 270 engine, but if you use an 865 igniter on a bike with performance cams (790 or 813's), you will not get the performance you were hoping for as there is far more ignition advance required for the hotter cams.

Got the the unit off Pete and no go. So, what do you do when your bike breaks down in Canberra and you leave it there with a friendly bikeshop? You wait 3 weeks till they tell you they dont know whats wrong with it and so you tell them to put it back together and you will come down and get it. Then, regardless of a bad feeling you go. Then you get to the bike shop and the clutch on the ute goes. Well, you leave them there catch a bus home and wonder where the hell you are going to get the money. Yay 2013!! So no car, no bike, no job. I stood up on new years eve and told 2012 where to go. Looks like it didn't listen.

So, you've tried an alternative igniter unit and still no go. What else has been checked? You say the clutch has gone, that is rare, is it just the cable?

So if it's not the ignitor here's some suggestions what it could be ...

1. Sidestand cut-out switch
2. Clutch cut-out switch
3. Neutral gearbox cut-out switch
4. Ignition switch (shorts out behind the keys)
5. Fuse or fuse box (don't just visually check the fuses, you gotta check the continuity in the fuse box)
6. Loose earth lead on the battery.
7. Starter relay

Others may have more suggestions. It's fairly easy to check most of these and don't just assume the bike shop checked them all because they may not know about them all - especially the cut-out-switches. Hard to check from a distance but perhaps you could talk to the bike shop and double check they checked all those things.

Bummer about the clutch on your ute.

And here I was thinking LUCAS, "the prince of darkness" was dead and buried.

I feel sorry for you Ken.

Yeah. But this list looks worse than it is. Problems with these things is pretty rare but I thought in the circumstances Ken could do with an exhaustive list of possibilities.

How did it go with the bike Ken?