My stock and ProCom CDI, misadventures.
I’ve owned two of our Colonial Cruisers. A 2003 America, purchased new and a 2004 Speedy purchased in 2010.
In the summer of 2011 while on a journey to and from the west coast with some friends, EnglishYank, Chy and Moe the cdi on my 03 laid down in the heat of a Amarillo, TX truck stop, the bike had no fire from either cylinder. Chy with clear and calm head quickly diagnosed the problem in about two minutes. What now, 2500 miles from home on a Sunday if I recall. No problem say’s Chy I have a spare CDI in my tool bag, say what, yep I brought an extra one just in case. Well I'll be darned, talk about being prepared. I guess that made up for the spare coil I loaned him. So we made the swap and are back on the road in no time putting Amarillo and the west in our rear views. The unit got me home with no more issues.
Back home I ordered a ProCom from our good friend Eddy. Installed the booger on the 03 and could never dial it in correctly. The 03 just would not accept the ProCom. Assuming it was faulty I returned it for a replacement, in the mean time I robbed the stock unit of the 04 Speedy. Plug her in the 03 and boom, life is good, she’s happy, I’m happy. When the replacement Procom came in the speedy was still undressed so I just installed the new unit on the Speedmaster, after a few days I settled on setting 7 and the bike ran great other than a longer than normal warm up which apparently seems normal with the Procom.
Over the next couple of years the Speedmaster ran great but I started having little nagging issues with the 03 America running the Speedy stock CDI. Idling issues, harder to start, lots of popping. I’m rejetting, cleaning carbs, checking vacuum leaks, charging issues you name it. The bike has 62000 on her clock so I begin to assume she is getting tired of my ass riding her everywhere. Then it happened the CDI went belly up, the one from the 04 Speedmaster. 2002/2003/2004 where not good years for the stock cdi units.
With a bit of hesitation I ordered a ProCom from Eddy for the 03 America. Knowing her reaction from 2011 I was ready for fight but by god she would just have to accept an aftermarket unit or find herself sitting in the corner with the spider webs.
I checked the settings on the unit for the America and set it on recommended #4, pull out the choke ( Yes I know it’s not a choke), hit the button, vroom, fires right up. Sweet, button her back up and away we go, very cold natured and had to leave her choked for about 3 miles or more but she ran great and pulled strong in all gears. After a few trial and errors we’ve settled on the #6 setting, runs great, still takes a bit longer that I like to warm up but much improved over the other settings.
I’ve found over the last few weeks is I’ve gone back to the normal settings on Idle speed, pilot jets, etc. no more popping on decal just the slight gurgle we enjoy. Starts right up and runs better and stronger than it has in years.
Basically in my observation I’ve found the stock unit CDI's slowly weaken over a period of time ever so slightly it’s not really noticeable causing other issues until they crap out.
Additionally there has been lots of conversation as to why the units fail, other than not being a quality part I think ( as many have suggested) it is simply heat related and not an issue of getting wet. It’s just a bad location that could be easily corrected in production with a different wiring harness.
I’ve ended up with three of the stock units and decided to cut into one of them to see what ticks. I took my dremel tool to one of the units and what I found is the black outside is a plastic cover that is completely sealed. After spending a lot of time cutting into the unit to find another completely sealed box inside which looks to be a pored formed unit made of what looks to be a bakelite material. You old heads will recognize bakelite from radios back in the day.
In my opinion the only way water could effect this unit would be at the plug connection and not internally. A good slathering of die electric grease will address that issue.
