desperation alley

[neverdie38]

1979 gl1000. had spark on all four plugs. took carbs off then only had spark on 3 plugs. replace the coil that had the bad plug wire. then only had spark on coill i didn't replace. had no spark on point either. traced all my wires to make sure they were correct and still had no power to point. today I switched wires around to test if i had something messed up because new coil was exactly color coded to old one. nothing came on any of it. i put coil wires back to what I had before. suddenly i had no spark on either coil or point. then the capacitor started smoking! needless to say I am about to burn it to the ground. I just want it to work

[BRUMBEAR]

sumtin is wrong but I can't see that happening unless the wires were wrong and what Capacitor are you talking about?

[neverdie38]

im 99% sure wires are correct because if i change them then the starter button does not engage. there is a white box next to coils. i saw on wiring diagram that it is a capacitor

[BRUMBEAR]

I gotta say a Cap will go bad but usually something is shorting to cause it. Please check your fuses and this may sound funny but make sure you didn't hook up the battery backwards it is a common mistake in MC's. I am not sure about how the ign is set up on the gold wing but key on coils should be hot if not start goin backwards. The electronic ign should only trigger the coils to fire. I am wondering if it's a ballast resistor?

[neverdie38]

i've heard about the ballast resistor but not sure where it is or ever heard of one before haha i've never had or worked on a goldwing before so i may have to bite it and send to someone who has

[Johnj]

First do you have a service manual for this bike?
Second do you have a DVM or digital volt meter and know how to use it?

[neverdie38]

no to manual and i do have multimeter, just don't know how to use it 100%

[Johnj]

You will need a service manual to hunt down electrical problems on your bikes. Because the wiring diagram shows what readings should be where on the bike. Like you should have 12 volts on one side of all your coils, all the time. And you need to know how to use that DVM.