QuestionI'm not sure if you answer questions on Honda dirt bikes or just motorcycles, but I thought you might be able to give some suggestions even if you don't specialize in dirt bikes.
I have a 1987 Honda XR200R that I've been having some very frustrating problems with. I spent a few weeks fixing it up and had it working quite good for a month or two. Started first kick, ran smooth, idled ok, in general worked fine (for my experience level anyway).
Anyway the bike out of nowhere wouldn't start. I realized there was hardly any spark. It was quite weak and intermittent, about 3 random sparks every 10 kicks when I test it. After a long time of messing around with it I realized it was the STATOR COIL. The big main bolt had backed off and was things were obviously too loose, I tightened it according to the shop manual's specs. Problem solved? Yes! Started second kick, drove it around a field, problem solved! Tried it again the next day, worked great! I was absolutely certain the problem was solved. The spark was brighter than it ever was before and consistent, nice fat spark every kick.
..or so I thought. I was going to take it for a spin today, the thing would not start. Tried for two hours looking over wires to make sure nothing pulled out, checked gas flow, swapped "ignition coils", new spark plug. Then I realized there was no spark 75% of the time again! Argh! I checked and the bolt on the Stator was still tight.
I'm at a loss for ideas now, because I was very sure the loose stator bolt was the problem. I checked the resistance of the stator coil with a multimeter and one of the checks had a shop manual spec of 200-500 ohms, and I was getting around 150. Is this a sign of failure? The manual says anything below 200 is failure, but I don't know how reliable the readings are.
It's just very confusing to me, if the stator coil was bad, or it became damaged somehow by being loose, how could I start it with ease and drive around a field for 30 minutes and have no problems just to try it the next day and have such a bad spark and a dead bike? Is that normal? If the stator was bad, wouldn't there be NO spark at all?
Also.. someone knocked over my bike the night before and never picked it up, it was lying on its side for almost 12 hours. I don't know if this would hurt it or not, since it's not as heavy as a large motorcycle, but I did an oil change just incase gas mixed with the oil and it didn't help.
Any suggestions? Thank you.
AnswerRob, the low resistance indicates the coils are shorted internally. The insulation on the wires has broken down and the copper wires are touching each other. That type of a failure can happen anytime. It could be age related, vibration temperature or any one of a number of causes that can result in the coils to short out. The shorted coils will reduce the spark output.
Regards
Rich
