Motorcycle Repair: NO SPARK, honda goldwing, emery cloth


Question
I HAVE A 1976 HONDA GOLDWING GL1000 NEW BATTERY ALL LIGHTS WORK TURNS OVER GREAT WITH ELECTRIC START HAS NO SPARK AT ALL WHAT WOULD BE THE PROBLEM AND WHERE WOULD THE PROBLEM BE LOCATED YOUR HELP WOULD BE GREAT THANK YOU...

Answer
As you can imagine there are a lot of reasons for not getting spark at the plugs. The points actually ground the coil circuits and when the points open, the circuit is interrupted and the coil fire the plugs.  Here's how I'd start the troubleshooting

1. Make sure the kill switch is not on...simple but you'd be surprised how often it happens. Also look closely at the connections on the points to make sure they are not grounding out on the points or the point backing plate.
2. Take the plugs out, put them back in the boots and then lay them up against the head so they're grounded.  Clean the point faces with a points file or some fine emery cloth.  Be sure to get them clean after filing.  I usually take a piece of cardstock and put it between the points and rub it back and forth to clean the faces of the points and make sure there's not a piece of grit preventing them from grounding.  Take a screwdriver and open and close the points manually and see if there's any spark at the plug.  
3. If no spark, you'll want to make sure the black and white wire going to the coils have voltage.  So check with a volt ohm meter.
4. If you have voltage at the black and white wire at the coils and grounding and ungrounding either the blue or yellow wire doesn't cause the plug to spark, check the coil mounting location for rust or loose mounting screws.  The coil mounts have to be well grounded to the frame or they don't work.
5. Last but not least, you could have bad coils or condensers but it's unlikely that both coils would fail at the same time. If the condensers were bad the bike would run like crap but it would have spark unless there a bunch of arcing at the points when the engine is cranking over.  The condensers prevent that arcing when the point first start to open.    
6. I should have mentioned earlier, are the points opening and closing?  The point gap should be .014 in.