Motorcycle Repair: 86 honda vt500 no spark, honda vt500, crank sensor

Question
sory every body else is maxed out I just bought a 86 vt500 shadow i am not getting any spark at any of the plugs coils have power all fuses good power comes into the cdi box(12v) but no power coming out which means no power going to the crank sensor on the left side.this is my second bike ive owned so im not very god at trouble shooting. any ideas would be helpful.  thank you

Answer
Kris, go to http://www.powersportspro.com/partsfish/login/
and signup, select HONDA, VT500 and then pulse generator.

I am not a complete expert on CDIs, but the process is a little different than you may be thinking. The pulse generator creates a timing signal that goes to the CDI box, which then calculates the timing for the coils.

Pulse generator failures are fairly common in many motorcycles due to their location.. near the crankshaft, where all the heat is. Disconnnect the wire coming up and put a volt meter to see if it is generating a small voltage signal. If it is, then the CDI box may be bad.

I punched in VT500 CDI at EBAY and got several sources for used parts.

Try to bypass the KILL SWITCH temporarily or measure the switch with a meter to see if it is working properly.

A little outline of CDIs can be seen here:
http://www.dansmc.com/cdiignition.htm

Bill Silver