Motorcycle Repair: CDI unit, primary winding, quadrunner

Question
I have 98 lt-f500fw quadrunner 4x4,only have 3 volts going to ignition coil,traced wire back to cdi,4 wires at the plug of cdi ,2 of them read 12 volts,1 is ground and the other goes straight to the coil with only 3 volts.I just hate to purchase this costly electrical item without being 100%. does the cdi sound like the problem or is there another check i could perform before replacing it.

Answer
Hi Mitch,

I agree, those parts are way too expensive. I know what the dealers pay. The mark-up is enormous, but thats business.

There should be 12 VDC to the ignition coil primary winding. Have you removed the spark plug, grounded it to the engine, and watched for spark as the engine turns over? If so, describe the appearance of the spark. If not, try this and advise.

With CDI's and TCI's the usual dealership shop method for testing is to replace it with a known good unit. This is a luxury of a dealership. We would remove a unit from a floor model or from the parts dept. (Someone will buy the parts department test unit someday).

Try "www.atvfrontier.com" and post the same question there.

Respectfully,
Mark Shively