Hi, first post, hope I can contribute after I finish this sled. I am in the process of replacing crank seals in my recently acquired '80 Trailfire 340, just preventative maintenance. The sled has unknown history but seems to be in overall good shape. Anyways, I currently have the the bottom end apart on this sled i just need to finish cleaning everything and start reassembly. I did verify that the sled started and ran before tearing it down but I did not verify working lights. The headlight plug was melted and headlight missing when I picked this up, otherwise all wiring visually looks ok. The sled had good consistent spark so I'm not worried about pulser/exciter coils now but question the lighting coil... I have the stator out and "bench tested" it quick. If anything is wrong with the "Alternator" I'd like to fix it before I put the engine back in.
Lighting coil resistance from yellow to yellow wire is .7 ohms tested with a good meter, seemed to vary a bit (.5-.9) with temp change. I just went off a wiring diagram in a service manual for yellow/yellow... I could not find a resistance spec for this sled but did find a spec. for another Kawi 340 and it was 0.14ohms-ish...
Do I possibly have a bad lighting coil or should I just run it? Thanks in advance for any help.
One cause of all the lights not working is that all the bulbs are burned out. This would indicate a bad voltage regulator or one that is unhooked.
Another all lights not working cause could be that the circuit is shorted out to ground somewhere in the harness. A short can be anywhere and it will affect the entire system.
Or it could be that the maim harness has an open in it and that means no voltage to the bulbs. Seams that mice are attracted to wires and love to gnaw on them.
A few minutes spent with an meter should answer these questions. And a close examination of the entire wiring harness may reveal the problem.
One area to look closely at is the melted headlight connector you mentioned. If the ground and high or low wire have melted insulation and thus a short you will have no taillight or gauge lights.
Other suspect areas are the taillight wire under the seat board. Seem many of these rubbed bare and shorted to the tunnel.
Also look at the harness near the muffler/exhaust. The heat transfer can melt the insulation there real quick.
It may help to temporarily disconnect any optional electric loads like hand warmers to troubleshoot.
JDT wrote:Couple of things to consider with this problem...
Thanks for your reply. I am aware of what else can cause the lights not to work, sorry for not being clear. They may work just fine! I did not test and shouldn't have a problem fixing an external issue.
Since I have the stator out: I'm just wondering if the resistance of the lighting coil is ok? Does anyone know the spec. for this sled?
I cannot find any of the coil resistance specs in any John Deere shop manuals...?
Kawasaki lists them in their shop manuals....the 1980 fan cooled 340 Drifter shows the lighting coil should be 0.18 ohm....plus or minus 20 percent.
You probably know it's best to check the coils when they are near room temperature.
I am just guessing that the same coils were in the Trailfire.
Since I have the manual open, the exciter coil should be 160 ohm, (red to ground) and the pulsar coil 17 ohm, (red to white)..both plus or minus 20 percent....if you want to check them. If both of those check out within range, we could GUESS that Kawasaki used the same ones in the Trailfire, which makes your lighting coil sound a little high.
rminier wrote:I cannot find any of the coil resistance specs in any John Deere shop manuals...?
Kawasaki lists them in their shop manuals....the 1980 fan cooled 340 Drifter shows the lighting coil should be 0.18 ohm....plus or minus 20 percent.
You probably know it's best to check the coils when they are near room temperature.
I am just guessing that the same coils were in the Trailfire.
Since I have the manual open, the exciter coil should be 160 ohm, (red to ground) and the pulsar coil 17 ohm, (red to white)..both plus or minus 20 percent....if you want to check them. If both of those check out within range, we could GUESS that Kawasaki used the same ones in the Trailfire, which makes your lighting coil sound a little high.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Rick. I could not find any resistance spec in the JD shop manual either, I was only able to find the spec for a '79 Drifter online. I appreciate you posting the specs for the other coils, when I get a chance I will check them. I agree that the resistance of this coil sounds a bit high. Since this coil isn't opened or shorted I'm temped to try it but it would be nice to put this together knowing the stator is good. New crank seals are in and I would like to reinstall engine back in sled as soon as I get time (might be awhile). I will do a little more checking...
rminier wrote:1980 fan cooled 340 Drifter shows the lighting coil should be 0.18 ohm....plus or minus 20 percent.
You probably know it's best to check the coils when they are near room temperature.
I am just guessing that the same coils were in the Trailfire.
Since I have the manual open, the exciter coil should be 160 ohm, (red to ground) and the pulsar coil 17 ohm, (red to white)..both plus or minus 20 percent....if you want to check them. If both of those check out within range, we could GUESS that Kawasaki used the same ones in the Trailfire, which makes your lighting coil sound a little high.
Thanks again for posting those specs rminier. I just compared those to this Trailfire quick while I had my Fluke handy. Exciter coil resistance came out to 286 ohm, Pulsar 22.5 ohn, and .5 on the lighting coil at room temp. At this point I'm under a time crunch to get this thing going for a little event so I'm just going to slap in the complete stator I have and run it. If lighting coil is bad its not the end of the world, will just have to replace it later.
Just a quick update or /thread; sled is back together with all working lights and electric start. That stator with a lighting coil resistance of .5 ohms seems to work just fine. Sled runs well but starts hard, will look into that when I have time...
I am in the process of replacing crank seals in my recently acquired '80 Trailfire 340, just preventative maintenance. The sled has unknown history but seems to be in overall good shape. Anyways, I currently have the the bottom end apart on this sled i just need to finish cleaning everything and start reassembly. I did verify that the sled started and ran before tearing it down but I did not verify working lights. The headlight plug was melted and headlight missing when I picked this up, otherwise all wiring visually looks ok. The sled had good consistent spark so I'm not worried about pulser/exciter coils now but question the lighting coil... I have the stator out and "bench tested" it quick. If anything is wrong with the "Alternator" I'd like to fix it before I put the engine back in.