Thanks again for the info guys, going to take the bike for a long ride in the next couple of days with the ignition switch set to the headlight position and see what happens!

Thanks Bob.

Well I've been looking for an Aussie Supplier for a new 'Electronic Ignition Switch' and I can't find one?

Does anyone know where in OZ I can get one? I've googled it a dozen times and 'NO' Aussie suppliers come up, I'd rather buy my bits here than from the US, but when there's
no one here supplying what you want well what can you do! Even the Harley shops here don't have an 'Online Shop' were you can check out what you want, it's bloody ridicules.

If someone has the money to open up something like the US supplier 'JP Cycles' here in OZ they'll make a killing, nearly everyone on this site shops online in the US, so why don't we have the ability to have something here (preferably not some US company opening a branch here but an all OZ operation).

That's it, had my gripe for the day now I'm happy again.

Go to the top of the page sponsors Easy r or rolies or vpw Or griffin but you gotta remember if thay don't have it in stock it's normally ex USA.

Easy r $39.55 inc post eBay Aus electronic type made by mid that's all I've used in the past u can get them out of the
USA for about $22 + the difference + post but I only bother when your spending more than few hundred or multpull
Items from one shop than u save on the post

Got it, thanks perthhog for the info.

Thanks Dave I'm heading down to Melbourne soon so I'll drop in to CNC and have a chat with them and get some new breakers, like you said the old ones are 27yrs old and even if they're okay now I reckon they can't last much longer, and as you said better to be safe than sorry.

Well got the new ignition switch so decided to change the old one out, turns out that the old one was a new type switch after all, but found that one of the connections on the backside of the switch had come lose where someone had pushed to hard on the screw trying to tighten a connection wire and they'd pushed the alloy plate off the copper connection pole, and it was the wire that went to the 'Start Relay', so you beaut thought I'd found my problem. But after cleaning up the connections and installing the new ignition switch I started the bike and straight away it started backfiring again, and it also cut out again and when I went to restart it it backfired as soon as I hit the start button before it was even turning over.

So I guess I'm back to replacing the Sensor, Module and Coil, what a pain in the arse.

Dave if you read this can you tell me if I fit the Hi4N set up is the Module in the 'Nose Cone' with the sensor, and if so does that mean I can leave old module where it is?

Someone has put a Screaming Eagle Module on the bike at some stage and it's fitted under the oil tank?

early s/tails had them  under da oil tank , we just use to cut off da wire's & leave it there because it's too hard to get to, then just fit up a nosecone style ign system , ya can allways get to da module @ a later date when da oil tank is out for some other job , 

Yep sounds like a plan to me, don't feel like pulling off the back wheel and guard or the oil tank to remove it so I guess it's gonna have to stay there for a while, looked at the destructions for the Hi4N and yes you're right Dave it all looks pretty straight forward, but you know what they say 'If it's got wings, wheels or tits its gonna give you trouble'! Plus some of the things I've found around the bike since I've had it make it obvious that the last person that worked on it wasn't too particular about how things were done.

I am not upto speed on the older bikes, but this video is around your vintage ,, and some ignition components you seem to be installing .... May be of some help ... Cheers

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OUbNoEqshg

Something very sus going on here. Previously you said it would run ok in the "headlight"key position but not now with the new switch? 

Still could be the Ignition breaker , kill switch on the bars or associated ignition system wiring shorting out somewhere. Why don't you try "hot wiring " the bike before spending your hard eaned cash on stuff you may not need. It is a simple test that cost's nothing and will prove to you its not one or more of those three things giving you the shits. 

All you have to do is make a small jumper cable up and run it from the positive battery terminal direct to the positive terminal on the coil(should be the centre terminal on your single fire coil). You now have ignition power direct to the coil and have bypassed all that other shit in the ignition power circuit that could be giving you grief. Be awhere that you now will not be able to turn the motor off when it starts without removing that jumper cable.

 Now hit the starter button and see if she will run properly. If not you have proved there's nothing wrong with the ignition power circuit and can start looking elsewhere.

Next simple thing to look at is the condition of the earth lead terminal that comes from the ignition module. It should be screwed under the same bolt that the battery terminal negative is bolted too(under the seat). Check the battery earth terminal eye while your at it.

Next thing to do would be a resistance check with an ohm meter on the primary and secondary windings in the coils(remember you have two coils in a single fire system) . You may want to heat them with a hairdrier while doing this to simulate heat from the engine. When they get hot is when they start shitting themselves sometimes.  I have no idea what those values should be because I have no idea what aftermaket coils are fitted. Standard Harley duel fire is 2.5-3.1 Ohms for the primary and 11250-13750 Ohms for the secondary.

Next would be resistance checks on the pickup sensor and the ignition module.

All this stuff is easy to do and may just save you spending your hard eaned cash on stuff you don't need. A new coil is what, 150 bucks? Thats a long way from an ignition module at around 450. 

Relax, crack a can of piss and start poking around with it. You may be surprised that its something simple. If you take it to a bike shop, get your wallet ready!! Those guys will do exactly what I just explained to you to try to find whats wrong with it...and charge the fuck outa ya!!

Cheers

 

 

Yep you're dead right Flyer I did say it ran fine 'the other day' when I switched the ignition onto the headlight position, and when I found the dicky connection on the back of the ignition switch I thought for sure I had found the answer to my problem! But as I said at the very start of the thread 'It's an intermittent fault', good one day, shit the next, and from experience these types of faults are the most difficult to isolate, simply because of the fact that one day it will function perfectly, and the next day it's running like a pig.

But thanks for the suggestions, and yes I have already carried out some of the things that you've mentioned, and as far as the resistance tests go, the Harley manual lays all of these out for you, but the trouble is that you're suppose to use the 'Harley Multimeter' and if you don't have a 'Harley Multimeter' then I have no idea what the resistance levels should be on some of the tests using my multimeter either?

Like has been suggested previously, I'm going to replace the 'cheapest' parts first to see if that fixes it, and if it doesn't then I guess I'll be up for a new module and coil, we'll see what happens, thanks again everyone for your help and suggestions, really great to be able to ask experienced guys about these problems and have them take the time to help you out.

See if ya can borrow a module and coil just to try

Yeah thanks for the suggestion Chopa but I already did that and it ran ok for a while and then it started doing the same thing which is the reason that I am trying all of the other shit connected with the ignition.

If it's got wings, wheels or tits, it'll give you problems!

Are you sure all of this is ignition related and not fouling plugs from a rich mixture. Ah well something else to think about anyway seen this problem before that's all.

Yeah I considered this and that's why I pulled the carby and cleaned and inspected it, but if it was the plugs being fouled then it'd be happening all the time, and like I said before sometimes the bikes just runs perfectly, and switching the ignition off and back on wouldn't clear a fouled plug?

Once a plug is fouled it is almost impossible to unfoul them by just a engine running , an less thay have been removed
Cleaned by sand blasting or solvents or burnt with flame I would replace them this could be one of your on going problems

Ok makes sense about the ignition on off I missed it.
Perthhog I find that with ngk plugs but others like bosch champion etc They come good on there own without an issue.I always used to piss off the ngk plugs before tuning a car because of fowling and completely failing on rich mixtures and never had an issue with the others.Once tuned properly I could put the ngk back in and not have a problem.

Well I wouldn't use Bosch plugs in my lawn mower let alone anything else ,there one of the worst s/plugs made
Everything else Bosch make is good stuff And like I said before plugs can't unfoul themselves and ngk make the best plugs
In the world than champion than Nippon denso