Post by: Drew400 on February 06, 2020, 04:44:48 PM
In the last year I have had two or three occasions when the bike wouldn't start after a few weeks in my garage (dry & heated and battery mate used constantly). The cause = no spark. So off with the timing cover on the assumption of condensation. On the first occasion that was enough to sort it. Fine.
On the second occasion, I ended up removing the blue & yellow wires that attach to the stator plate. Touching them together with the ignition on forced a spark and, after re-fitting, the bike fired/ran with no problem.
This time (lovely warm February day tempted me out to test my new helmet) all suited and booted but no spark. Off with the timing cover, etc. This time still no spark after the previous exercises so I contacted Boyer Bransden. They replied almost immediately (that's always a good sign).
Their first tip was use an ordinary hair dryer to warm the ignition unit that resides under the seat. So I borrowed my wife's hair dryer and, hey presto, big spark and the bike running fine again.
I don't know of any blokes who own their own hair dryer, but I'm going to become one, if only to keep in my garage.
I couldn't see any evidence of this being posted before suspect I'm not the only one to have experienced this 'phenomenon'.
PS - I rang Boyer Bransden to ask why this worked. They said something about chemicals in the capacitors responding to heat. Fair enough!
Post by: Tomb on February 06, 2020, 05:05:23 PM
I don't know of any blokes who own their own hair dryer, but I'm going to become one, if only to keep in my garage.
A lot of us have an old hair dryer for softening carb rubber and the like, I certainly don't need for my head, razor does that and saves on paying barbers ;D
Post by: Drew400 on February 06, 2020, 05:08:37 PM
Post by: SteveW on February 06, 2020, 05:15:17 PM
Never heard that before and I’ve been an electronics engineer since 1984.
Post by: hairygit on February 06, 2020, 05:16:31 PM
Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk
Post by: Drew400 on February 06, 2020, 05:41:26 PM
Post by: mike the bike on February 06, 2020, 05:45:24 PM
Post by: Drew400 on February 06, 2020, 05:46:14 PM
Post by: Sprocket on February 10, 2020, 11:27:12 AM
Chemicals in capacitors responding to heat?
Never heard that before and I’ve been an electronics engineer since 1984.
Really? This is pretty much my go-to when dealing with anything old that suddenly stopped working....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Post by: Drew400 on February 10, 2020, 11:35:32 AM
Post by: AshimotoK0 on February 10, 2020, 12:23:50 PM
Chemicals in capacitors responding to heat?
Never heard that before and I’ve been an electronics engineer since 1984.
Really? This is pretty much my go-to when dealing with anything old that suddenly stopped working....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Depends on the type of capacitor but if they are talking chemicals then I would think they mean wet type electrolytic capacitors and the chemicals are the electrolyte. Normally heat is bad news for electrolytics as it 'dries out' the electrolyte (they usually swell with excessive heat). So I can't think why heat would improve their performance paricularly. The problem with electrolytics is usually a long term period without being powered up and it is common to revive this by re-application of voltage, not by applying heat.However, replacement is the proper course of action but not possible on a potted module like the BB system control module. My BB 400/4 potted electronics module was on the bike when I bought it 35 years ago (and it was a good few years old then my the looks of it) , so if they do contain electrolytic caps then I consider that bad news and think it's time to ditch it and go back to the good old points type 'Kettering' ignition system that Mr. Honda provided.
Post by: Drew400 on February 10, 2020, 12:38:09 PM