CDI boxes

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T

tuna boy

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About 4 years ago one spring my extremely well cared for 1100 was missing terribly and acting like it never had in 20 plus years of ownership. Milage about 20k. Noticed lots of tar like drips on the floor and with the help of this site figured out it was the CDI boxes, replaced them and problem solved. Now I have the same black tar spots and assume the boxes again. I have a few questions.
I read that you can fill the boxes with JB weld and they are good to use? If that is true why does my bike miss so terribly when the tar melts out?
When the tar melts out the boxes they must get hot because the electronics short out.
Is this just an issue because of the age of the electronics?
I think I recall reading somewhere that you were supposed to disconnect the battery from the bike when charging. I use a battery tender on a regular basis. Do the cdi boxes possibly get hot during charging and fail?
I think I need to find another set of boxes. Do the replacement boxes have to have the same number that is cast into the aluminum boxes that I have?
I do still have the original boxes with the tar melted out and don't understand how putting some type of epoxy back in the box will fix what appears to be an electrical problem.
Thanks
 
this is such a loaded ? ... plain and simple ...the epa was the worse thing that ever happen to oldwings ... they turn the oldwing motor into something that just killed its potential and reliability ... the only smart thing to do to these bikes is the replace these parts you cant get anymore with some that actually work good ...the reliability of the oldwing should not be at the mercy of such parts ......

the c5 ignition will be part of every build i do and parts like this will go in the trash ...from day one as brand new these parts and the carb rack around the oldwing have rob the potential and reliability from the oldwings ... the basic motor being one of the best ever made in motorcycle history can made to bring the oldwing into as good as anything out there today.... in my opinion
 
Howdy Tuna, my beater is a 80 and the goo melted out of the boxes but still ran fine,i filled them with JB weld over 18,000 miles ago and no issues, i thought it was just due to the high heat in arizona but mabey not? i still run mine with out the ballest resister from the 82 and up(but i do have 82 coils now) so i am sure i am making a load of heat with the igniters but they keep living? I have a couple of friends that ride old wings and have never had any goo melt out of the igniters on their bikes? I am thinking is it the luck of the draw or a high load some place in the ign system? If it does it again, i would follow the C5 path. Good Luck Man.
 
80-81 overheat. There is no ballast resistor.

82-83 do not overheat. There IS a ballast resistor.

Both year groups use the same ignitors.
Solving the problem should be simple as installing a ballast resistor.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=136983#p136983:1g8g4p40 said:
dan filipi » Sun Dec 07, 2014 10:42 am[/url]":1g8g4p40]
80-81 overheat. There is no ballast resistor.

82-83 do not overheat. There IS a ballast resistor.

Both year groups use the same ignitors.
Solving the problem should be simple as installing a ballast resistor.
Click to expand...
I had not even thought of that and was thinking more along the lines of corrosion in the electrical connections (still not a bad idea to check as well.)

I found it interesting that the ballast resistor on the 82 and 83's does not have a bypass when cranking like the earlier 1000's did (May be to do with points vs electronic?) That will greatly simplify installing the resister into the circuit.

Wish I could locate some TSB's for the 1100's and see if this was addressed by Honda back in the day.

Maybe Joe has the parts you need, if you can catch him before trash day. :hihihi: I acquired some 1100 parts this summer but I have not gone thru them yet. If you can't find what you need, let me know and I'll do a search and rescue to see if I have them.
 
Far as I can tell, the only difference between these 1100 year groups is the use of a resistor but I don't know if the coil packs are different. I haven't looked that far into it.
If there is a different resistance value there might be issues using a resistor with no bypass to full voltage on startup but I don't think so. Would have to find value of both coil groups.
 
me and dan were just talking on this ....this sure bring low voltage to the ignition while starting ... and there is different numbers on the coils too ..whatever that means from 80-81 and 82-83 yrs ....
 

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it seemed to matter on 1000s ...maybe it dont like ron said because of the cdi verses points ...if this is a good fix for 80-81 bikes then it sure needs to be touted loud and clear ...i have an 80 sparkers melted completely out ...also 82 and 83 bike both ran well ... and seemed to start ok
 
it really is strange how some of the 80/81 bikes never have a problem and some do?? i didn't use the ballest on mine when i put the 82 coil assy on it because i worried about too low of voltage... next time i have the cover off,i will hook up the ballest as it is still on the coil assy and see if any thing changes.
 
I had to use the 83 coils on my 83wing. I tried a different # on the coils and it did not work for my ride. Went back to the original # BW82-TRI on the coils and it worked fine. This was my problem on the m&g to Joes the first time.
The ones that did work had some kind of white insulators on top (as shown in pic) of the coils that the 80's did not.

With the c5 installed I no longer have any of these kind of worries.


These are the 83 coils that worked on my bike.
coils 134.JPG
coil 2 001.JPG
See the white thingy?

The 80 coils were numbered AW-82-TRI


Are these what you are looking for?

coils 135.JPG
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=136999#p136999:2wws0nl0 said:
wilcoy02 » Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:28 am[/url]":2wws0nl0]
I had to use the 83 coils on my 83wing. I tried a different # on the coils and it did not work for my ride. Went back to the original # BW82-TRI on the coils and it worked fine. This was my problem on the m&g to Joes the first time.
The ones that did work had some kind of white insulators on top (as shown in pic) of the coils that the 80's did not.

With the c5 installed I no longer have any of these kind of worries.


These are the 83 coils that worked on my bike.
View attachment 2 See the white thingy?

The 80 coils were numbered AW-82-TRI


Are these what you are looking for?

View attachment 1
file.php

file.php

file.php
Click to expand...
The white thingy is the ballast resistor.
 
The deeper I dig, the deeper the hole gets. Then I read this:

https://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/2-g ... post571011
0.4 ohm is a correct resistance for the 1100... and all 1100s (as far as I know) use a resistor in the circuit.. BUT for early 1100s, the resistor is in the sparkunit (not external)... for later 1100s, the resistor in the sparkunit was bypassed and an external resistor was used...
Click to expand...
IF true, it would explain the ooozing out of the spark units in the 80-81's. I know the external resistors on 1000's get HOT! If that heat was generated by a resistor inside the spark unit....
 
Yes the CDI boxes are what I need, the ones with the red wire comming out. I will check the # on
the coil pack that came on the bike when new. And look for the resistor.
 
I don't believe that there would be a resistor in the spark units since all that I've seen have the same numbers on them and the 83 units work on the 80-81 bike's with the same plug.
I have enough faith in Honda that if this Saunder's info was true then Honda would have put different numbers on the spark units and made the harness plugs different.
 
+1
The resistors go in the supply/ignition circuit and are related to the coil types. 12volt coil no ballast resistor, 8 volt coil resistor required to drop the 12volt supply down. If you use a resistor coil without the ballast resistor the coil gets hot and the points/ ignitor burn out or melt.
 
I believe Honda realized the problem then added the resistor on the +12 volts side to fix the problem.
What I don't know is if 80-81coils have a different rating than 82-83 coils.
It's also possible that coils from different years could have been popped in along the way or by dealers I suppose.
 

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