Ignition coil burnout

[Pony Joe]

Ok fellers. I put this Lifan engine on my super trike back in the fall( see super trike rebirth thread) and its been great. Engine runs strong. A couple of days ago it lost fire. Replaced the ignition coil and thought I was good to go. It quit within 5 minutes. Put another new one on and rode it down the road and back a few times, did great. It just burnt up again. Spark wizard recommended checking all the wiring which I did, looks fine. Thought I'd put it to the community at large. Any ideas on why this thing's eating coils?

 

[ole4]

Is it a ac magneto?

 

[Pony Joe]

I'm sorry but I'm not sure, not good with the electrical side of things. It has a battery and a rectifier if that tells you anything.

 

[ole4]

no it does not. A ac ignition is basically a magneto ignition. Does you system spark regardless of having a battery. or better what coil did you order? Do you have a schematic to look at.

 

[Pony Joe]

Never have ran it without a battery. It has a pull rope starter besides the electric start so I would assume it can be operated without the battery. I ordered a the new coil based off the numbers on the old coil. There is a schematic of sorts but its pretty poor. There's very little wiring to the thing.

 

[sparkwizard]

The schematic looks like it has an AC magneto coil with ground through the switch to shut it off.

 

[sparkwizard]

Looking at the schematic again.

Have you checked the oil? It has a low oil cut off switch.

 

[Pony Joe]

Yes, checked oil and even swapped out the switch to be safe. The thing is when I change out the coil it fires up first crank and runs awhile and then I lose spark. Replace the coil, same thing. Runs awhile and loses spark.

 

[sparkwizard]

Have you tried unplugging the wire that grounds out the coil to kill the engine? I think it is black.
Remember when you first got it running and the kill switch didn't work?
That wire might (MIGHT) be shorting out your spark.
Maybe it is the switch, not the coil that is bad.

 

[Pony Joe]

No, ain't tried that. I do remember that, you had me switch some wires around to make it shut off. It is a black wire. I'll try it tomorrow, don't think I'll go back out tonight. I figure this can't be that complicated, there's only so much stuff there.

 

[sparkwizard]

If it runs, plug that wire back in and see if it dies with the key in the on position.

 

[Pony Joe]

Well I couldn't wait. Unplugged the black wire, no change. Also unplugged the oil sensor, no change. With the key on and a test light on the black wire, it lights up. If I keep the tester on the wire and plug it into the coil the light goes out. Don't know if that means anything, just information.

 

[Thepaetsguy]

Well I couldn't wait. Unplugged the black wire, no change. Also unplugged the oil sensor, no change. With the key on and a test light on the black wire, it lights up. If I keep the tester on the wire and plug it into the coil the light goes out. Don't know if that means anything, just information.

I Looked at that diagram for about 30 seconds and I’m not sure why the black coil wire meets a black and red that goes to the low oil shutoff... And then gets wired to hot from the solenoid? That is a confusing diagram and I understand your frustration.. that diagram doesn’t even seem to make sense? Wouldn’t that ground out the coil and low oil sensor??

 

[Pony Joe]

It seems like it would. But like I say, I have difficulty following electrical stuff. Give me mechanical problems any time over this.

 

[sparkwizard]

I Looked at that diagram for about 30 seconds and I’m not sure why the black coil wire meets a black and red that goes to the low oil shutoff... And then gets wired to hot from the solenoid? That is a confusing diagram and I understand your frustration.. that diagram doesn’t even seem to make sense? Wouldn’t that ground out the coil and low oil sensor??

Did you look at the PDF diagram? It seems to make some sense.

 

[sparkwizard]

Well I couldn't wait. Unplugged the black wire, no change. Also unplugged the oil sensor, no change. With the key on and a test light on the black wire, it lights up. If I keep the tester on the wire and plug it into the coil the light goes out. Don't know if that means anything, just information.

The diagram is confusing but I do not think the black wire at the coil should have power on it. It should be GROUND when the oil is low or the key is OFF. It does ground out the coil.

 

[JimN]

I Looked at that diagram for about 30 seconds and I’m not sure why the black coil wire meets a black and red that goes to the low oil shutoff... And then gets wired to hot from the solenoid? That is a confusing diagram and I understand your frustration.. that diagram doesn’t even seem to make sense? Wouldn’t that ground out the coil and low oil sensor??

I'm thinking that is the wrong diagram to look at. This is the one you should be looking at.

 

[JimN]

Probably need pics of the whole set up to verify which wiring diagram to use.

 

[sparkwizard]

Thanks for posting that, @JimN
I have been toggling back and forth, too dumb to move the diagram here.
We used this diagram when he had trouble getting it running.
That black wire kills the engine by grounding the coil in OFF position.
That black wire should not have battery voltage on it.

 

[sparkwizard]

@Pony Joe when you were checking for voltage on that black wire, did you have one lead from your meter on the positive battery post, and the other on that black wire?
That would give 12 volts with switch OFF.