CDI life.

[wayne]

I bought my M a little over 40 years ago. It wasn't running. It was a failed CDI. Bought a used one from a wrecking yard and have done all my riding with that CDI.

Today, almost 40 years to the day I installed that used CDI, it finally failed.

I bought a used one from Sam nearly 20 years ago and carried it as a spare everywhere I rode. Never needed it.

'til today.




PS I've ridden bikes with refurbished "boosted" regular CDI's, AM ignitions and even done a back to back on the one ride swapping at the roadside between standard and another type of modern AM ignition. None of these rides were to see if the bike ran better, just that the AM or modified ignitions ran the bike at least as well. They all did.

But geez my bike ran well today. While it doesn't hesitate, there is sometimes a grumbliness around that 3000 rpm area. But today, so nice, perfect through the transition. I couldn't stop transiting that rpm band because it was so good....... best in 10 years. My old CDI was still sparking but so weakly the bike wouldn't even fire (and a barely detectable whine). Has it's "grunt" been slowly fading over the years? Is strength of spark, after all, a factor in this area?

I'm not saying the stock ignition is better. I'm just wondering if some of my less than perfect running has been due to a recently dying CDI.

[grosours]

Hi,

I was an electronics engineer before retirement and I can repair most faulty CDIs for the cost of components (a few dollars a priori)

Best regards

[wayne]

Thanks Grosours, where are you? I'm in Australia but would be willing to ship both ways if nothing local turns up.

[timpa136]

Sept 24, 2020 2:36:15 GMT -5 grosours said:

Hi,

I was an electronics engineer before retirement and I can repair most faulty CDIs for the cost of components (a few dollars a priori)

Best regards

Much appreciation to that offer.  I would be interested as to the nature of the failure as my experience has been a sudden failure.

Short story my wifes CDI was repaired  after failure on the way to a 3 day weekend campout. One member had a soldering iron

and another member

was a retired TV repairman and with the help of both of them and a radio shack volt/ohm meter he found 2 shorted diodes he service

looped in place.

We found electricity in the campground shower area and a successful repair was made for many miles when I finally saved the unit and 

installed a fresh CDI.

tim

[grosours]

I am located in France and can accept the CDI units to repair at that address :

Philippe Kauffmann
Les Sagnes
63270 Manglieu
France

[Jess]

Phillippe,

How do you remove the potting without destroying the unit?

Just curious.

Best,

[wayne]

Sept 24, 2020 11:20:42 GMT -5 grosours said:

I am located in France and can accept the CDI units to repair at that address :

Philippe Kauffmann
Les Sagnes
63270 Manglieu
France

Many thanks Phillipe. I have an Australian electrical engineer who has offered to rebuild it. I am NSW, Australia so that is much closer.

However, if you are happy to repair RE5 CDI's commercially, would you be happy for me to list you in a thread offering CDI repairs?

It seems we have a few guys around the world and if I made a thread listing them, it would be very useful.

Thank you for your offer.

[wayne]

Sept 24, 2020 10:35:33 GMT -5 timpa136 said:

Much appreciation to that offer.  I would be interested as to the nature of the failure as my experience has been a sudden failure.

Short story my wifes CDI was repaired  after failure on the way to a 3 day weekend campout. One member had a soldering iron and another member was a retired TV repairman and with the help of both of them and a radio shack volt/ohm meter he found 2 shorted diodes he service looped in place. We found electricity in the campground shower area and a successful repair was made for many miles when I finally saved the unit and installed a fresh CDI.

tim

For someone who regards anything beyond hooking up a 12v dc light bulb as voodoo, that is so impressive.

Whatever's wrong with my CDI is interesting. Not a black and white work/not work problem. Still working but obviously completely lacking any grunt. I will update the thread as diagnosis comes in.

[grosours]

Hi,

I am not interested in doing commercial repairs, but would be happy to help anyone with a dead CDI.

I have a running RE5 and a second one imported from CANADA 30 years ago with a dead CDI. The buyer could not have it repaired by SUZUKI 30 years ago and left it abandoned outside for 30 years... Now I have to restore it and anyway repair one CDI !

Best regards

[wayne]

Thanks for your getting back to me Grosours.

I think repairing the CDI on an RE5 stored outdoors for 30 years will be the easy task. Best of luck.

[grosours]

Hi,

repairing the CDI unit will undoubtedly be the easy part. The engine of my second RE5A is blocked and the Transyl lubricant I put in was not effective. In addition the instrument screen is in poor shape and the green transparent mobile cover cap is missing. I know that there is a solution described by Wayne for the instrument screen on the forum and I hope Jess will have a mobile cover cap for sale.

As for the pot in the CDI, there is very little in mine, it can be removed mechanically without any problem. I have no solution for the printed circuits which have too much pot, they are in my opinion unserviceable.

As for the units whose performance drops, it should be noted that the leakage current of some capacitors rise little by little. I have already repaired 40 year old power supplies with poor performance just by putting new capacitors in the right places.

Best regards.

[wayne]

Sept 26, 2020 19:53:22 GMT -5 maj750 said:

Ok after a short look MEK  (methyl-ethyl-ketone) can work, also Xylene or xylene blends with acetone or tolulene, depends on the potting compound,

Good info, removing that stabilizing compound is a common complaint.

Just a heads up re MEK. If you haven't worked with this stuff before, it's dangerous. There was a warning poster in my fibreglass supply shop.

Apparently can spontaneously combust but a more realistic threat, it can crystalize Cornea on contact. I worked with it in a hobby capacity for many years. It also strips the melanin out of your skin, the only long term effect I got from it. There are also potential issues from inhaling the vapours.

[wayne]

I have moved the very useful post made by Hudson and some other useful stuff (such as Maj750's comments on how to remove potting) to the CDI repair thread under FAQ.

You'll find all the more relevant stuff generated by this thread now incorporated into RESTORE AND REPAIR > FAQ > CDI Repair, CDI alternative