Tri-spark now sparking

This is a follow up to my post from March 6, the problem according to Stephen Kelly was with a failure of a position sensor on the unit perhaps due to a manufacturing flaw or during assembly. Stephen claims that there is a less than 1% failure rate in the two or so years that his latest unit has been available. What put me off was the fact that the unit will still pass the test mode i.e. when the little button is pressed and the ignition turned on the plugs will spark rapidly for 10 seconds or so which leads one to think that the ignition unit is OK and then start to look elsewhere for the problem, not so, you need to turn over the engine with the kickstart and plugs grounded on the cylinder head to check that the plugs will fire then to be sure that the unit is OK. There is a Test 2 which apparently my unit didn't pass but even Stephen admitted that it wasn't totally clear how the test works. There is no indication of impending failure (I don't have a HAL computer on my bike), I just went for a long ride, turned if off and a couple of hours later wouldn't start so its a bit of a worry.

Good luck with your Tri Spark..................Don't forget to make sure you have breakdown cover!!

That's the trouble with modern electrickery, when it's good it's very good but when it's bad it's bloody awful.

Dave

Same experience with a tri spark unit only a few months old. Lost the spark suddenly. Kelley suggested doing test one and two. Passed test one sparking for around 10 seconds and failed test two, no led light and no spark. Kelley sent me a new module and all is working now. I assume the inductor in the unit has failed. A bit troubling as I'm not sure I can trust this system.

I am having the exact same issue with the Tri-spark. I replaced my entire electrical system (i mean everything, down to the last wire, Harnesses, trispark coils, the whole lot!.), and also purchased brand new premier carbs because of weak spark on one cylinder. Both test functions came up fine, however as stated above absolutely no spark on one side when kicked through, and not firing properly when running.

Mailed my trigger unit back to Stephen last week for testing. Hopefully my bike will be back on the road in no time most probably with a new unit.

I also had problems with my Trispark..Intermittent loss of spark..Sent unit back to Steve and he tested(bad) and sent me back a good one..He also reimbursed for my postage..I also purchased an extra trigger unit to carry with me..I don't think you could have loss of spark on one side because of the Trispark...It fires both cylinders at same time(wasted spark)....Good luck with your problem...

yeas thats true i've only put about 20K on my pazon, and before that my boyer lasted 20 years

cash said:

That's the trouble with modern electrickery, when it's good it's very good but when it's bad it's bloody awful.

Dave

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Sean, I had the same problem ( new Trispark, plug leads, coils, plugs, harness, new Mik carb, fresh fuel, valves set etc ) it refused to fire on the left plug. I could start it with starter fluid and it would run on the right cylinder but that was it, I spent days if not weeks on it and was ready to hoist the white flag. I was out on a club ride and I mentioned this problem to a Combat owner at the table and after listening to the story he suggested I get a new ignition switch, so I went home and "hot" wired it and second kick fired up like it should, got a new switch and all good.

Tiger, my ignition switch is in great condition, spades, terminals and all.

Am I the only one who fears total ignition failure and gliding dead to the side of highway?

After having this happen three times and thus straining friendships while calling for rescues with their trailers i decided to really attack the problem.

The problem, and yes I have had a TriSpark from Matt at CNW for years now, was the convoluted path that electricity was expected to take to get to my TriSpark.

It was expected to exit the negative battery terminal, travel to the keyed ignition, exit there and go through a 40 year old Prince of Darkness wiring harness, exit that,
journey to the kill button and then to the coil and then down the frame tube and finally arrive at the TriSpark.

Gracious, who would not be exhausted from taking the journey 4000 times a minute, wouldn't you be?

Too many places for failure to occur and leave me stranded, I will not stand for this!

And so now I run a wire from the negative live battery terminal to a simple on/off toggle switch and then direct to the coil and then to the TriSpark.

Not gonna trust a keyed ignition or kill button or old wiring harness any longer, now my life is finally worth living, no ignition failures anymore, simplicity rules.

Steal my bike you say? Seriously? The first thing a thief would do is assume to turn the key, well that will get them the head light, tail light, horn, and brake light but
it won't start the bike, that is what my secret cheap Radio Shack toggle switch is for.

Like some other TriSpark users, I had a unit failure from the early days which Matt promptly send me a new one, but the other failures were not TriSpark but were directly related to the twisted path electricity had to take to finally get to my TriSpark, but no more, as it is now a clean, direct and straight path for the juice.

ALL grounds go to the + battery, no more trusting frame grounds, huge move.

Just some thoughts that might be useful..........

1up3down said:

And so now I run a wire from the negative live battery terminal to a simple on/off toggle switch and then direct to the coil and then to the TriSpark.

Not gonna trust a keyed ignition or kill button or old wiring harness any longer, now my life is finally worth living, no ignition failures anymore, simplicity rules.

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I hear your comments about simplicity........but then, a kill switch could be quite useful :roll:

I heard back from Stephen, he found no faults at all with the unit.

I am going to remove the 43 year old ignition switch as tiger mentioned and rule that out too.

Just run a hot wire from the battery to power for the unit for testing...This will eliminate the kill switch and the ignition switch...This sounds simple but have you tried new plugs? Make sure there are good grounds from wiring to engine..

As i said everything is brand new, including plugs. Will not eliminate the kill switch as I might need it in an emergency, and mine is in perfect working order.

Will try a new ignition switch like tiger shark suggested, will keep you posted.

hmmm all of this does not sound very motivating. i have a trispark in my 850 mkiia since about 2 years, and so far it has been working.
but reading all these negative reports gets me worried, specially because i am going on a trip to france with my bike in summer.
i think i will either order a second trispark as a backup or switch to a pazon :/

Mmm ... I had a boyer years ago, had "some" problems; then switched back to good ol' fashioned points. NEVER a problem since. In fact, I have a big capacitor in the circuit too, so the bike runs fine with a dead battery, or if I remove the battery altogether. Yes, it is "old fashioned". Yes, our Nortons can benefit from modern parts ... just my 2 cents. :shock:

I had a failure with an early Tri spark & did what you are proposing , carry a spare , but the later model unit has done many miles now without fault . I don't hesitate to ride my bike anywhere now , My confidence is restored .

I too am loosing faith in my Trispark. After identifying problem with the power supply from the Boyer power box I wired it direct from the battery via a switch. That solved the misfire associated with the stepped output of my Boyer. En route to the NOC AGM the bike dropped down to one (RH) cylinder at low revs though continued to run on both cylinders at 60 MPH plus. Not a fun journey. Thinking it might be a carb issue I removed the twin PWKs and fitted my old trusty single mikuni. Difficult starting and a reluctance to run at all below 3000rpm lead me to fit my old Boyer Mk3. That setup is working properly now. (twin carbs going back on this evening) Sending it back to Australia for testing is £11 and a three week process, (it's already been back once) All my wiring is new with proper connections.
I was planning on keeping the wiring for the boyer in place and carrying it a a backup. Now it looks like i'll be putting the wiring in place to fit my points as a fallback and carrying all that stuff.

gripper said:

I too am loosing faith in my Trispark. After identifying problem with the power supply from the Boyer power box I wired it direct from the battery via a switch. That solved the misfire associated with the stepped output of my Boyer. En route to the NOC AGM the bike dropped down to one (RH) cylinder at low revs though continued to run on both cylinders at 60 MPH plus. Not a fun journey. Thinking it might be a carb issue I removed the twin PWKs and fitted my old trusty single mikuni. Difficult starting and a reluctance to run at all below 3000rpm lead me to fit my old Boyer Mk3. That setup is working properly now. (twin carbs going back on this evening) Sending it back to Australia for testing is £11 and a three week process, (it's already been back once) All my wiring is new with proper connections.
I was planning on keeping the wiring for the boyer in place and carrying it a a backup. Now it looks like i'll be putting the wiring in place to fit my points as a fallback and carrying all that stuff.

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Do you have 2 coils wired in series or one dual output coil? I'm asking because both the Boyer and Tri-Spark are wasted spark and I'm trying to find out how you can lose just one cylinder sparking.

I had a boyer that dropped to sparking one coil only, coil plug and HT and LT all checked out ok, read all the blurb and it said it cannot be the boyer. Eventually after replacing virtually everything it was a bad earth from engine back to battery. I can only assume the bad but not completely gone earth path only allowed enough current for one spark, as soon as I put the new earth in normal sparks resumed. The spark dropped on the driveside but if I took the HT lead off the timing side the drive side staring sparking, thats when I tried the extra earth wire.