No spark, serious PO mess up.

[Hook#3287]

In the high 50's yesterday so I decided to fire up Penny.

Gassed her up, turned the key, gave her a little push on the starter to create the vacuum to the petcock, sat for a few, then tried starting.  Nope.

Sat a little more, tried again, she turned over good.  Nope.

Pulled a plug, it was wet.  No spark. Crap.

Checked the 10amp fuse, good.

Pulled the tank and headlight. Checked all the wiring and connections, all good.

Hooked another fully charged battery up, nope, no spark.

Checked the coils, I had hooked  #1 & 2 up backwards.   Hopefully, maybe, nope, no spark.  :'(

Put it away for later.

Today, while waiting on my helper, I decided to check the ICM.  Apparently, someone's been there before and I didn't notice this winter when cleaning that it was messed with before.  Someone scabbed a wire in for some reason and had broken a connection tab or two.  When I took it apart this winter, I must have disturbed it enough to F it up.  

Anyways it pretty much fell apart and not in a good way.

I'm left with this bundle of crap and the shop manual is not much help.  The wiring diagram shows the wire colors and some numbers but the ICM is not numbered in any way.



I can take another bike apart, I guess, but was hoping someone here might have a suggestion.  

Thanks for looking.

[Gryphon Rider]

While I haven't looked at that connector, my experience is virtually all multi-pin connectors have pin numbers embossed on them.  Some are tiny and impossible to see with my aging eyes, but with reading glasses, a magnifying glass, or a well-focused digital camera (preferably with a macro function), they can be read.  When my bike has been sitting over the winter, I have to crank it for what seems like a long time before it fires.

[indybobm]

This is sheet 5 from RP's great schematics on ShopTalk.

http://www.rattlebars.com/valkfaq/schematics/index.html

[Chrisj CMA]

Sounds like you had/have a weak battery.  If it ran before with that extra wire, no reason it shouldn't still run.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Sounds like you had/have a weak battery.  If it ran before with that extra wire, no reason it shouldn't still run.

I think he said in his cleaning he probably dislodged something.

[Hook#3287]

It's alway a challenge to express exactly what happened in written form.

I did suspect the battery, I had been turning the lights off and on all winter hooking up the aftermarket blinkers.  But I piggy backed a fully charged battery, right from the charger to the bike.  I know it made a difference because the bike turned over faster.

This morning is when I noticed the ICM had been buggered with.  I suspect when I moved it this winter, to clean all the old oil & dirt out, on install, I must have disturbed the connection from the wiring harness to the ICM.

Someone had spliced the blue wire in, for some reason unknown to me.  When they did that, they broke some of the holding slots in the connector.  While inspecting it this morning, it pretty much fell apart and I'm left with what you see in the picture.

Those silver connectors go into the ICM, but I don't know which one goes where.  4 stayed in place, 8 didn't.  There's a cap that goes over the wires and little double o-rings and holds it all together.  That fell out, causing this mess.

There are no numbers on the ICM, the wiring harness connector or it's cap.

I can't find any help in the service manual, guess Honda feels that should not be messed with.

[Skinhead]

It's alway a challenge to express exactly what happened in written form.

I did suspect the battery, I had been turning the lights off and on all winter hooking up the aftermarket blinkers.  But I piggy backed a fully charged battery, right from the charger to the bike.  I know it made a difference because the bike turned over faster.

This morning is when I noticed the ICM had been buggered with.  I suspect when I moved it this winter, to clean all the old oil & dirt out, on install, I must have disturbed the connection from the wiring harness to the ICM.

Someone had spliced the blue wire in, for some reason unknown to me.  When they did that, they broke some of the holding slots in the connector.  While inspecting it this morning, it pretty much fell apart and I'm left with what you see in the picture.

Those silver connectors go into the ICM, but I don't know which one goes where.  4 stayed in place, 8 didn't.  There's a cap that goes

over the wires and little double o-rings and holds it all together.  That fell out, causing this mess.

There are no numbers on the ICM, the wiring harness connector or it's cap.

I can't find any help in the service manual, guess Honda feels that should not be messed with.

I'd either go on Ebay or pinwall, or even the classifieds here., I think Lil Dave (?) in Texas parts out a lot of bikes.  If he has a wiring harness left over buy it and/or ax him to cut the ICM connector off (leaving lots of extra wire) and just cut and splice on your bike.

[Hook#3287]

I'd either go on Ebay or pinwall, or even the classifieds here., I think Lil Dave (?) in Texas parts out a lot of bikes.  If he has a wiring harness left over buy it and/or ax him to cut the ICM connector off (leaving lots of extra wire) and just cut and splice on your bike.

That's a good suggestion and I've considered that.  Thanks.  Don't know yet if I can fix the one I have,  my goal is to get the wires in the right places.

I can take a different bike apart and copy what's there, it appears all bikes are wired the same at the ICM, but I'm being lazy hoping someone has the answers.

Looks like I got a project this weekend.

[Harryc]

Bill, I took a look at the wiring diagram posted earlier and there are pin numbers on the diagram. Odd that you can't find them on the connector.  Why the hell would Honda indicate pin numbers if you can't ID them... weird. if this is an easy connector to get to I can take a pic for you if that would help. Never messed or tried to locate the ICM connector but we can figure it out I am sure.

[Hook#3287]

Bill, I took a look at the wiring diagram posted earlier and there are pin numbers on the diagram. Odd that you can't find them on the connector.  Why the hell would Honda indicate pin numbers if you can't ID them. Weird ... if this is an easy connector to get to I can take a pic for you if that would help. Never messed or tried to locate the ICM connector but we can figure it out I am sure.

Thanks for the offer Harry  , but I'll take a different one apart and copy it.  It's not that big a deal, remove coolant tank, then the ICM is right there.  Just being lazy and gives me something to complain about.

[bentwrench]

If the four remaining wires are in their correct holes you can determine the pin # by wire color working from RP's schematic.This will help you figure which row is 1-8 and which is 9-16,then use the number and colors to determine where the rest go.

[The emperor has no clothes]

If the four remaining wires are in their correct holes you can determine the pin # by wire color working from RP's schematic.This will help you figure which row is 1-8 and which is 9-16,then use the number and colors to determine where the rest go.

Ooh ! Good thinking. 

[Hook#3287]

If the four remaining wires are in their correct holes you can determine the pin # by wire color working from RP's schematic.This will help you figure which row is 1-8 and which is 9-16,then use the number and colors to determine where the rest go.

Ooh ! Good thinking. 

Thanks for the suggestion, I thought that also.  But if you look at the wiring diagram and the picture I posted above, I think you'll realize what I did, there ain't no rhyme nor reason to it.

I ended up copying from another bike and that worked good.  Had to clean the wires good so I could see the colors and even then I needed a bright light and magnifying glass to see some of them colors.

Even with a diagram on paper, it was fiddly making sure the wires were in the correct positions.  I got it done and electrical taped the piss out of it.

A member here that is familiar with the bikes history, reached out and gave me the story.  The 2nd PO tried using an aftermarket ICM after his original failed and when that didn't work, he broke down and got a new OEM one.

The member and the 1st PO(before he became a PO), helped the 2nd PO, by doing what I did, copying from another bike.   They did a great, non-compensated, job.  Unfortunately, the plastic on our bikes is getting brittle and the tabs on the cover were damaged during the repair.  What they did worked, but I messed up their work when I moved it for cleaning, not realizing it had been modified.

Anyways, even though I haven't completely fired her up yet because the weather here has not been right when I've had the time, she's sparking and wants to run.