295 robin pulsar coil question
 

I have a gas Ezgo with a 295 robin engine with no spark. The owner of the cart is a pretty decent mechanic and I own a general repair shop so we are familiar with most systems. The cart in question was having a no spark situation and we repaired or replaced the connections, fixed grounds, etc. We have 3 pulsar coils at our disposal (2 new, 1 on running cart). No matter which one we try, or how we gap it, we only get .1 volt AC. I have decreased and increased the gap beyond specs and still .1 volt. Tried different multimeters, cleaned the hub, checked for main bearing wear in case the crankshaft was moving up or down etc.... My question, is there something I'm missing or something that is missing on the crank? I see the hub with a notch cut out that I'm guessing creates a Hall effect? There is no magnet or dissimilar metal supposed to be in this hub slot? The sensors have been disconnected while running the test, but only .1 volt AC on all 3 we have tried. Thanks for any insight!!!

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

What year is it? Is it MCI or Pre-MCI?

is the fan installed when you are testing?

Also have you checked the grounds at the mounting plate where the solenoid, ignitor, etc are mounted? The ignitor gets its ground from the mounting plate, and it's common for them to rust, leaving a poor ground connection and no spark.

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

I am having a similar problem with a early nineties cart with the 295cc. There was a fire and all of the coil and igniter wires were melted together. We fixed the wires and it still has no spark. I checked the pulsar coil as you are and made sure I had good grounds, and it only makes .1 volt as you are saying yours does. I think my igniter is shorted, but I was concerned about the pulsar coil also since I have heard it should be .5 volt. I will be following this thread to see how you make out.

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

Pre mci. Unsure of the exact year because of the condition of the cart. Tags and serial numbers are gone or unreadable after years of sitting outside and being used on a horse farm to feed. All of the motor is still in place. We were trying to get everything in spec before addressing the no spark condition but ran into a road block on the pulsar coil readings. From researching the forums it looks like the .1 volt AC is common but nobody posted a fix. I don't think anything is missing, but I thought I'd ask the experts who have been down this road before. Ezgo no spark search brings up about a month of reading:cry:

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

Gotcha.

Next to the battery there should be a vertical plate with the solenoid, ignitor, etc. mounted to it. For giggles, I would try and run a jumper wire directly from that metal plate to the negative battery post and see if that helps. I know my TXT (And I'm sure mine isn't the only one) developed rust and corrosion between the plate and the body where it's mounted, so the ignitor loses it's ground, or at least has a really poor ground. I ran a jumper, and it came to life. So I just cleaned it the best I could with a wire wheel, and when I bolted it back into place I ran an extra wire from the negative battery terminal directly to that plate so it would never lose ground again :)

I don't recall for sure (it's been a while since I owned a pre-mci) but I know my workhorse, the pickup for the coil was actually part of the cooling fan. So if the cooling fan was not mounted, the pickup coil has nothing to read.

I've not heard of many ignitors failing on the robins motor, unless someone hooks a battery up backwards or something. Most of the time you'll find it's either a bad ground somewhere, or the ignition coil. I don't know that i've ever heard of the pickup going bad, I would rule that out and look elsewhere. Especially since you've tried a few of them with the exact same result.

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

Connect a test light to positive side of coil without removing red wire. Does the test light flash or stay solid ? when spinning engine over ? Did you set the pulser coil with a feeler. gauge ?

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

How do you get to the pulser coil? Do you have to pull the flywheel cover, or is there access? On a 1992 295 engine. I'm looking at it, seems like a tight but possible area to pull the flywheel cover without removing the engine..... hope so anyway, thanks for any info! Woody

Aso, I am getting .104 volt maximum AC from the pulser with spark plugs removed, engine spinning fast with starter. On some motorcycles, the gap of the pulser will greatly effect this voltage, so maybe the gap is too big? That's only a fifth of .5 volt.....

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

Woodyking on mine, it was easy to remove the cover. The only thing in the way was a brake cable that was a bit stiff, but it wiggled out.

I've been messing with the 3 pulsar coils available to me, setting them at different gaps with a feeler gauge, but only .1 of a volt with any of them. When they are hooked up, I am getting a flashing test light on one wire of the coil and solid light on the other but I stopped pursuing the no start condition and started working on getting the individual parts into specs. The low voltage on the pulsar coil is the one that has me stumped so far. I have read about people that stated that .1 volt AC is all they ever had, so maybe it's ok????????

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

HAve you checked the coil? Sounds to me like the signal is getting to the coil like it is supposed to, but if you still don't get spark it sounds like either the coil, wires, or plug caps may be the culprit.

Re: 295 robin pulsar coil question
 

CP241 is correct. Bring out the meter and set it to Ohms and test that coil. I will include a picture of how a good coil shows the correct reading.

You have your meter set too high is the reason you are not getting the right AC Voltage on the Pulser. If yours has a 200 scale use it. It should show 0.50 ac volts Your pulsers are good though. I can set mine on a higher scale and I get the same reading you do so it is generating AC voltage. I also uploaded a picture of what a good pulser will show using Ohms

Both sides of the coil should flash when spinning engine over if all is good. Test that coil and post back. Tom.