Weak/no spark...

[nasa144]

Hello everyone! I'm new to Buggies, but have a good mechanical base building endurance road racing cars (e30 bmw's)

I'm working on a 2002 turf 2, fe350 for a co-worker. Have little to no history on this cart other than it would die after warm.
I've sorted out the fuel issue/s... lines, flush, filters, new pump & carb.
Now I'm stumped with no spark. I've deleted the Rev Limiter, disconnected the blk/wht kill wire, clean/sanded magneto and coil surfaces. Also have new BPR5ES plug and coil seems to test ok.
Heres the catch... i get no spark through plug when gnd'd to head or chassis. When i use a inline light tester, i get weak light in the inline tester with plug in and gnd'd, however when i remove plug and grnd inline tester it lights like the coil is good.

Any ideals???
Bad coil/igniter - not strong enough to fire plug?
Short in grnd effecting coil?
Magneto?

Thanks for the replies!

[Fairtax4me]

Igniter is inside the coil. Replace the coil with a Genuine Kawasaki coil.

[nasa144]

Yes... read about OEM only!

So, the igniter can fire up the tester light, but not power enough to jump spark on plug?

[Fairtax4me]

Yes. Using a Light type tester you can have plenty enough voltage to illuminate the light. It only takes about 1500v usually to make a bright flash from that type of tester. Which is about 10 times less than what it actually takes to make the spark jump the plug gap when under compression.
Club car recommends using an adjustable HEI inline type tester set to 18,000v to test the coil. If the coil is bad it will not make enough voltage to jump the gap at the 18K setting, or it may only appear very dim or yellow.
There are some resistance checks that can be made, but often those can test OK but the coil still be bad if the coil is cold during testing.

Typically I just put a new spark plug set to approx .035" gap in the coil and lay the plug on the engine where it's touching an unpainted surface (usually the valve cover). Crank the engine and see if the spark is consistent and bright blueish white spark. If the spark is yellow, or there's no spark at all, disconnect the kill circuit wire and re-check. If still no spark, its time for a new coil.
The symptoms you have are typical of a failed coil. A very weak or dim yellowish spark at the plug that is not consistent. You might get one quick spark when it first starts cranking and then not see it again until you try again later.
A new coil will have a very bright blue/white spark that is consistent with each revolution.

[nasa144]

Great info... thank you!

Are you in Charlottesburg or Charlottesville?

[CP241]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

Yes. Using a Light type tester you can have plenty enough voltage to illuminate the light. It only takes about 1500v usually to make a bright flash from that type of tester. Which is about 10 times less than what it actually takes to make the spark jump the plug gap when under compression.
Club car recommends using an adjustable HEI inline type tester set to 18,000v to test the coil. If the coil is bad it will not make enough voltage to jump the gap at the 18K setting, or it may only appear very dim or yellow.
There are some resistance checks that can be made, but often those can test OK but the coil still be bad if the coil is cold during testing.

Typically I just put a new spark plug set to approx .035" gap in the coil and lay the plug on the engine where it's touching an unpainted surface (usually the valve cover). Crank the engine and see if the spark is consistent and bright blueish white spark. If the spark is yellow, or there's no spark at all, disconnect the kill circuit wire and re-check. If still no spark, its time for a new coil.
The symptoms you have are typical of a failed coil. A very weak or dim yellowish spark at the plug that is not consistent. You might get one quick spark when it first starts cranking and then not see it again until you try again later.
A new coil will have a very bright blue/white spark that is consistent with each revolution.

Well put

[squirt199]

On the off chance. I had a bad ground on my ignitor. I went with the HEI conversion and it still did t work. Till I grounded it to the body.. one clue was the starter wouldn't stop turning unless I put it in neutral after the pedal switch had been activated. Once I found the good ground it was fine..

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[CP241]

Originally Posted by squirt199

On the off chance. I had a bad ground on my ignitor. I went with the HEI conversion and it still did t work. Till I grounded it to the body.. one clue was the starter wouldn't stop turning unless I put it in neutral after the pedal switch had been activated. Once I found the good ground it was fine..

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You can't do an HEI conversion on this motor. The cool/ignitor is one assembly and gets ground through being mounted to the engine block

[squirt199]

Originally Posted by CP241

You can't do an HEI conversion on this motor. The cool/ignitor is one assembly and gets ground through being mounted to the engine block [emoji106]

Fair enough. But in my case the low spark was due to a bad ground on the ignitor. Sorry about the confusion for the HEI. i was only referring to my dim spark issue on a 91 marathon 2 cycle. I thought I saw 3pg in the descrip and thought mine was a 3pg too.. thanks for clarifying.

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