MC4 spark but no spark

bikerphil · #1 02-10-2011, 03:47 AM

Hi,
I left my workshop to go away and think about this for a bit but so far I've no conclusion.....

Just fitted an MC4 bike ignition with MSD pickups and MSD small bike coils.
Turn the engine over by hand and the LED on the ignition flashes every half turn as you would expect but there's no spark at the plug.

Tried the suggested test in the manual, and connected the green wire to earth and touch the white white quickly to earth and i get a spark at the plug, so its working, but it's not working.
I was thinking the trigger/pickup might be faulty but the LED is flashing on the unit?
Does it have a feature that stops it sparking below a certain RPM maybe?
Any suggestions?

msdpowersports1 · #2 02-11-2011, 09:45 AM

From what you have told us the unit seams to be good and if the LED is turning on when the magnet passes the trigger you’re getting a signal. The MC-4 will not always spark when turning the engine over by hand. Have you tried cranking the engine over with the starter to see if you get spark at the plug? If you have any other questions please call me on the powersports line 1-888-258-3835.

Thank you
Ray

bikerphil · #3 02-11-2011, 02:33 PM

Thanks for the reply.
I've just solved the mystery, and like you say it will not spark turning over by hand. I was avoiding using my starter as it was disassembled and buried under a mountain of junk. But i dug it out and tried it and sure enough it sparks merrily!
I was used to my MC-1 which sparks even at the slowest speed (it's how i used to set timing). However i see the advantage of having it not spark as many a time i turned on the MC-1 to get a small explosion as any gas in the cylinders would ignite.

Cheers