Tri Spark woes

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dynodave said:
It would be more constructive if you understood, I am talking about electronic failure.

Infant mortality is still electronic death?
"over voltage that can take a toll on electronics assemblies" extreme over voltage again failure from heat... plasma welding is heat!.

"As an EE who spent 17 years as a test engineer for military electronics, I'm qualified to say bullshit on that." I though you were a power supply design engineer?
"I've done the FMEA studies." Whats your point?
Click to expand...

I was a power supply design engineer before becoming a test engineer. I've held a number of engineering positions in 45 years. My point is that there are other ways for electronics to fail other than by heat. In the years that I tested aerospace electronics with temp and vibration cycling (real shake & bake), vibration induced failures were far more common than heat related. And yes, infant mortality is electronic death caused by component failure, usually within the first 50 hours of service. That's what "burn in" tests are intended to find.

In the world of automotive electronics (and electronic ignitions) exceeding about 16 volts can kill them. It's happened to me. If you want to call that a heat failure, that's up to you.
 
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Well I never figured this kind of response. I love waking up and finding so many suggestions to try.
As of this morning I tested again all the tests. This time I took the unit off the timing cover but left it hooked up. I reconnected the ground wire and did the self test again. Same result. Would spark on the test but not when a magnet was passed behind the unit.
Here is the catch-22. I can't test the output of the charging system until I can get it running again.
I had a Boyer unit on it for over 10 years and only changed to the TS because of the good reports of better idling and less kick back.
I have the CNW E-start now so maybe the kick back issue is not going to be a problem.
 
I was once told by a top electrical engineer that most electrical problems are caused by dry joints.
That said, from my failing memory I have a recollection that some camshaft tolerances on the of the drive taper and its depth can move the rotor position off the stator. If cam end float is just in the sweet spot, sometimes it'll spark and sometimes it wont. Brass shim was used to shim the rotor out nearer the stator coils.
Just a thought.
Dave
 
I should contact "Mustie1" on youtube. That guy can fix anything!
 
That Lucas stuff is not that bad. A nice ride out today up to 75 mph ,no issues and its all 60 years old coil ignition.;)
 
I've had electronic ignitions and I like their precision - until they fail. I'm not knocking them but I know that if I have a problem with my JH magneto - it can be rebuilt with replaceable parts. It will still be working 30 years from now after so many IEs have been discarded. There is a new special order option now for Commando side mounted magnetos. A lever retards it 20 crank degrees for starting (to avoid kickback). I've bench tested a couple of them and they're working out fine.

Tri Spark woes
 
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It would be nice to know how many trispark kits have been sold
How many have failed
How much actual mileage they did
How old they were
 
And what Marshg246 noted, what year they were purchased. Is there improvement as sales progressed/grew over the years or did it remain inconsistent?
There are a boatload of variables that would influence long term reliability.
 
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Lineslinger said:
And what Marshg246 noted, what year they were purchased. Is there improvement as sales progressed/grew over the years or did it remain inconsistent?
There are a boatload of variables that would influence long term reliability.
Click to expand...
Also are they worse on commandos than other bikes?
 
Someone quoted John Healy of Covenrty Spares on a similar thread here and he said that the failure rate of all the different ignitions that he sold was about the same, at 1%, taking into account the volume of each. He didn't think TriSpark was any worse than the others. I'll see if I can find that thread...
 
baz/Lineslinger,

I've already posted how many I've sold. I checked with AN. They became a dealer about the same time as me. I don't know how many they've sold, but they've had 0 returns for failures. They did have one where the customer bent the unit! So, between us, zero Norton warranty returns. The one I replaced for a customer was an original version that he had for several years.
 
marshg246 said:
Actually the OEM charging system and ignition are just fine. But, in my experience, people new to vintage British bikes have little to no mechanical skills. I have three bikes in my shop right now from people 45-55 years old and trying to get their first British bike on the road and I've worked with a couple more. The good news is that younger people are slowly joining us, but many don't even know what points are!
Click to expand...
I knew a guy who worked for Sperry years ago and wanted to know how points worked.
 
marshg246 said:
Actually the OEM charging system and ignition are just fine. But, in my experience, people new to vintage British bikes have little to no mechanical skills. I have three bikes in my shop right now from people 45-55 years old and trying to get their first British bike on the road and I've worked with a couple more. The good news is that younger people are slowly joining us, but many don't even know what points are!
Click to expand...
I knew a guy who worked for Sperry years ago and wanted to know how points worked.
 
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