wires to the coil

Cateye, 49cc.

It seems the spark is very weak. At times, non-existant. With the spark plug in its boot and removed from the head, I am touching the plug to the head. When there is a spark it is blue. (plug is new) I am using the electric starter to crank the engine. While the battery is weak, the spark would not be affected.

There are three wires to the coil. One is the ground wire. One is the high voltage wire to the spark plug. The third wire goes to the coil winding.

Am I correct in assuming that the third wire is normally open when the engine is running. But is grounded through the key switch when the engine is off? Perhaps that wire would also go to a kill switch if one was available.

The coil is very close to the flywheel... like you guys say, perhaps a business card away. I doubt it has ever been adjusted since the cateye hasn't had anyone mess with it but me.

Perhaps I need a new coil.

Thanks
Frank

They stopped making 2 stroke versions of the cateye you have in 04/05 so its very likely you will need a new coil as they have a shelf life in years after initial useage aswell as a service life in run time hours...Whichever comes first becomes its demise.I beleive the service lifespan is 3-4 years or 300 running hours;-if you use it any longer than its operating on borrowed time and not too efficiently either


When no killswitch wires are touching a ground source the engine will run...If the wire going into the winding becomes grounded the coil wont spark..The reason why theres two wires is because one is the coil body ground and the other is the kill wire...You can use the 2 wire starter pushbutton on the throttle as a killswitch when pressed.........Peace

Thanks CAM2.

I ordered a new coil. Hopefully it hasn't been sitting around for 5 years already.

The off position of my key switch shorts out the kill wire to ground. So that makes sense.

I just need to get a reason to use the kill switch.

Thanks,
Frank