smoke coming out of ignition module?

My modded bike was running good, but then it stopped idling. I thought carb problems so I took the carb off and cleaned it again. Just put her back together and she fired up and was idling but a bit rough. Not even a minute after startup smoke started to come from the ignition module( the part which connects to manifold vacuum). It had been getting hot before but no smoke until now.

I didn't change any electrical, not sure where to start troubleshooting this. One thing that may be an issue is the ignition module supposed to be grounded or mounted to the frame for cooling? Mine is just dangling off the side of the bike. I was going to relocate some of the electrical items so they aren't bolted down except regulator is bolted down and a ground wire is connected to the bolt.

I don't know the 1200 ignition but electronics and it may need to be grounded..If it is a metal case they will ground to the case and then the bolt that holds to the frame completes the ground.

i doubt its the grounding ..this is where 1200s shoe there weak spots ...the ignition is the worst of all ignitions on oldwings ..these black boxes are not being made anymore imagine that...could be your ballast might not be working on the coils ..rather sre 1200s have one ..coils couldbe bad or the wires and ends to spark plugs could be making the black box heat up.... maybe backlander has something to add here ..he deals with 1200 wiring all the time ...

The ignition control unit is grounded through the four pin white connector with the solid green wire. This wire is spliced into the main harness ground wires at S111. The main harness ground wires go to the G101 ground which is located at the bottom bolt on the regulator/rectifier mount. Do not attempt to check the ignition unit itself with a voltmeter, it is solid state and could be damaged by doing so.

Since this is an 1100 frame with the 1200 engine, perhaps the green ground wire is NOT connected properly to a good chassis ground ?

Hmm, it's unclear to me where the smoke was coming from.
The housing at the back of the engine is what it sounds like to me.

That sends a ground signal to the spark units.
Basically they act as open and closed switching, on the ground side though. They should never have +12 volts on any of the wires.
The coils in there shouldn't get hot either.
The spark units do get hot.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=135016#p135016:3kt3bqxq said:

dan filipi » Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:43 am[/url]":3kt3bqxq]
Hmm, it's unclear to me where the smoke was coming from.
The housing at the back of the engine is what it sounds like to me.

That sends a ground signal to the spark units.
Basically they act as open and closed switching, on the ground side though. They should never have +12 volts on any of the wires.
The coils in there shouldn't get hot either.
The spark units do get hot.

Click to expand...

No the ignition module itself was smoking, the one in the pic above back lander posted.

The voltage regulator does have the green ground wire bolted on it, but its mounted to an ungrounded metal plate. Its where the ICU is typically, because this ICU doesnt fit the 1100 frame mount, so I moved it. Does it require more grounding than the green ground wire? Could just changing the mount locations for ICU and voltage regulator be the cause because I did do that. I wanted to relocate all that junk to have no false gas tank, where it is now was just supposed to be temporary.

I'm guessing now that the ICU smoked its toast?

There is another green wire coming out of the wiring harness above the carb area which is cut and connects to nothing. I didn't do that though, it was this way.

just not familiar enough with this to help much ...what yr 1200 motor is it

The ICU case is plastic and has no way to be grounded on it's own when bolted to the frame, therefore the green wire is the only ground for the ICU. I have an 85 Interstate wiring harness dissected on a plywood board with the components like the voltage reg/rectifier and ICU attached to it. The GL wiring harness is a maze of wires with an unbelievable number of factory splices numbered like the S111 where the ICU ground is spliced into one of two large solid green ground wires that run nearly the whole length of the wiring harness. This is the inside of an ICU and shows the printed circuit boards, if it smoked it is probably toast unless you have an electonic whiz for a friend who can troubleshoot and replace the components that got fried, on the other hand I have seen circuit boards that fried only the electrical path between components and those can be repaired. I have seen the ICU's available on Ebay. Good luck !!!

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=135041#p135041:1xp376kb said:

joedrum » Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:39 am[/url]":1xp376kb]
just not familiar enough with this to help much ...what yr 1200 motor is it

Click to expand...

People have said it looks like an 84 motor, myself I don't know.
Thanks for trying to help... Answers like I just don't know are better than no answers at all.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=135051#p135051:2yk63zil said:

backlander » Fri Nov 07, 2014 7:55 am[/url]":2yk63zil]
The ICU case is plastic and has no way to be grounded on it's own when bolted to the frame, therefore the green wire is the only ground for the ICU. I have an 85 Interstate wiring harness dissected on a plywood board with the components like the voltage reg/rectifier and ICU attached to it. View attachment 2 The GL wiring harness is a maze of wires with an unbelievable number of factory splices numbered like the S111 where the ICU ground is spliced into one of two large solid green ground wires that run nearly the whole length of the wiring harness. View attachment 1 This is the inside of an ICU and shows the printed circuit boards, if it smoked it is probably toast unless you have an electonic whiz for a friend who can troubleshoot and replace the components that got fried, on the other hand I have seen circuit boards that fried only the electrical path between components and those can be repaired. I have seen the ICU's available on Ebay. Good luck !!!

Click to expand...

Can you clarify if the voltage regulator is supposed to be grounded to frame as well as via the green wire connected to its bolt? The stock voltage regulator mount on this bike seemed to be mounted with a rubber isolator or something which I can no longer find. The voltage regulator mount doesn't fit the frame, and i dont see how it could ground on the frame, that area is painted and the mount just clamps to a painted frame. I must be missing something, because my voltage regulator mount doesn't fit the frame its too loose.

I can't stick a replacement ICU in until I know what caused this one to smoke, or I'll just smoke the new one.

Also I see icu's with green labels and Grey labels for 1200's on eBay. Mine has a green label. Is there any difference between years, or will any 1200 ICU work? They start at around $80 so I sure don't want to smoke qnother one, I need to make sure and find the cause of this one smoking before replacing it.

Also is the wiring harness supposed to have another green line grounded to frame somewhere? I see no other green grounds connected to frame but like I said one green wire in the harness is cut and connects to nothing.

sheesh i cant remember witch one was best in the blab about them on forums about the 2 ICU available...gee honda wiring just sucks ...look at all the blue tape hidden connections...

If yours is in an 84, it would have ignition pickups in the back above the clutch, I think. I think they're the same as the 1100. 85 and up had them off the front of the crank, under the timing covers you can see the two pulse pickups.

Yes, 84 1200 has igntion pickups in the rear, all other years are front.

And nothing wrong with spliced wiring if it's done right.
Splicing is what we do to the 3 yellow stator wires.

well if you work for week with stator and other things only to discover it was a blue tape wonder connection hidden under the black wrap that caused all the problems ...and crap like this is never mention in manuals really is the ...it sucks part ...if a wire is connected together instead of strait run copper wire ..its lesser big time ... and should be known ...blacklander unwrap wiring harness tells it all ...so should have honda clymer or whoever sells manuals ..like this is not important ....

At least Honda wiring has more copper strands than Toyota wiring. I am always amazed that Toyotas don't have more wiring issues as there is hardly any wire in the insulation. Nearly all wiring harnesses that I have pulled apart have some sort of taped splices in them. Here is what smoke from under the dash looks like when you find the problem. This appears to be caused by poor installation or repairs to the roof mounted a/c evaporator not toyotas skinny ass wires.

I took apart the ICU and sure enough one of the two big transistors is totally fried. It may be repairable but I expect I have to buy a new ICU just in case a new transistor isn't enough.

In google searching I read bad/loose power connections can cause this as well as bad ignition switch or bad stator or coils. I have more troubleshooting to do, need to test my coils.

This bike is really pissing me off.

I only get .4 ohms when I read resistance across each coils input terminals. Both read the same. But google says 330-340 ohms. What's up? Was I supposed to disconnect the spark plug wires to get a proper reading? Sounds unlikely to me that both coils would be bad and read the same resistance. Maybe I'm testing them wrong and should read resistance from input to output? Not input to input?

Sounds like rather high numbers considering coils are rated at 3 or 4 ohms. Coils are just that. A coil inside a coil. The only good check I know for them is they work or they don't. With these old bikes many electrical gremlins are just from bad connections. Start with the wiring diagram and check each connection is clean and tight.

Can you post a picture of the reg/rect. mounted to your frame, I'm a little confused because you said it was loose, if it is then the system is not receiving any ground from that G101 grounding point, hence the smoke, hopefully it only smoked the ICU and not the reg/rect. also. Could be why your getting low readings on the coils also, no ground.