1985 Honda 250 sx CDI problem?

[honda250sx]

I was ripping around the property today in the snow around my house when all of a sudden the ole bullet proof SX died instantly. I took her in the garage and warmed her up. I took the plug out and checked spark....none at all. I checked compression and it was perfect. Fuel also working properly. All switches working properly, neutral,kill and starter. I removed the coil and replaced with one i had purchased for the future. No change at all. Also changed out the voltage regulator and no change. Finally i changed out the CDI box. Vroooooom fired right up and sat there and purrrred like normal. Has anyone ever seen a CDI failure on these trikes? I have never seen or heard one go bad. I wish i had another trike to test mine that i think went bad on. Fortunately I have a complete MINT wiring harness with coil,voltage regulator,cdi and starter solenoid I bought from RPM-ATV on ebay.

[Twilight]

Groud problem is what my odyssey had, might be the same with yours.

[TeamGeek6]

Put the old CDI back in, see if it works. Its usually NOT the CDI. Its almost always bad wiring connectors. Jump in the old CDI and newer wiring and see if it sparks.

[honda250sx]

TeamGeek i plan to do this tomorrow. I have never seen one either. I have known the owner of my trike since it was new. Never had an issue. Today it gave up whatever it was. Further investigation tomorrow. I have dielectric grease on every connector as well.

[Dirtcrasher]

Out of the 6 or so SX's I had, the failure was never the CDI. Usually the wire connector at the CDI because on the SX it mounts to the battery box with the wires kinda of bent into it and they break right there.

[honda250sx]

Steve, im going to head out to the shop and take a look inside the harness in that area right now. I will report back in a while.

[honda250sx]

Well upon further investigation it was indeed the wiring harness that had an issue. I had a loose connection and quickly fixed the issue and installed the old CDI and it fired right up. Thanks for all that posted and helped out! Problem solved

[Dirtcrasher]

I figured it would be.

The SX's don't break!!!! LOL.............

[brapp]

well fyi they do go bad but its rare. i have had gotten 4 diffrent trikes with bad boxes and you can test them by findign the resistances for each ina nd testign them with multi meter.