Steamer with bad habbits

[Titus]

Hello everyone, my name is Titus, and I have recently (2 months) bought a Steamer for my wife and I to go cruising in comfort long story short, after a full carb rebuild gaskets and orings balanced and all the good stuff, our "little" friend started acting up.
First fit was tach boncing a little on decel
Second was a huge backfire and a total loss of engine and tach as if you pushed the killswitch, started right up and went on our way.
Third was another huge backfire, the day after and we had to wait a couple of smokes to get it running.
Fourth was me getting home from work and it barely running, opening the throttle was like hitting the redline just boncing there at 1500 rpm.
Today she only idle's for 10seconds and then dies, next attempt she idles for 5, then 3 sec. In this orded and at these intervals, I swear, to get it to idle 10 secs you have to wait 10 minutes.
Little fu.ker is ordered new, replacement cdi on the way from the uk...

Checked the little fu.ker, seems ok, ac voltage and ohms, still changed it with a japanese model with different ohms and she does the SAME THING!
Checked all conections, ok, cdi has a leaky transistor...whatever should work on 2 cyl even if it was dead, will change transistor on monday.
Found that the alternator wires were melted and fried in their connector, big white thing hidden besides the rear shock,  cut wires, removed alty and sent for refurbishment, even with alt removed she does the SAME THING! On the two alty wires I have 12v with key off and 0 with key on is that normal?
I also have a ghost relay under the seat next two batt, no idea what it does, clicks with key on, bike runs all electrics with or without it.
Please fellow Steamer guardians help us bring our lovely bike back to life, will post photos and everything needed, as you can see I am trying my best, bought all the parts just waiting for them to arrive.

Short: Starts, runs 10 seconds dies, next start 5 sec, last start 3 sec. Not accepting any throttle. Wait 10 minutes, then repeat, you can actually time it.

[Titus]

Ghost relay has something to do with the bike being in neutral and the sidestand, volts coming and going, problem is with the bike in gear and sidestand down I get 8v there, battery is on charger btw. How can I bypass/eliminate that thing? Maybe it's cutting down on volt supply to the cdi.

[London_Phil]

Hey Titus
Steamers were known for bad coils, but not that many cdi failures. If the Alternator R/R failed it may have cooked the CDI unit.
Maybe post a pic of the ghost relay.

[Titus]

Thought about coils but refuse to believe that all 3 die at the same time and interval, remember runs 10 s then dies. Starts when shown the key so not a fueling problem, alty had wires welded, sent for repair, cdi is on the way hope to get it soon. Ghost relay is under seat 4 prong, relates to key on, neutral light and sidestand whatever you do or bridge the relay bike runs 10s then stops. However when sidestand down we get some 8v to the relay, sidestand switch does its job so cant be related. Ordered cdi from ebay today, some seller from uk, hope it gets to romania soon.
I will try anything you guys suggest, going out of my mind here. Bike is cursed, I swear.

[Titus]

Posted clip to youtube with its gremlin

[Beernard]

Gday Titus,
I have had a bad coil pickup/crank sensor (seems to live by many names!). The time frame was a lot longer, but when the bike warmed, the unit failed. Cooled down, ran again. Drove me nuts, but I was given the solution on this forum. Might be worth a look if you have no luck with your current adventures.
Regards, Bern.

[Titus]

Thank you Beernard, pickup is on the way brand new from Britishlegends france, brand new, of course I've read through the forum and also blamed the pickup, thats why I have it new on the way, changed it with another type with totally different values and bike did the same, we'll see when it arrives.

Found out that white alt wire goes to a connector under the dash and to the ign switch, and little brown one to the same conector, ign off we have 12 to the wires, ign on we have 0.

Question, what does the alternator put out of these two wires fat white and little brown which were browned out and welded together and why do they go to the ign switch? Is the cdi getting a alt running signal? AC, DC?

[London_Phil]

You can download the full service manual from the site, I think..

[Titus]

Tried just now, seems to be unavailible for the steamer, just find the model based on vin number, nothing more 

[London_Phil]

PM'd you.

[Titus]

Thank you Phil, responded.

[Beernard]

Sorry Titus, I can't add to the discussion from here. All the best.

[Titus]

We will get to the bottom of it, I bet the melted alternator wires had a big role here, maybe even cooked the cdi, will keep you guys posted, next week I have the alt back and the pickup.
Thank you everyone!!!

[gcloys]

We will get to the bottom of it, I bet the melted alternator wires had a big role here, maybe even cooked the cdi, will keep you guys posted, next week I have the alt back and the pickup.
Thank you everyone!!!

Manual is on the Steamers Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/824051841083961/files/files. You may find more info over there. There are some instances of Alternator connectors melting from high resistance.

[Titus]

Alternator has 2 wires, fat white one and little brown one, white one has 12v when ign off, voltage drops when ign on, brown one has 12v all the time, measured against the big mass screwed between the alternator and engine block, is that normal? What is the alt supposed to output? Have the manual and wiring diagram, just cant figure it out. Is the bike supposed to run without the alt? If you see my video, sure looks like a volt supply problem, hope to get the alt back tomorrow.