Yeah, without studying the true wiring diagram on this bike, I'm thinking this "condenser" is more of an element of the charging system than the ignition system. I would speculate that if the battery has a good charge, the ignition should probably still yield a spark. Also without studying the full wiring diagram, I might speculate that the absence of this condenser might damage the voltage regulator and then the cdi/ignition box. But...just shooting in the dark here. The rudimentary tests listed in the shop manual for the ignition box and voltage regulator might be in order.

 

With the AC generation of the stator a capacitor is basic gearing for inversion of AC to DC.

Seems like if it were this capacitor as needed... you would have no charging system without it... can I see this schematic too lol?

 

OK, hope this is readable.

On what this calls the headlight capacitor. The black wire is broken, red ain't looking too hot either but is still attached.
I need to spend the night reading the book and hit the bike with the meter tomorrow.
I like the idea of testing for spark w/o the plug, using a meter.

 

That capacitor has nothing to do with lack of spark, it's there to smooth out the pulses of power to the head/tail lights, as there is no battery. It's acting as a very small capacity battery.
I'm not sure what kind of meter you are intending to use to check for spark power. The voltage there is minimum 20,000 and of very short duration, minimal amperage.

 

The diagram indicates a capacitor in the headlight wiring, nothing to do with the ignition. Probably used in conjunction with the regulator to limit output voltage to the headlight. No points/capacitor in the spark plug circuit. If the capacitor is bad, the headlight will burn out faster.

 

Thanks, I'll keep looking. Still trying to untangle what's been done to the wiring harness.

 

Are you sure your kill switch is operating properly and isn't grounded all the time? Sometimes this simple element can cause you to chase all kinds of nonexistent gremlins.

 

Ya know I typed that into my last post and then erased it. It's the next thing to check along with the grounds. I might replace it with a switch I know works.
That would be too funny if that was it.
Thanks again, I'll report back.

 

The capacitor shares a node with the coil... am I the only one seeing this? Like I said before old systems had capacitors for collecting the coils collapsing field as it was pulsed on/off with current.

Not saying this is your problem... but the node still exists none the less.

 

One side of the coil is grounded, so yea, it shares a node will all components that are grounded. That would be like... everything.