To save the time when you take the timing cover off, use the stock cardboard gasket and place it dry and clean against the cover, and grease the side that touches the engine case.  When you take it off, you will not tear the gasket.  It will be stuck to the small cover and come right off the engine.  Regrease the one side when you put it back together.  My cover has been off once or twice a summer since 2005 with the same gasket,  no leaks,  no curing time for the glue, and no possiblities of stray balls of rtv clogging oil passages. 

Summit, I feel your pain buddy, I hope the pick up coils get you back to 100 percent.  The summer is passing by pretty quick this year. 

Leo, good idea on the gasket.  I wonder if the gasket would come off that easily after 2-3 years?  I usually don't have any reason to to take the cover off.

I just performed the tests in the manual for both the pickup coils and the ignitor box. The pickup coils test fine, but the ignitor box fails EVERY test associated with pins 4 and 5 of the box. Unless there is a typo or other issue with the test in the book, I have a bad ignitor. I triple checked my meter (quality, Simpson analog) and procedure, all (well, most) other tests produced normal readings. I've never been quite this excited to find a failed part! This could fix an issue I've had since owning the bike.

Simpson 260? Ah, the good ole days... working on tube TVs.

BB - my ignitor also produced various readings that didn't match the book, but I am no expert doing it either and the manual does say using anything other than xxxx may produce diff readings.

I would recommend swapping an ignitor w/someone to see.  Early ninja 900 used the same one, but a little more diff to remove since their tank has to come off.  I believe early Eliminators also used the same but x-ref parts fiches to verfiy.

If you were close to Lincoln you could try my spare ignitor.  Check around, ebay, etc for a used one.  There are quite a few out there.  If you look at new ones the part number is slightly diff than the OEM, at least for my 87.  I assumed a new number indicates that it is not what orig came on the bike, or new number is upgraded, or both.

My new ignitor and cover gasket should be here Wed and I'll put it in and let you know the results.  In the meantime, I am shopping for another bike because if this doesn't work I may be buying something else.  C14, FJ, ST or big V cruiser.  Ha

bbroj - If you want to meet somewhere for lunch, I'd ride there and let you try out my ignitor.  That would let you know for certain before you shell out the $$. 

Jon, greatly appreciate the offer and I may take you up on it. There is another connie rider near me (green98connie) who has made the same offer, he may also have a spare if he can find it in his boxes/bins.

Summit, yeah, I saw that note too, "use the Kawi meter or we're not liable" blah, blah... My readings for the 2 pins were completely opposite what was listed as normal. One row said it should be infinity for all other pins and it was nearly shorted, a few thousand ohms max. All the other readings were spot on with my meter, so I trust what I was seeing.

Gitbox, yup, I love my 260. You can see things with analog that just look like a jumble of numbers on a digital. Still use a 260 almost daily at work (telephony) and have one at home as well. Digital has it's place, but I like analog instruments.

Initial 15 minute test ride with new pickup coils installed and no hint of a miss.  I'll do a longer test ride Thursday to confirm.  Prior to installing it would miss almost immediately and/or within 10 minutes.

Coils were super easy install.  Installed a new gasket too.  $133 total, plus my time. 

Last year I adjusted the pickup coil gaps and got another 3k miles before problem.  I'm guessing it just bought me a little more time till I needed new ones but we'll see.

On edit - I went for a 25 minute test ride tonight and it runs great.

Took the old pickups and wanted to see what was inside so grabbed my hacksaw.  I hadn't even started cutting yet and noticed one of the wires was real loose.  It came right out.   I really had to work the other one to get it to break so now I now what the problem was, loose/broken wire going into the front pickup coil.

Easy to check them by pulling them out and inspecting them.  The pickup itself is durable as a rock and appears to be solid like in the middle so not much can go wrong there I'm guessing but I didnt break it open all the way to see.

Thanks for letting us know that replacing the coils worked. For the one with the loose wire (and us frugal types), do you think it was repairable?

I am glad you found the broken wire to confirm the problem and that the new parts resulted in a good fix.  I knew you would get it, these bikes are generally pretty dependable.   Enjoy your summer in the saddle.   

George - not fixable as far as I can tell. The wire was broken off inside where it goes into the pickup coil magnet box.

I think when bikes get 24 years old things start to go wrong.   LOL

Leo - I put some grease on the engine side of the gasket.  Cool idea.  Wierd gaskets, silver.