I can echo that, my 86 XT that I purchased new got to be hard to start, ran poorly, back fired quite a bit. It was leaking oil all over the place so I started by removing the rocker box and resealing. I replaced all the rubber parts, cleaned the carbs throughly, replaced the seals in the carb slide lifter shaft plus gaskets and decal valve diaphragm. This process was all through the winter. When done I rolled it out and it refused to start, no spark at all. I pulled the cdi from my 84 that I purchased as a parts bike and it had no spark.

I then set down with the manual, OEM is best, and tested the ohms of the stator coils, ignition coil wires, grounding circuits etc. I used the AC volt setting on my volt meter and measured the trigger coils for output, they did have a kick when kicking over the engine, I checked the cdi charging coils for a kick and they did. I then compared all readings to the 84 and got very similar readings. I concluded it must be the CDI.

I knew I did not want to buy a used one that was probably old as the two I have so I ordered two of them from the guy in New Zealand. I waited and waited with no response and got to checking elsewhere.

I contacted Zeeltronic as I already had good experience with their CDI's on my Yamaha two strokes. Borut said he did not have a CDI for the XT but would look into it. He then made me one to try out. I think I got it just a short time after the New Zealand units showed up.

The Hyperpak unit was installed and the bike started right after a few quick kicks, idled perfectly.

When the Zeeltronic unit showed up I programmed it with a few small changes from stock, they do come ready to use but since I was already familiar and had the necessary programing cables and used the provide software I altered things a bit.

The Zeeltronic unit SEEMS to have more low end punch, I even swapped out the units after warming the bike and A B compared them back and forth. I still think the Zeeltronic has a bit more low end. Some have agreed with me some not.

So to end this long version story. These bike are getting some age on them and CDI's do age and fail.

Steve

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'84 XT600 is now bored to 2nd oversize and new OEM pistons and rings installed. No more smoking.