Does anyone know what exactly the ignition pulse generator does? Do these go bad, or are there intermittent problems that are associated with them?

 

the signal generator basically generates a signal that the ECU processes to determine when to fire the spark. It is on everything that has electronic ignition. This is a replacement of the old Points style ignition. And yes they can go bad, even though rear they can go bad. It is basically a coil of wire that will generate a small electrical charge that the ECU reads. If this coil has a break in it then it will not generate a signal, or if the insulation preventing this electricity from leaking out to ground and instead of the ECU is breaking down then it will fail. But sometimes the gap between the sensor and the part it spins by it to generate that signal will be alittle too far. Bikes use either a separate reluctor wheel. and other bikes use the outside of the flywheel and has these welded tabs that pass by the signal generator. I don't know I feel like i'm getting too technical in this explanation. I guess what i wrote helped. It is a lot simpler than when someone is trying to explain it.

 

Do you know if this will cause a bike to just stop running? I have F4 that will idle just fine and run while in neutral without stalling. But if you go on the highway and run it for a few miles it will just shut down, let it sit for a while and it will fire back up and run for a bit and then shut down again.

Thanks so much for the information.

 

I am currently trying to diagnose almost the same issue you are on my 95 F3. Its only happened to me twice on the freeway though, and there was about 500 miles between the 2 occurances. If you solved your issue let me know as I am curious and afraid to take my bike on a long ride.