[toomanytoys2]

If you had smoke coming from the electrical box, more then likely you have a short somewhere, especially if the battery cables were warm. That is quite a bit of current draw. I know that the wiring in the elec. box looks like a rats nest, but you are going to have to do some tracing.

1st cut any zip ties, wire ties, etc. so you can examine the wires carefully. Then with a "GOOD" strong flashlight, examine the insulation of each wire. Look for a wire that has insulation that is brittle, has changed color, or, is not round. These are some of the indications that the wires have gotten hot.

I would also trace and disconnect any wiring that goes to lights, horns, turn signals, etc. What you want to do is to isolate the engine from the rest of the buggy's accessories. That way, a short in a light will not affect what is happening with the motor.

However, like mentioned before, don't start throwing parts at it until you find the main problem. I really doubt that the CDI is causing the problem. The CDI is not a device that pulls a lot of current (even if they go bad).

To be truthful, I am not that big of a fan of "High Performance" CDIs. I bought one of those blue ones with fins and some kind of graph on it. I didn't really notice much of a difference power wise. However, it did give me grief. It caused a phantom drain on my battery that would kill it over time.