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I just installed a pair of Mikes XS Performance Coils (a.k.a. 'the green ones'). They're fatter than either the $34 Mikes coils or the stock units, so mounting got a little tricky. I first tried some angle brackets, but they're just too big to fit. If you try mounting them using their mounting holes, the plug wire towers end up against the frame. I finally cross drilled the farthest mounting holes, and that made them fit perfect. Do you think that will void the warranty 
? When they're cross-drilled there will be some small pieces of metal that will fall out of the end as the mounting bars are a laminate of thin strips of metal. You wind up with 'U' shaped brackets on each end. Doesn't seem to be a problem - they mount securely and it actually made for a very tidy installation on my 79F.
The coils have screw-in terminals for the 12v leads, and they aren't marked in any way as to positive and negative. With the towers pointing down I attached the red lead to the bottom terminal, and the green lead to the top just because of the wire length on the supplied leads. For some reason the leads they supply have one bullet connector (red) and one spade connector (green) - must be a 650 thing. I plugged the bullet connectors directly into the 2/1 red/wht connector, and the spade connector into my patch wires from the old coils. Either I got lucky and wired them correctly, or it doesn't make any difference - they work. I've got an e-mail in to Mikes to find out if it matters, but haven't received a reply yet.
Where the high tension wires connect to the towers it's the same kind of connection you usually see on cages - a little metal contact that has to be crimped to the end of the wire and then snapped into the tower. There were absolutely NO instructions included, so I had to wing it. I stripped about a half inch of insulation off the wires and folded it back along the insulation. Then I put the connector on and crimped it making sure the 'tooth' stuck into the insulation so it wouldn't pull off the end of the wire.
I actually like this method of attachment better than the $34 coils. It will facilitate changing the wires without the need to remove the coils like you have to do on the $34's. 'Course the proof of the pudding is in the eating - and Betsy's eating them up.
The quality on these things appears to be excellent. $69 a pop may seem a bit steep, but I'm glad I spent the money. The $34 coils were great too - until they failed (after about 18 mos/10K+ miles), and I've heard from another member who also had them fail. Hopefully these will last a LOT longer.
? When they're cross-drilled there will be some small pieces of metal that will fall out of the end as the mounting bars are a laminate of thin strips of metal. You wind up with 'U' shaped brackets on each end. Doesn't seem to be a problem - they mount securely and it actually made for a very tidy installation on my 79F. The coils have screw-in terminals for the 12v leads, and they aren't marked in any way as to positive and negative. With the towers pointing down I attached the red lead to the bottom terminal, and the green lead to the top just because of the wire length on the supplied leads. For some reason the leads they supply have one bullet connector (red) and one spade connector (green) - must be a 650 thing. I plugged the bullet connectors directly into the 2/1 red/wht connector, and the spade connector into my patch wires from the old coils. Either I got lucky and wired them correctly, or it doesn't make any difference - they work. I've got an e-mail in to Mikes to find out if it matters, but haven't received a reply yet.
Where the high tension wires connect to the towers it's the same kind of connection you usually see on cages - a little metal contact that has to be crimped to the end of the wire and then snapped into the tower. There were absolutely NO instructions included, so I had to wing it. I stripped about a half inch of insulation off the wires and folded it back along the insulation. Then I put the connector on and crimped it making sure the 'tooth' stuck into the insulation so it wouldn't pull off the end of the wire.
I actually like this method of attachment better than the $34 coils. It will facilitate changing the wires without the need to remove the coils like you have to do on the $34's. 'Course the proof of the pudding is in the eating - and Betsy's eating them up.
The quality on these things appears to be excellent. $69 a pop may seem a bit steep, but I'm glad I spent the money. The $34 coils were great too - until they failed (after about 18 mos/10K+ miles), and I've heard from another member who also had them fail. Hopefully these will last a LOT longer.
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