Coil question/problem...

[natemoen]

Check this out!!

So here is what I am guessing the PO did. When he was working on it he must have pulled the coils oil to put new caps on. He found out the wires were pretty brittle by breaking one. He took the coil from the 1 and 4 cylinders and re capped them and used it for 2 and 3 cylinders. Then he cut the ends off the other coil JAMMED A WOOD SCREW INTO THE WIRE TO ACT AS A ELECTRODE POST and then put a new piece of wire on that to give him enough wire to reach the plugs.

[dbeardslee]

Devilish clever, these PO's . Get rid of those wires - they're not good. It's really pretty easy to graft new wires into the old coils - particularly on the 78-80 coils (81's are a bit tougher). You can do the whole job with a hand rasp or a dremel tool, a $12 set of four banger solid copper core non-resistor plug wires, some new caps if the old ones are out of spec, two zip ties, a little rtv and a piece of duct tape. If you feel a little uneasy about it, I'd be happy to describe the process in more detail. PM me if you want to talk about it on the phone.

[natemoen]

I just got new wires put onto the old coils. It is almost impossible to find bulk spark plug wires! hopefully these work at least for the summer!

[natemoen]

They seem to be working good. I am slowly chipping away at the multitude of little problems on my new ride. But it might be in a ride able condition after I get the rear brakes finished. I did take it for a couple laps around the parking lot after I got the coils in though!

[dbeardslee]

Good job! Did you recheck your secondary resistance with the new wires?

[Winterhawk]

Just a thought. I had a pocket tester and when testing the primary resistance I got a reading of 3.8 ohms. Both coils. When I got home and used my high dollar DVOM I got 1.5 ohms. As we all know my problem ended up being a sync tube slid into the intake boot 1 inch...LOL Hard to believe but very true.

Use a good ohm meter for your test and be sure to remove the secondary caps. I'd get a new used coil off e-Bay for $15.00 or so. I want accell's but now I'm wondering if my 1978 XS1100 supplies enough voltage to allow them to work right. Thinking of going to LED's first and getting one of those trick VR's the guy and his daughter make and sell in the North West USA.

[dbeardslee]

I want accell's but now I'm wondering if my 1978 XS1100 supplies enough voltage to allow them to work right.

Check your voltages at the large connector on the TCI. Put a probe on the grey, white/red, orange, and red/white (one at a time) from the back of the connector while it's plugged in, and the other probe on a good ground. Turn the ignition on (not running), set dmm to DC volts and take a reading - should be 12v. Repeat the process for the black wire - reading should be 6v. If you're voltages are below 12v, start cleaning or replacing connectors 'till you get it back up to 12v - new crimp on connectors preferred, and may be the only way to get all your voltage back. If you've got 12v at the TCI, you should have plenty of juice to fire accell's - assuming they are speced properly for our ignitions. You can also use Mikes XS coils (green ones preferred), or you can get a set of Dynas at Z1 Enterprises.