Which ignition coils to use??

[Rasputin]

How about Accell, Which ones and keep or eliminate the resistor? I forgot and I also was interested in coils sometime soon.

If you go to
http://www.denniskirk.com/jsp/produc...fCatId=&mmyId=
there is a lot of info as to which ones you need. They are quite pricey through Dennis Kirk but you may be able to locate them elsewhere. I run them and I really like them. A little hard to fit in there but there are quite a few different options, you just have to pick which works for you. Some people don't like the bright yellow wires, I do.

[mlew]

I have a Acell kit on order from Summit Racing. I did not want the yellow wires on a stock looking bike so I ordered the black coil kit. They have not made any yet and I've been waiting for 3 months. Still no confirmed delivery date. The kit was only 150$ and it comes with wires. I'm tired of waiting and am looking at other options. I even called Acell to see if they could send me yellow coils with black wires, they said "no, our shipping department is not smart enough to do that".

[dbeardslee]

I've got a set of the black Mike's XS coils, but I haven't installed them yet. Hopefully They last more than 7k miles! I guess I won't be doing any long trips without my old ones as spares.

That would be prudent. If you start getting low rpm nonsense up to about 2.5k rpms, that gets worse as the engine warms up, and does a pretty good imitation of a slow circuit carb problem, that's how mine acted when they died. Looked so much like a carb problem that I pulled the carbs 15 times trying to locate it - I just couldn't conceive of them going bad that quickly. Needless to say, diddling with the carbs didn't fix the coils . Just passing it along.

The accels would be a good choice too. On the wires, I run regular automotive 7mm solid copper core wires on my mikes coils. They work fine on the mikes, and you would think they'd work on the accels too.

[Crazcnuk]

I have about 25,000kms on my black coils, so far.


I did notice they have put warnings on their coils (black and green) that running the bike with a spark plug wire unhooked will fry the coil

[whiskey pete]

I'm the first to admit that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Am I hearing that the black coil from mikesxs part# 17-6803 tends to crap out after a couple seasons and the coil 17-6810 is a more durable product. If so can I use the yellow wires that they advertise 23-2906 or do I have to use the "high tension" black ones that they advertise. Funds are limited and the wife is snapping at my heels. Would hate to make the wrong choise.

[Elevener]

I put mikes black coils on my bike, Im not worried about it. Many here have them without problems. Of course they were out of stock on the green ones at the time .

[dbeardslee]

Am I hearing that the black coil from mikesxs part# 17-6803 tends to crap out after a couple seasons and the coil 17-6810 is a more durable product.

I think the jury is still out on durability of the green coils. I don't think anyone's had them on long enough to really say. They do appear to be more robust than the black ones, though. I've got several thousand miles on mine, and no problems yet.

[DougWon]

Black coils from Mikes - poor results...

I installed a set last summer, and was impressed with the performance. Unfortunately, as the weather got warmer this year, I've gotten stranded a couple of times for over an hour each time. It seems the harder I push the bike - putting distance between myself and erratic auto drivers - the more likely they are to give problems if I don't give them adequate time to cool down. Now the bike is getting harder to start even if left overnight. I did a little research, and a gentleman from a Kawasaki site claims the QC on the Accels is poor - too much resistance - better off with Dyna's. Another person suggests Nology coils, although they recommend calling for selecting the correct unit for your bike. Nology also makes special plug wires - very pricey - but I think you can run the coils with standard wires, although it'd be worth asking about when you get them on the phone. I'm back to stock coils until I decide which way to jump!

[Lamric]

Go cheap. You can pick up a set of second hand coils from the following bikes. They have the right spaced mounting holes (100mm) to bolt straight into the XS11.

Honda VF 500 FE/F2E 84 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 500 FF/F2F 85 Ignition Coil
Honda VT 500 ED 83-86 Ignition Coil
Honda VT 500 EF 86-88 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 750 FD RC15 83-84 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 750 FE RC15 84-86 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 1000 FE SC15 84 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 1000 FF/FG/F2F/F2G 84-88 Ignition Coil
Honda VF 1000 RE/RF/RG 84-86 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 700 A1 Vulcan 85 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki ZN 700 A1/A2 LTD 84-85 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 750 A2-A5 85-90 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 750 A9/A10 93-94 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 1500 A6 (VN15) 92 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 1500 B2-B6 (VN15SE) 88-92 Ignition Coil
Kawasaki VN 1500 C1/C2 (VN15) 94-95 Ignition Coil

You can drop the resistor, plus the HT leads are now renewable.

Click here for a walkthrough of fitting them to my XS1100 Special.

I can recommend this mod, I did it 18 months ago and the coils have covered 15,000 miles since without any trouble.

[mlew]

I finally got my coils from Accel and installed them this weekend. WOW what a big difference it made. I was not expecting to see such a big improvement in starting and overall engine preformance. It starts easier, runs stronger that it ever did. For the price it was worth the wait, cost 150 for everything, coils, wires and mounting hardware.