Poll - would a new TCI/Igniter for the XS11 be worth it?

[mainlylinux]

The fact that they spec the same doesn't surprise me.

Some things have a high profit margin on them - I gotta believe those coils are one of them.

Next up would be some of these ignition boxes I've seen. I took apart a mallory hyfire digital a couple of days ago and there's not much in there at all. Mass producing that thing has got to be cheap.

I know there's a lot like r&d and what not, but I still think there's a lot of gravy there.

Dan

[mainlylinux]

one more example of Gravy:

computer cables at best buy. How much does it actually cost to make a USB cable vs what they sell for? My dad bought a printer and then spent 29.99 for a gold plated usb cable. I told him to take it back and get the cheaper cable. If the cheaper cable does the job it's not going to make his printer sound worse!

How about audio cable? I'm talking about the cheapest stuff they have, there's got to be a huge markup on that stuff. 6-10 dollars for some copper wire with connectors?

Cat 5 patch cables. There's another one I've seen astronomical prices on.

Printer ink cartridges, there's another. You know that's artificially high. there's just not that much there and they make so many of them it's got to be high margin.

Dan

[xs650mike]

Talk about gravy Linux...my friend just spent $47.99 on a
"studio standard professional grade low-noise" patch cable for his guitar which had gold plated connectors and some kind of high-zoot braided coax cable. He comes over to my house to jam and I tried his cable between my guitar and amp and then my 5 year old $4.98 made in China coax cable and I couldn't hear any difference. Neither could he! I checked it with the ohmmeter and the difference in resistance was in the low thousandths.

[LoserShoes]

Originally posted by mainlylinux
That said, I've never programmed a microcontroller.

How hard can it be :-)

Seriously, there's alot on the internet to help with the PIC.

Dan

Check out SDCC on Sourceforge. Will let you program a PIC in C. Of course you will need a programmer also.

I use it for 8051's and it does a good job.

[mainlylinux]

So you've programmed microcontrollers before huh :-)

Can I pic your brain later on?

Dan

[Pat Kelly]

$ markup (capitalism)

Big Gulp $1.50. Costs the store about 10 cents.

[mro]

Printer ink cartridges, there's another.

Little off topic but: you can buy a chip that resets the chip in print cartridges so that you can refill them. Do a google for print cartridge refills and it should come up.


mro

[Dan Hodges]

Originally posted by mainlylinux
this should work for the '81 as well.

I haven't looked at how hard it would be to freeze the advancer parts. Could it be as easy as drilling a hole thru the plate with the springs and putting in a tiny bolt to prevent advancing? that type of modification would be reversible.

what type of hardware is in the '81 and the XJ's TCI that control the advance now?

knowing the advance rates and rpm's for the pre 81, 81, and xj's will be helpful as well. Does anybody have those plotted out?

Dan

Reading the shop manual would be a good idea before undertaking an endeavor of this magnitude.It has the advance curves on all model's of the Eleven and how the curves are achieved.

[LoserShoes]

Originally posted by mainlylinux
So you've programmed microcontrollers before huh :-)

Can I pic your brain later on?

Dan

Yep, part of my job. Ask what you have to.

Just a thought from a picture I saw of the pickup coil setup, how about replacing the coils with one of those optical interruptors that have the led on one side and the detector on the other and slot in between, and use the arm that sweeps past the coil to pass through the slot?

Steve

[Trikerneil]

I'm looking at the MegaJolt setup at the moment. I wondered about the possibility of removing all the XS advance unit and making up a 36-1 toothed wheel to bolt onto the crank. Advance/retard would be handled by the mapping.
This route gets rid of all the old hard to get XS bits and uses mostly standard Ford parts.
I reckon the conversion would cost about £200 + a laptop + a lot of "experimentation".

[Pat Kelly]

Originally posted by xs650mike
Don't think I'll ever spend $170 on Dyna coils or Accel coils when I could get coils from Mikes XS http://www.mikesxs.com/mikesxs-elect...ategory_id=2.1 part #17-6803 for $28 apiece or $56 the set...especially since I ohmetered the expensive Accel coil I bought for my XS650 and found it to be the exact same spec as a stock Yamaha coil.

Of course the resistance (ohms) will be the same. That's why a ballast resistor is used when there's not enough resistance. The output voltage is what's different. Stock is (I think) listed around 15,000 volts vs 45,000 volts for the Dyna. I (thought) needed new coils anyway and hadn't heard of Mikes XS at that time. I'm certain the 650 coils work just as well as the Dyna's for less money.

Like the topic of this thread, is it worth it.... Used TCI's are still available. Bad ones can usually be repaired by fixing a bad solder. Pick-up coil wires can be replaced using multimeter wires. Any fixes or repairs can be done any number of ways, the only wrong way is the one that dosen't work.

[xs650mike]

Problem with stock stock Yammie coils is that they tend to fail and all the aftermarket ones seem to be more durable. I wouldn't expect a performance difference though. The Accel coil I used on my XS650 gives a nice hot spark and the stock Yamaha coil was giving a very weak spark. The stock coil on my other 650 is fine and is still giving a hot spark and so do the ones on my 11. One of the coils on one of my XZ550s failed, replaced it with a junkyard coil and had no further problems.

[LoserShoes]

You mentioned multimeter wires for pickup coil replacement, might I suggest if there is an RC hobby shop nearby, try some of the wire used to connect the battery to the motor in an RC car. Designed to be flexible and sustain high vibration and flexing without failing.

Steve

[mainlylinux]

ttt

[Hawkins]

ignition system replacement

Dan,

Did you get anywhere with this?

I struggle with spending much money to upgrade a 26 year old bike when a new 1100 would cost $10g or so, but I'd drop a few hundred for a 'bolt-on' kit to get rid of the carbs and existing ignition system. Those are my biggest frustrations with this bike. I bought a new set of p/u coils last year and didn't get a week out of them. I did much better with my cobbled up sets. Anyway, let me know if you get anywhere with an ignition and/or fuel injection kit.