Spark plug wires to coils????

[gsryder]

Okay so say someone (me) was going to replace their spark plug wires.
Dug out the old wires cleaned up the coils then walked away for about three months and forgot to mark which cylinder goes to which hole in the coil.
How would some one so silly figure out where they go.
I know 1 coil does 1,4 and the other 2,3 but I dont know which ones exactly

Any help would be appreciated

[spadefoot]

I'm at work, so I don't have access to the diagram, but I don't think it matters on these does it? I mean, you have to have 1&4 hooked up to the 1&4 coil, but I don't think it matters which wire is on 1 and which wire is on 4. As far as I can tell, it fires both plugs at the same time. If I'm wrong someone PLEASE jump in and let me know.

[bwringer]

I'm at work, so I don't have access to the diagram, but I don't think it matters on these does it? I mean, you have to have 1&4 hooked up to the 1&4 coil, but I don't think it matters which wire is on 1 and which wire is on 4. As far as I can tell, it fires both plugs at the same time. If I'm wrong someone PLEASE jump in and let me know.

Yes, that is all correct -- it doesn't matter which hole on the coil you're connected to -- both fire at the same time.

This is known as a "wasted spark" ignition system -- when #1 fires during compression, #4 is finishing its exhaust cycle, and the spark on #4 doesn't do anything at all.

This system avoids the added complexity of a distributor or an individual coil for each cylinder.

[spadefoot]

Thanks for the confirmation!

Not to hijack the thread, but can I ask a related followup? I just ordered a set of the green Dyna's for my 82 GS 650. When I'm looking at plug wires, it looks like they don't have resistors in the plug caps, so I'm guessing that's handled by the coil and the plug wires and caps are just straight-through. Is that correct?

[spadefoot]

Sorry, should have searched first. Found my own answer, which is that I don't need resistor caps.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=173427&highlight=resistor+caps

[gsryder]

Thanks guys one more does it matter which coil does which....
Coil on the left - 1,4 ??
Coil on the right - 2,3 ??
Thanks

[Steve]

Usually, (in stock configuration, that is) the coil on the left will fire 1&4.

Sometimes a previous owner will have re-wired things, like in the case of my wife's bike. It came with Accel coils , but the left coil fires 2&3. I am in the process of cleaning up a bunch of other wiring snafus, so will be changing that back to stock configuration, too.

.

[gsryder]

Okay thank you

[1948man]

Steve, Is that just usually the way it is or will it be a problem if you have the coils swapped so that the left one fires 2 and 3.

[Redman]

Not so much if it is on left or right, it is:
- coil with the white wire from the ignitor is for 1 & 4.
- coil with the black wire from the ignitor is for 2 & 3.



.

[1948man]

Thanks, that clears it up.

[spadefoot]

This might be handy for you: