Another coil question

[Anonymous]

I have another question.

I want to give my coils direct power from the fusebox to bypass the voltage drop issue. question is:

Will it hurt the coils (or anything else) getting 12v constant-ON, even with the engine running or not/ Ignition switch on/off

I want to try this and see if it helps my situation at all, if I can get full 12+ volts to the coils.

In a related problem, the fusebox seems to be the location of my low voltage woes. From the top:

Head: no power until ignition switch is ON and then reads major drop compared to a direct read off the battery
Signal: no power until ignition switch is ON and then reads major drop
Ignition: no power until ignition switch is ON and then reads major drop
Main: Live all the time whether ignition switch is on or off, getting slight drop in voltage
Power Source: Live all the time whether ignition switch is on or off, getting slight drop in voltage

Then there are two + & - screw terminals below that which is also live all the time and getting the slight drop in voltage

Is this normal?

[Einar J Skog]

Hi

Take a relay direct from battery,and use that to feed the 3 upper fuses.
Use the return from ignition to trig the relay.
On my bike I gain 1 volt doing that.


GS1000GLx 8) 8) 8)

[duaneage]

Running 12 volts directly to anything is risky, there should be a fuse in the line for safety. The fuse will not inject much resistance. I would look for the source of the voltage drop and repair that rather than inject another variable in the midst.

The performance increase is likely to be minimal unless you are really losing some volts along the way.

[Anonymous]

On the fusebox... How much of a voltage drop are we talking?

Ok, as far as hot-wiring the coils...This is not a bad idea but make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. It's not too smart to just do a workaround like that; the voltage drop could be really serious. Sounds like you have a short. Don't blow your charging system by letting that go unaddressed.

Now, there are a lot of legitimately good reasons to hotwire the coils. Performance increases are questionable but it certainly can't hurt, and it makes the whole system much more simple. Here's how you do it.

Purchase one 4 terminal relay from the auto parts store. They all have them. Look at the schematic. Two of the terminals will power the electromagnet (flipping the relay), and the other two will be switched. Hook up one end of the EM to a hot-in-run, and the other end to ground. Next, hook up one of the switched terminals to a 12v hot, battery terminal if you want, and the other end to the coils.

This will allow you to have the coils powered directly from the battery but only when the ignition is on.

I don't know what your bike is like and where you live but this mod will make the bike easier to steal. Of course, putting the coils right on the battery means that at any time somebody could just bump-start the bike and ride it away without the key, but I don't think you're gonna do that .

[robinjo]

Wouldn't the coils drain the battery that way? :?
And how old is your battery?

[Anonymous]

Thus ends that experiment.

I wired the coils with direct power as a test to see if that would improve the problem I was having. It did, marginally, at first, but I just took it for a spin again this afternoon. (Having disconnected my hack wiring during the day so i wouldn't drain the batt)

Same old thing.... missing and seeming like starving for fuel. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and spring for some newer coils, and go from there.

FWIW, I was gonna put in some inline fuses and a switch, so I could cut power to the coils whenever I left the bike parked. Sort of like an anti theft killswitch too IF my experiment had been a success.

Once newer coils get here, I'll start all over again.

Thanks for all who helped. It was much appreciated.

Chris

[Anonymous]

Don't be too sure it's those coils.

Check the resistances. Between primary terminals, about 300 ohms. Between the plug caps, I think it's something in the 50's. You might have to ask someone like Earl or Keith for that one.

Check for fat blue spark. Take a spare plug or one out the engine and put the boot on it. Hold the plug to the engine for ground and get a friend to crank the motor. If you've got fat blue spark, your spark is fine. Even if you've got thin blue spark, it's probably not the problem.

I really think you'll be wasting your money getting new coils. At least try patching new wires on first.

Also, carb problems can cause missing that feels just like ignition problems. Be sure you have everything in good shape there.

[AOD]

Is there honestly a significant improvement in doing this work? I've own two bikes with original coils and wires and replaced one with Dyna coils and Dyna wires and noticed a huge improvement in starting and the general driveabiliy is great, as well as 11,000 RPM if ever needed.

Why would you need .5 extra volts to the coil?