Coil Questions

[Brianjonesphoto]

I tested the resistance of the secondarys of both coils on my 550e and niether of them are within spec. They tested ad 25k ohms with 5k boots. The manual says spec is 60k-30k ohms. should I think about replacing them or just keep'em untill I have problems?

Thanks

[satchmo]

are you not having problems now?

it would seem that with coils that far out of spec. you might have a weak spark. If the coil fails you will be left stranded somewhere.

[Brianjonesphoto]

I don't know if there is a problem or not. The bike was running poorly when I bought it and I have yet to ride it. What are my choices for less expensive replacements? OEM are $93 a peice

Thanks

[West]

They're fine. If the bike is running, but poorly, your major problem is elsewhere. My Suzuki stock coils, both the originals and replacements, run about 25K secondaries. (ONE of the originals was dead open, yet still worked - it was arcing internally, so I replaced both with 2 from a matched set of 3). even with the 'bad' coil, the bike ran fine.

[koolaid_kid]

If you wanted a cheaper replacement (if you decided to replace them) there are on-line salvage shops, such as http://www.crc2onlinecatalog.com/
Personally, if I were to replace mine, I would go with a high quality aftermarket, such as the Accel coils. But that's just me.

[jimcor]

I had to replace a coil on my '80 550 last month. Took a multimeter to the salvage yard and found a coil from a GS850 with the same part # as mine embossed on the side. I got a low reading on the secondary too. Bought it anyway and it works fine.

[DickV]

Coils

My '82-GS450 was having intermittent problems in the ignition system. I checked the signal generators and the ignitor with my DVM and got indications they were working. I checked both coils and got resistance out of spec on the secondaries. I took the coils to a local Suzuki dealer who checked them and said one would produce a weak spark, only at a small gap and the the spark would go away as the gap was increased on the tester, the other coil produced no spark at all. New Suzuki coils solved the problem and the engine runs well again. I know of no way to check the coils under load without a coil tester.