Car coils on a GS850 - any suggestions

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,
The 850 is on the road, but running a little rough due to it's old coils and plug wires. Dyna sells coils for bikes, but at a fortune! I've heard of people in the past putting coils from other vehicles on their bikes to remedy these types of financial problems.

Anyone ever try this out and have suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
JV

[Anonymous]

Re: Car coils on a GS850 - any suggestions

Hello everyone,
The 850 is on the road, but running a little rough due to it's old coils and plug wires. Dyna sells coils for bikes, but at a fortune! I've heard of people in the past putting coils from other vehicles on their bikes to remedy these types of financial problems.

Anyone ever try this out and have suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
JV

HOW MANY CYLINDERS IS YOUR BIKE WOULD BE MY FIRST QUESTION--REALIZE THAT ALL FOLKS ON THIS WEBSITE DO NOT RIDE THE SAME TYPE OF BIKE AND THEY ALL ARE A BIT DIFERENT

[argonsagas]

Jimmy: Slowpoke's just a bit off tonight...he knows ALL GS850's are 4 cylinder bikes...he just forgot for the moment. It may be too much eggplant in his diet...

Oh, yes. Your question....

Why do you think you have a coil problem?

The coils spark at 1 and 4, and 2 and 3, respectively.

Do you have spark at all plugs?
Are the wires on correctly?
Do you have spark flash from the wires?
Have you checked the plugs for colour indicators or are they
wet, oily, black, fluffy, gap closed?

[Jay B]

I can't beleive that Scotty didn't remember that the first 850's were over borded 750's...Oh wait don't Scottys 750 have 4 cylinders. Maybe his brain is still in slow-motion from the retread ride he took.

[Anonymous]

I can't beleive that Scotty didn't remember that the first 850's were over borded 750's...Oh wait don't Scottys 750 have 4 cylinders. Maybe his brain is still in slow-motion from the retread ride he took.

This guy wants to put auto coils on his bike and the question was designed to spark the concern as to where the heck could you possibly firt 4 auto coils in a bike that uses 2 double fire coils and the wiring job would be a joke. Some people however will do things like that for example a gas valve in place of a petcock--and sorry to say that my 850 is a 1983 gs1100e punched to 1166 etc

[Anonymous]

I'm just going to go Dyna

Hey guys,
Thanks for the input. The reason why I was thinking of using car coils is because I've heard of people doing it in the 70's - mainly to Suzuki and Kaw 2 stroke triples. I've scrapped the idea and I'm just going to go with Dyna.

To answer the other questions though - yes it is a GS850 - 81. The problem that I'm having is not necessarily coming from the coils - it's the entire electrical system. I'm not having the charging problems that I had with my GS750 (which a Rick's stator/r&r fixed up nicely!), but it seems almost as if I have a bad ground. I checked everything out and it all seems ok. So I'm just going to replace the stator and r&r on this bike before it craps out - which we all know it will, only in a matter of time. And while I'm at it I figured I may as well pull the stock crusty coils and cracked leaky spark plug wires and wire on a new set.

Have any of you used the Dyna ignition units, the ones that replace the ignitor unit? Just curious as to whether I should do that too.

Thanks everyone!
JV

[Anonymous]

How do you firt 4 auto coils????????

[Anonymous]

How do you firt 4 auto coils????????

Id like to know also

[kz]

Hi Slowpoke!

Why 4 auto coils?

In my opinion 2 auto coils would be enough even for a 4-cylinder engine, but jimmyvegas still would have a mounting problem..........

[Anonymous]

Hi Slowpoke!

Why 4 auto coils?

In my opinion 2 auto coils would be enough even for a 4-cylinder engine, but jimmyvegas still would have a mounting problem..........

i WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE WAY HE RIGGED UP THE DOUBLE FIRE SET UP--I ONCE USED AN AUTO COIL ON AN ENFIELD 700CC 2 CYLINDER BUT THE SYSTEM WAS MADE FOR ONE COIL--JUST REPLACED IT WITH THE AUTO COIL---HOW WOULD YOU RIG UP THE AUTO COIL AND STILL GET SUFFICIENT SPARK--MAYBE AN AUTO COIL FROM A HIGH OUTPUT IGNITION--AND I DONT KNOW THE CONFIGURATIONS OF THE NEW COIL PACKS--MAYBE ONE OF THEM COULD DO THE JOB--ID LIKE TO REALLY KNOW???

[kz]

OK,

You mean that the output voltage of an auto coil is not enough to fire two plugs.

[Anonymous]

OK,

You mean that the output voltage of an auto coil is not enough to fire two plugs.

IN MOST CASES THAT IS WHAT I WOULD THINK--THE LAST TIME I FOOLED WITH AN AUTO COIL WAS ABOUT 30 YEARS AGO SO I DONT KNOW WHATS AVAILABLE.

[saaz]

I would think modern auto coils should have a stack of voltage to fire two coils..the little standard coils do the job!

My good dyna coils melted on me years ago (and took out the electronic ignition I had firred) on a trip 2000 km from home. So I put in standard kawa 9 coils, they are still working fine 18 years later. So that means I have a set of standard coils in a box in the garage, hardly used (well, 90,000 km or so)

The high output coils did not make that much difference compared to the electronic ignition. Once you have sufficient spark, no need for more.