Thanks Randy

[Joe Sull]

My coils came in today and there in the bike. She started right up and sounded good but no chance for a test drive today. We got dumped on with snow overnight and all day today.
Looks like my bikes ready for the spring. It didn't run good all last season. It was hard to start and was tricky to restart after stopping at the store or something. I kept taking the carbs apart. I guess I didn't think of coils, I mean, what's the chance of them going. Wire wrapped around a iron core, what could go wrong? Should I be looking for a cause somewhere else?
Thanks again for helping me out. It's great to "Know a guy"
Joe

[FJmonkey]

Joe, the coils have been known to go bad, not often but very hard to diagnose as the problem is intermittent. Capn' Rod had this problem during his epic voyage to ride across country to visit his dad and celebrate his 80th birthday (dads not Ron's). I have also heard of a few others.

[Joe Sull]

In the winter of 2014 I did the 5 deg. timing mod. I remember checking the coils back then with a cheap multi meter. The indication was way out of spec. and I thought I was doing the test wrong. I can remember if it was before I did the mod. or after. I got a good meter and that's how I found that the coils were gone. Could it have been the timing mod. that caused it?
I have it set back to stock now.

[racerrad8]

Could it have been the timing mod. that caused it?

No, the coil delivers spark at the same rate no matter the timing position.

Most coil failures can be traced back to low voltage issues. The low voltage creates more heat and the wire insulation fails.

It might be time for the coil relay mod.

Randy - RPM

[FJmonkey]

Randy, did you make any coil relay kits for this?

[racerrad8]

Randy, did you make any coil relay kits for this?

No kit, but I do have the Relay and Relay Plug.

The rest is hooking it up.

Here is a great link for the wiring: Relay for more power to your coils

Randy - RPM

[Joe Sull]

I did the ignition wiring modification today.
After I put the coils in she started with a 2 second crank. Turned over a couple of times then started, which is much better than not starting at all. I took it for a ride and it ran good, started back up easy. Worried about loosing another set of coils, I got to radio shack last night and picked up a relay and a fuse holder. I had most everything else on hand. It took me about 6 hours.
Wow, now that's a big difference! It starts after the first TDC it comes to. Unbelievable.  Well worth the effort. I'm coming straight off the battery, I soldered all the connections and I have the exact battery voltage at the coils. Thanks for the tip.