Ignition Coil & Points Question

[BlueThunder]

The ballast resistor is to reduce current to the coils so that the points don't burn. If the stock coils were replaced with a Dyna 5 ohm coils, would the ballast resistor still be needed?

[robin1731]

Probably not but that is a question I would direct to Dyna. They will give you factual information on what to use with their product.

[mrtwowheel]

I would use a 3 ohm coil or GL1500 type coil and a ballast resistor. Randakk has some good suggestions, maybe someone can give a link.

Scott

[Whiskerfish]

Part of the design is to bypass the resister when trying to start the engine and provide a hotter spark. You would be defeating that design.

[C5Paul]

I find it interesting that other bikes don't use the resistor. My points bikes without it seem to run the same as my Wings do, but I am sure the "coil engineer" at Honda knew more than I do about it.

There was an issue with epoxy filled coils and the problem lasted for years. The same issue occurred in cars. When heat is created in the coil (and over time coils will fail due to age) the epoxy designed to protect it from shorting can get so hot it turns to liquid.

Once the coil is no longer protected from internal shorts it could (I said COULD) fail shortly afterward.

It was not a Honda issue. Oldsmobile igniter boxes failed in the same manner and so did Evinrude snowmobiles. It really was an industry issue from early 70's all the way into the 1990's for sure. I guess what I am saying is we believe the resistor might be more about protecting the coil, and less about the points. Difficult to prove since only time would tell. Some of you might enjoy the conversation...I was not meaning to say one way or another if you should use the resistor.

[Old Fogey]

When I changed to 1100 coils with the points set-up, there was no way I could get it to run with the ballast resistor in the circuit. Those coils never seemed to run over-hot without it, as general advice had them do, but shortly after I changed the whole system to a Dyna, with a direct feed through a relay which cured every ignition problem I had (until I parked it up with the ignition switch on and burned out a module )