Coil packs to Stick Coils?

[waruta]

Has anyone tried to change over from the coil packs to a stick coil type setup?  I recently did this on my ZZR with newer ZX9 coils, cleaned up the entire engine bay a lot and also runs smoother now.  Is it possible to run stick coils from the TCI?

[canyonbreeze]

I'm about to try this.  I got some GSX-R 600 coil sticks (Coil On Plug) and have some connectors on the way.  I've read a lot of other projects on this and the main thing seems to be making sure the primary resistance is about the same as the original coils.  Usually this means wiring the 2 coils in series and not parallel.  So 1-4 in series and 2-3 in series.  Will report back after I do this.

[Chris H]

Hi all,
I got the sticks on my VVC and they work real well if wired in series, they should'nt as any electrician will tell that any thing that is resistive in circuit that is wired in series will become a common divider, by this i mean they will share the 12v supply 6v each. They work really well tho so no problem. You should not wire them in parallel tho or you will have about 16 amps running in the circuit and this is not so good. Think i got the cbr6 ones but they all seem to be made by the same company so you will only find they differ in length. 

[canyonbreeze]

It's a bit more complicated than that.   This isn't a voltage divider.  You want the current to be somewhat equal.  If you wire them in parallel it will be half the resistance of each and about a quarter the resistance of the original coils.  That would burn out your igniter drive transistors pretty fast.

[Chris H]

Yep like i said series is good and parallel is bad. The main thing is it's a bit neater under the tank.

[canyonbreeze]

Wired this in today in my '91 B400.  Works great.  The coil sticks are from a GSX-R600 and the harness connectors from a Honda CBR600.  Built the ignition harness at lunch today.  The rubber boot seals don't fit well but I'll fix that on the weekend.  No more spark plug cables.  Yay!  I was having problems with them coming loose and not firing at idle.  I have photos if anyone is interested.

[Unique]

Yes interested in photos....bike off road at moment...but one day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ivandit]

Yes interested in photos....bike off road at moment...but one day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+1, pics please!!

[canyonbreeze]

Should be self-explanatory...















Last one (sideways) shows that I still need to do some fitting of the boots to support them better.

[Unique]

  For the photos canyonbreeze
will tried the sticks later.. when i get around to finish off the upgrades i started while age, just don't seam to be able to spend time on the bike these days but meanwhile will look into sticks more.
and perhaps one day
Dek

[Chris H]

Good work.
I will post a picture of my coils, they are gxsr600 and have a different boot. The boot looks like its not as good a fit as the cbr ones you have but i think the actual coil my be a little shorter, not sure as i write but will look tomorrow.

[canyonbreeze]

My coils are from GSXR600, the harness connectors are from a CBR.  Different years GSXR600 had different coils.  You can see that going thru the eBay listings.  I have a second set of identical coils comming, only $20 and will be good to have extras onhand.   The connectors are expensive and hard to find new.  The best way is to harvest them from an old harness, as I did with the CBR.  On eBay there are quite a few listings for coils and harness together.  That would be the best way to go.

Went on a ~150 mile ride over the local mountain today with my little one.  Ran great.

[waruta]

Sweet mod!  I made my own harness for my Kawa using the original connectors, and some soldering.  It's not that hard once you see a diagram since the two pairs are in series and run off the wasted spark principle.  I know that there are some GSXR coil caps that will not work with our bike's ignition, have to be careful with that.  I might just measure the ID and OD as well as height and find some CBR/ZX-R/GSXR coils that will fit nice and tight.

[canyonbreeze]

A wiring diagram lifted from somewhere else for reference...



Make sure the series resistance of 2 coils is around 3 Ohms.

[canyonbreeze]

Last addendum to this.  I took off the top seal boot and wrapped just above the plug boot with 3/8 thick rubber weatherstripping and wrapped that with some silicon splicing tape.  Makes a nice seal and firm hold now.  No burning rubber smells yet when I get it nice and hot.