Finally made a little progress with the Sportster from hell project. The repair manual says it has some kind of electronic ignition but there is a set of points in the case. What should I run in it? Someone said that the coil is different for each set up and to measure the resistance. The only measurement I could get with my meter was 2.7 ohms when I stuck the leads in each sparkplug wire hole.

Any help here would keep me from letting it sit for another 7 months when I get pissed off.

Thanks

Zippers
81 XLH
00 FXDX

 

I think that electronic ignitions are more dependable but you can get it running on the points ignition if you have spark to the plugs. I'm not sure about coil differences but it does make sense, some people prefer the points ignition for simplicity but I prefer long haul dependability. Remember, spark and timing are what you want from ignition. That bike came with electronic by the way.

 

Many of these bikes were converted from EI to points as the EIs were either unreliable or not trusted.

Repeat the resistance test on the coil. For the stock coil you should be getting 3.3 to 3.7 ohms across the electrical terminals, and 16500 to 19500 across the spark plug terminals. If not the coil is toast.

Basically, EI coils are about 3 ohms and points coils are about 5 ohms. When it was converted to points the stock coil should have been replaced.

Check out the Ultima EI. It is a choice of many these days. Buy the complete kit and run it in single fire mode ...

http://www.ultimaproducts.com/programmableignition.html

 

Mick this bike came as a complete basket case so there is no telling if the coil was swapped or even if this was the coil on the bike. I had the multi meter in the 1 ohm scale and it went to like 2.7 across both sparkplug terminals. Across the end terminals I got either no movement at all or zero resistance (no short term memory sorry)

I'll pull it off and test it with the electronic meter I've got at work.

The Ultima set up looks sweet. How much does it cost?

Thanks

 

1 ohm scale? Do you mean 1000,000 ohm scale? These ohm meters are confusing. You need to choose a scale that will include 20,000 ohms for the spark plug holes, and one that will include 10 ohms for the electrical terminals.

The letter m on the scale might mean 1000 or it might mean 1000000. You have to figure this out somehow.

One of the on-line catalog companies sells the Ultima for $109 plus shipping. I forget which one. Might be like Jireh Cycles. I paid about $350 for the same thing here.

 

I'll check it out tomorrow and pull it off the bike. Thanks Mick

 

I am thinking of switching from points to electronic too in about a month

 

good side to points is that you can carry a extra set. down side is that some points have to adjusted regularly. electronic works or doesnt. your not going to pluu ff the road and fix electronic. ive never had a electronic ignition fail. my neighbor had a coil fail on his friends borrowed bike. all in all i wouldnt change back to points but your bike came with them so id run them. if you notice your messing with them then id change to electronic. has for the coil it should be around 3. again i think it will work or not. if its working then leave it alone. it might give that reading for ever and never let you down.

 

Mick

Checked the coil today with the electronic multimeter and got 5.2 across the end terminals so I'm guessing it is a points coil. The local independant shop will have the points so I'll pick up a set.

Next question: How do I wire them? The wiring diagram shows the green red and black wires going from the electronic timer to the electronic ignition. What wires will I need for the points? I'm guessing I'm going to have to make a new harness to go from the timer thing that is bolted under the oil tank to the points but I'm not sure. The timer didn't come in the boxes of parts I got it was already bolted to the replacement oil tank I found.

Thanks

 

You will not need any of the old EI parts with the points setup. There will be one wire that runs from the points to one side of the coil. The other side of the coil needs to have a line connected that is 12 volt with the key on - any orange wire on the bike fits this.

This is assuming a "normal" points coil. I wonder if the coil is the original one that came with the EI? With the normal coil it does not matter which end is which. I am not familiar with the original EI coil.