about to ditch the E ignition for points

[chizler62]

That's straight forward. If you're basing it off the 3:1 dwell crank angle system.

My goal is to leave the coil uncharged for as long as possible to reduce heat and stop charge at full saturation. I think that's where a lot, if not all, the heat from the coil on my customers XS650 is coming from. I'd like to figure it out so that at idle it'll be just enough for the bike not to "break up" or "misfire".
Also I'm fairly sure that the reduced dwell time....angle will result in a much better engine performance on the XS at higher RPM's.

So far it looks like most, if not all, the coils sold for the XS that I've come across are under loaded than needed and actually sitting around getting full amps too long and heating them. Suspect this is done for better starting? IDK and I don't agree. I really think less duration will be key to a better performing more reliable ignition for my customer.

Getting back to this thread-
as you lower the battery voltage it'll increase the time it takes for the coil to charge and reduce the optimum RPM. If the battery is low enough or the "amps to the coil" it'll actually never saturate the coil entirely. "dead battery won't start a DC ignition"
Clearly than you can see how grounds for the ignition system can affect the "spark" performance of the bike.

 

[XSLeo]

Your regulator reads the battery voltage, then uses this voltage to decide if the battery needs charging. Perhaps the regulator brown wire is getting a too low voltage reading.
This often happens when the circuit has excessive resistance. This often happens on the ground side, but it can happen on the power side.
I might suggest checking the voltage on the brown wire at the regulator. It should read the same or within about .2 or.3 volts.
When I check voltages like this I start the bike, check the voltage at the battery then use that as the reference voltage. This will give you a truer reading.
Lets say with the bike idling the battery checks at 12.7, your check on the brown wire says 12.3. The reg will read this as low voltage, about .4 volts low. It will then try to bring the battery up that .4 volts.
If the voltages matched better the reg won't see the low voltage and not try to charge. This weak connection can be more pronounced at higher rpms, more vibes wiggling the wires to cause the weak connection the lose connection and the reg will read an even lower voltage and increase the charge to try to compensate.
The paint and reassemble may have caused a poor ground, or the rewire might have caused a weak connection on the power side. I would check it all.
What battery are you using? A weak battery can cause charging issues too.
Leo

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...My goal is to leave the coil uncharged for as long as possible to reduce heat and stop charge at full saturation. I think that's where a lot, if not all, the heat from the coil on my customers XS650 is coming from. I'd like to figure it out so that at idle it'll be just enough for the bike not to "break up" or "misfire".
Also I'm fairly sure that the reduced dwell time....angle will result in a much better engine performance on the XS at higher RPM's...

This may interest you:

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36015

 

[chizler62]

That's actually really interesting, thanks. I too think 6.2ms is too long, saturates the coil and ultimately builds heat that leads to reliability issues etc.

 

[dilbone]

Good stuff Leo,

Battery is brand new and very strong. I'll probably check all of my connections and do some more snooping around as the temps start warming up.

 

[retiredgentleman]

chizler62 quote;

"So far it looks like most, if not all, the coils sold for the XS that I've come across are under loaded than needed and actually sitting around getting full amps too long and heating them. Suspect this is done for better starting? IDK and I don't agree. I really think less duration will be key to a better performing more reliable ignition for my customer."

I don't know what ignition or what coil your customers are using, but some coils heat up more than others. Pamcopete recommends that the iron core of the Mikesxs igntion coils be connected directly to the steel frame to act as a heat sink. I use an Accel coil and it has never needed to be connected to the frame heat sink. It runs cool just from air travelling over it. You could just tell your customers to use a high quality coil such as the Accel, and no more heating problem.

My coil in combination with a 60 degree dwell Pamco only draws 0.7 amps, which is a low current,and works great, with no heating. That was an improvement over the 90 degree dwell which drew 1.3 amps.