Topic: Ignition coil and spark plug wire?

[Asa]

76 cb550, fresh owner.

one of my spark plug wires somehow managed to get partially severed. i'm wondering, are these easy to replace? i'm looking at the ignition coil and the way it connects to it i can't tell if its gonna require me to have some knowledge of how to wire stuff or if its something thats gonna pop in and out. i'm a complete bike noob, but looking to learn this bike thoroughly front to back and do some tinkering in the process. sorry if this is a repost. i've tried searching the forums but for some reason the search doesn't work?

also, any huge benefit to replacing the original ignition coils/wires with some modern ones? if so, suggestions?

thanks! looking forward to a lot of time spent on these forums.

asa

[orange550]

if there is still a bit of wire sticking out of the coil, you can use an NGK wire splicer to add more wire. I don't think there is any real benefit of changing the coils unless they are 'bad'.

Although I did change mine to Dyna coils, new wires and Dyna electronic ignition. My coil wires were somewhat brittle and the ends had been cut down over the years, plus I wanted to try the DYna ignition. I could have used the old coils and splicers just as well, but I personally didn't love the idea of having the splicer in there. I'm sure it was just in my head, and it would have been fine. I was new to the bike and anxious to change lots of bits here and there. But boy those bits can add up.

[Asa]

thanks for the reply. real quick, do you also know what diameter wire i should use?

[orange550]

I wanna say 7mm?? You can buy it in bulk at most auto parts store. You can order the NGK splicer there as well. Get the copper core, not the graphite core with the soft 'foam' wrapping between the core and outer casing.

Get a little packet of dialectic grease for the connections inside the splicer, plus you can use it on the wire screw-in end of the plug caps as well.

[bollingball]

Asa this is what the splicers look like. Click the pic. to enlarge. Those are not the correct ends on the red wire they were change later.
Ken

[Asa]

Thanks for the pic, bollingball. That will help me look like I know what I'm doing when I go to buy them.