I just installed a Dyna S ignition and Dyna coils on my 75 CB550 and I have no spark to cylinders 2 and 4.. Doesn't matter which terminal I plug the wires into, only fires on 1 and 3.
I checked with a timing light.
Wires are hooked up to 1, 4 on one coil and 2, 3 on the other. That's correct.
Does anyone have any idea what I'm missing?
Thanks.
Since you are firing on 1/2 of each coil, there's a couple of possibilities:
1. The Dyna S (if used) may be weak, previously damaged by someone not installing it correctly.
2. The gap between the little magnet pole (in the cam for the advancer) and the pickup heads might be too far, or too close. They have had a spec of about .020" to .030" for the last few years. Check this distance with feeler gages.
3. Your coils: you didn't say which ones they are. If you have installed Dyna's 3-ohm "green" coils and a Dyna S trigger system on a 550, you are doomed, plain and simple. The Dyna S draws about 1.25 amps extra if you install it on a set of Honda OEM coils, and if you used Dyna's 3-ohm coils, that adds another 1 amp on top of that. Since the 550 started out with only 0.8 extra amps to begin with, you will never be able to charge up the battery with the bike's alternator. This will cause low battery voltage, and below 9 volts at the Dyna S triggers, they cease to trigger properly, yielding a spark only on the "high" side of the coils (which seems to be what you have?). And no, there is not a way to 'boost' the 550 alternator to accommodate this: it's just one of the limitations of the bike.
The 550 can support the Dyna S triggers alone IF you use the Dyna 5-ohm coils, and IF you also disconnect the running lamps in the front turn signals, and IF you have the standard Stanley-Honda headlight (or a 35w/35w halogen) bulb. You should also use a #1034 taillight bulb, which saves an extra 0.25 amp in the trade-off, but is slightly dimmer than the #1157 that everyone tries to use today (the OEM ones were closer to the #1034 type). Otherwise, the alternator cannot keep up with the system, especially in city traffic: the 500/550 alternator does not 'break even' in charge rate with a Dyna S trigger system until 4500 RPM. This is easy to prove: just install an ammeter between the battery and the big Red wire that connects to it and watch the amps. Alternately, you can connect a voltmeter to the battery and watch the volts: you will see it falling below 12 volts very soon, and it won't charge back up until you hit the hiway for a while.
You can do some various things to try to get all the alternator will give you, like cleaning (or replacing) the big white connector's contacts between the engine and the frame, cleaning the big ground cable where it butts against the engine, and possibly installing one of the Oregon 'improved' rectifiers (adds about 0.25 extra amp), but that's about it with the stock equipment. They just have small alternators.
