Topic: Dynatek vs Magna 5 Ohm Coils

[bryanj]

For a coil repair how to go to sohc.co.uk and look in alladins cave, a long time member has done an excelant write up and has used the coils himself

[drumstyx]

Well this aged.... interestingly... Canadian "paradise" 😂 haha I sure wish I'd bought the dynatek coils back then, because the canuckistan peso has only gotten worse lol

Been doing some fiddling to try and finally get this thing sorted and running well (after all that time and expense, alas, I have to sell her), and having found that ignition was main my gremlin all along, I ended up finding this thread again. The Magna coils haven't failed or anything, and the bike is actually running amazingly after cleaning the points and using plugs that are actually....functioning (I didn't know that the center electrode actually losing all continuity to the stud was a possible failure mode at all.... But that's another story), but I was curious if maybe the difference in secondary resistance would make any kind of difference practically, so I went to see how much the coils were now...

What the heck happened to the price of dynatek coils? $183USD is the absolute lowest I can find for a set that was $107, from what remains of the eBay listing from 8 years ago. Inflation happens, yeah, but -- at least according to the official sources -- inflation accounts for less than half of that. Looks like 4into1 doesn't even sell dynatek coils anymore... Am I missing something?

[Deltarider]

All aftermarket coils I've seen are generic products and they will never be an optimal replacement.
What I disliked about my Dyna coils, is not so much te coils themselves, but the fact that you're forced to Dynatek's HT wires, which are way too supple in the riding wind on a SOHC engine. One coil already gave up after 50.000kms (my stored OEM coils still work flawlessly) and I think this moving about of the HT wires impedes solid connections, both at the plugcaps and the coils. It takes very little to compromise electric connections. The silicone Dynatek plugcaps in itself are good, but they have no inbuilt resistor and they force you to have R(esistor) type sparkplugs and - after having had them - I have joined the choir that dislikes these plugs, that is... on CBFours. The Dynatek rubber caps over the HT connectors age and become stone hard, almost impossible to remove. The Dyna connections in the primary curcuit are not protected at all again humidity. Oem is superior here. All in all, these coils are typical generic and one should weigh this in a decision.
What Honda could have done better? IMO, screw-in connections at the coils, so you could periodically renew the HT wires and yes, HT wires age. The 'problem' with our CBFours is, that they are so very forgiving that you will hardly notice intermittent misfires and, believe me, they are there. Connections must be very robust. On our bikes you'd better have HT wires that are on stiff side and will not move about. Especially as far as the CB500/550s, the plugcaps and their connections have always been the Achilles heel of these bikes. I have multiple proof of this in various published riders reports.
I don't know why so many seek a 'solution' in spending money on new coils where they haven't even diagnosed what the problem is. One of these days, I hope to build a basic relay driven tester for coils and plugs. I've seen some simple designs on Spanish sites that I like, but if any of you has already built one, please share this. A 12V power source, a relay, a condenser and some wires is all what it takes to have a basic under 8 bucks one. Maybe any of you can advise us to add an extra to create a variable 20-200Hz range.
Personally I always look for materials that I have already lying around. The less we buy, the better for the planet.

[bryanj]

Dynatec coils are probably produced in the far east so tarrifs come into it

[MRieck]

All aftermarket coils I've seen are generic products and they will never be an optimal replacement.
What I disliked about my Dyna coils, is not so much te coils themselves, but the fact that you're forced to Dynatek's HT wires, which are way too supple in the riding wind on a SOHC engine. One coil already gave up after 50.000kms (my stored OEM coils still work flawlessly) and I think this moving about of the HT wires impedes solid connections, both at the plugcaps and the coils. It takes very little to compromise electric connections. The silicone Dynatek plugcaps in itself are good, but they have no inbuilt resistor and they force you to have R(esistor) type sparkplugs and - after having had them - I have joined the choir that dislikes these plugs, that is... on CBFours. The Dynatek rubber caps over the HT connectors age and become stone hard, almost impossible to remove. The Dyna connections in the primary curcuit are not protected at all again humidity. Oem is superior here. All in all, these coils are typical generic and one should weigh this in a decision.
What Honda could have done better? IMO, screw-in connections at the coils, so you could periodically renew the HT wires and yes, HT wires age. The 'problem' with our CBFours is, that they are so very forgiving that you will hardly notice intermittent misfires and, believe me, they are there. Connections must be very robust. On our bikes you'd better have HT wires that are on stiff side and will not move about. Especially as far as the CB500/550s, the plugcaps and their connections have always been the Achilles heel of these bikes. I have multiple proof of this in various published riders reports.
I don't know why so many seek a 'solution' in spending money on new coils where they haven't even diagnosed what the problem is. One of these days, I hope to build a basic relay driven tester for coils and plugs. I've seen some simple designs on Spanish sites that I like, but if any of you has already built one, please share this. A 12V power source, a relay, a condenser and some wires is all what it takes to have a basic under 8 bucks one. Maybe any of you can advise us to add an extra to create a variable 20-200Hz range.
Personally I always look for materials that I have already lying around. The less we buy, the better for the planet.

I always use the dielectric silicone grease on the plug caps....much easier to remove. Personally I've never had a problem with the Dyna wires but I keep them at a minimal length. If I need wires now I use an MSD kit and make my own though MSD stuff is a bit pricey.

[papi_sosaa]

I always use the dielectric silicone grease on the plug caps....much easier to remove.

I'm being told on my thread that dielectric grease is no good.

[bryanj]

In this instance i would believe Mike over others, the work he does is absolutely fantastic and his reputation second to none

[PeWe]

I use copper leads with my Dynatec 5 ohm coils.
NGK 5 kohm caps. Non resistor spark plugs.
Dyna S ignition. I have used stock  points with Hondaman ignition too.
No grease needed

The Dynatek silicone caps sat as glued so they need antifriction stuff.

The stiffer lead will not glide out of the Dyna coil auto connection type as softer models can.
Did for me, wind and when washing the bike.
1 and 4 leads strapped to frame with a piece of fuel hose around the lead where strapped as extra insulation.

I have a set of China knock off  5ohm coils too. Not used yet. Had to order when it was cheap.
Have Dyna-S knock offs too. Nit used yet.
Ordered from eBay USA.
2 sets cheaper than 1 original.
Look very similar as the original.

I think Terry has used the knock offs, coils and ignition. Discussed in another thread a few or 2 years ago.

[drumstyx]

In this instance i would believe Mike over others, the work he does is absolutely fantastic and his reputation second to none

Perhaps second only to our resident superhero, Hondaman. Mark and Mike have, frankly, been inspirations to me in through their passion for these machines.

...Plus I've given them many a paycheque, so I need to justify that 😂😂 worth every penny, I know!

Anyway, I know what you mean with the floppy wires,...actually, it might not end up being an actual issue, but I did notice that it isn't too terribly hard to move the coil-side terminals around a little bit inside the coil sockets. It wasn't like they were falling out or anything, because of the boots, but those boots are definitely not any kind of 'positive' feeling lock. It's possible that that movement is enough to cause some weak intermittent weak spark issues I was having.

My stock coil wires were just so stiff, I was worried I'd be breaking a connection inside or something whenever I had to move them. They also looked to have plenty of corrosion at the screw-in side of the wire, and I don't think I had any slack in them to trim them, but they measured out to be in prime condition...maybe I'll try trimming just for kicks.

Oh, and now you got me wondering about the spark caps....I was pretty sure they were 5k caps, but now I really don't know. Honestly, non-resistor plugs are getting rather hard to find these days, and I'm not sure why one should prefer resistor caps over resistor plugs, so as it stands, I'd actually rather have non-resistor caps. Maybe that was why I was always fouling plugs...