Honda-SOHC

That is a Hull reg Dave ..my nicked  yellow 400/4was CAG 242T

We were one of those dealers that removed them at pdi as you could just about guarantee a misfire when the british liquid sunshire arrived

The dealer who supplied mine literally ripped them off Bryan and broke the plastic at the end in the process. I took mine apart recently and with a bit of practice you can remove the covers without de-crimping and re-assemble and no damage to the plastic part.

I got some fork ears for my 500K0 re-chromed a couple of years back by Marque Restore in Coventry .. they were £35 each then so £90 is probably about right. They madea really good job. I dropped them off at Stafford show and they posted back in a couple of weeks. Not in your area I know but gives you a price guide.

I found this post Steve

https://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php?topic=17593.0

Pretty crap that Honda didn't address the issue with the suppliers Nippon Denso. The metal cover EMC shielding (fitted as way back 1966 to UK CB450K0 Bombers)  was decades ahead of it's time and such a shame that the design wasn't re-engineered to cure the arcing. As I said, I can't see any reason why it can't be re-engineered to work perfectly in the wet. I guess modern silicone mouldings were not around then within the automotive industry.

Those caps were also fitted to Z1's ... wonder if it was the same on that model in the wet. Genuine Z1 metal caps are ££££ I gather. I got all of my Honda ones  cheap because DS had them in his USA warehouse (relatively useless to U.S. customers) but not listed on his UK site.

Watch this space to see if I can solve it.

That type of plug cap was  also fitted to the Opel Rekord (D) Coupes back in 1973 I was drivng one down to Cornwall for our sumer holiday when the car dropped onto 3 cylinders in heavy traffic. Being an automatic it was it was almost undriveable.

One of those caps had failed plus the leads were the then quite new carbon fibre typ leads - I used a Nappy pin to replace the cap - it worked a treat.

There are plenty of other people fitting them to our bikes Ted for originality ... I bought 5 sets of each cheap and kept one of each set for myself and sold the rest on eBay. They didn't hang around for long  before being sold ! My 500K0 didn't have them as it is a 1st batch USA (squared off crankcase) bike and they were never fitted in the US. The 500 ones (fitted to UK and European bikes)  are the same as the 400F ones.

My UK 750K0, CB400F & 450K0 Bomber all came originally with metal plug caps.

Much maligned on here I know but for originality I am fitting them. I managed to get NOS ND ones for my 4 cylinder bikes  but the Bomber ones are hard to come by. also one of my NOS 4-cyl ones got badly damaged with acid. So this week I managed to de-crimp the corroded one and replated a grotty looking Bomber one. Pretty sure my CB250K0's and K2 would have had them but not found any of those yet.

I plan to do some tests on them to see why they tracked over the HT in the wet. It's not obvious looking at them why they would track. I suspect the rubber insert may not have sealed too well but a new part moulded in silicone may fix it. A lot of heathen dealers (like the one who supplied my 1st 400F ) just ripped the metal covers off and damaged the grey plastic body in the process.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Did you sell the original pipes off it on FB Julie? Seemed like a good deal to me.

I have been an electronics design engineer for yonks  but all of my bikes apart from my 400F (which came with Boyer Bransden Mk3 when I bought it in 1985 and still works OK) will be fitted with the standard arrangement. I think it depends on how many miles you will be covering... not a lot in the case of most classic bikes. The standard ' Kettering' ignition system on these bikes works well ...so if it's not broken ... blah blah. When I got my 1st 400F in 1978 I designed a CDi which used the standard points and did over 20k miles with it fitted (with a couple of popped main capacitors along the way ... capacitor technology then was not really designed for CDi only valve colour TV's). I never changed the points and there was never any significant  wear on the heel of the contact breakers, so the timing never went out. This was with either ND or Hitachi points though ... heard nasty stories about Daiichi points/condensers but that may be that there are lots of Chinese ripoffs around.

So if you are only doing relatively low miles and you can find  decent quality, preferrably OEM points and condensers, then I would fit the standard system. One DS system I saw has the electronics on a circular PCB that replaces the points plate. Irrespective of if it functions OK it only looks to have rudimentary weather/vibration protection and that would really put me off.

I think the original Boyer system possibly draws more current than standard due to it's unique (and patented IIRC) design.
My CDi system used an inverter which drew low current at low revs and higher current at high revs. This is the revers on the standard system.

Oddjob swore by the Hondaman ignition which basically does what my CDi did but just utilises transistors to switch the coil current rather than through the contact points rat. Mine whacked 400VDC across the coil from a charged capacitor... which is what Honda did on the CX500/Superdream etc. etc. ... Like my CDi, with the Hondaman ignition, you can simply revert to the standard setup with a switch because both use the standard points and auto-advancer.