Electronic Ignition

[Nurse Julie]

Hi Chaps

I was going to fit new points to Hettie on her early spring service but reckon I may go the electronic ignition route instead. I have been told that Boyer is the make to fit, has anyone had any problems with this type or know of a different type worth considering ?

ta in advance
Julie x

[Johnwebley]

I have used Boyer since about 1978,

 very little trouble,easy to set up,give a really fat spark,

 if you have any cracks in your HT leads,it will find them in the wet

[mike the bike]

Olright Julie.
I fitted a Dyna system to mine.  There's no extra electronic box to put anywhere,  the only mod I had to do was to run a 12V to the points plate alongside the blue and yellow wires.   

[gtmdriver]

I've just fitted the Boyer unit to mine. It works very well with smoother running and a smoother idle.

The hardest bit was finding a place for the electronic box.



Fitting the backing plate was easy once the advance retard unit was removed.



One thing to remember is that with the Boyer unit ALL the plugs fire at the same time whereas with the standard system they fire in pairs. This will wear the plugs faster than normal so it's worth checking them more frequently.

[Nurse Julie]

How can all the plugs fire at the same time ?

[AshimotoK0]

Think the coils just pick up and replace points and use a transistor switch... so operation no diffeent than points in terms of coil switching. My 400/4 has the same system and it was well old when I bought the bike in 1985 and design basically unchanged. Back in the day my original 400/4. XDN128R was fitted with the Ashimoto patent CDI system... gonna build another one ..one of these days. It did over 20k miles and still had it on when I sod it. Still around that bike ...somewhere

[ka-ja]

Hi,
    Stuffed my electronic box under the battery strap, its was under there for years with no trouble!

[gtmdriver]

How can all the plugs fire at the same time ?

If you look at the picture you will see that there are two pickups on the backplate, one for each coil. You will also see that there are two magnets on the rotor so both pickups are energised at the same time and both coils fire at the same time so all 4 plugs fire together.

Here's a section of the instructions.





I also emailed Boyer Bransden querying why they used this system.

"Can you tell me the thinking behind using two magnets on the rotor and firing all the plugs together rather than using a single magnet and firing the plugs in pairs like the OEM points system? Is it just a question of keeping the rotor balanced?
 
Does this system have any significant effect on spark plug life?
 
John Dickens"

........and this is their reply.

"Hi John, There are a few reasons. Its more accurate, once its completed one revolution, the system will find a central point for sparking and that will never change. Because of this, it makes setting up much easier and can be done on any cylinder. It also burns un-burnt fuel ready for the next firing stroke which improves the running and emissions of the engine."

[Nurse Julie]

Steady on chaps, you should know by now my understanding of anything electrical on bikes is pretty s**t 
What I have sussed is that If I use the Boyer, I need to find somewhere to fix the box, not too difficult by the looks of it, and the Dyna system looks a little easier to fit, so, it may just come down to price comparison. I will do further research I think

[gtmdriver]

You could also look at the Pamco system.

http://4into1.com/pamco-electronic-ignition-honda-cb350f-cb400f/

That is also self contained with no box.

It has had a lot of good reports in the States and turns up on ebay regularly.

[Mr-Gear]

Has anyone got any feedback on the DSS electronic ignition?

[gtmdriver]

I looked at that but unfortunately my OEM system was the wrong type so I went for the Boyer set up.

[Norniron]

Has anyone got any feedback on the DSS electronic ignition?

Yea it was that poorly made i sent it back,spent an extra £30 and got the dyna setup!

[AshimotoK0]

I think that the fact that Boyer have been selling almost the same system for over 40 years  speaks volumes

[JamesH]

I've used the pamco system on two 750's now (both k4's) and both ran superbly.