Questions regarding ignition Coils on my Le Mans IV.

[bigbikerrick]

Hello Folks, I was checking the timing on my 85 LM, and I noticed one of the coils had at some point leaked out some of the epoxy from inside. These have been on the bike for about 3 years, and the bike is running great. Should I replace the coils since one has leaked? Is that a sign of impending failure? I read somewhere that some coils are "self healing" is this true? i measured the resistance across the 2 terminals, and it is 3.4 ohms. My LM has a Dyna III ignition, should I replace the coils with 5 ohm coils? These coils are orange in color, and have no label ,or identifying marks anywhere. Does anyone know what brand they might be?  any suggestions, and advice, mucho appreciated!
Thanks ,
Rick.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Measure from the HT to the primary terminals might be in the order of 5-8k Ohms if they both read the same I wouldn't worry.
As to the other questions I haven't a clue.

[bigbikerrick]

Measure from the HT to the primary terminals might be in the order of 5-8k Ohms if they both read the same I wouldn't worry.
As to the other questions I haven't a clue.

I had measured between the two terminals where the small bolts are. I will try what you suggest, and measure between the spark plug wire terminal and the primary terminal(s)
Thanks,
Rick

[Triple Jim]

Epoxy is thermosetting, so whatever goop they put inside that leaked out probably isn't epoxy!  Oil filled coils are self healing.  They're the ones in metal cans like old style automotive coils.  But I still probably wouldn't worry much about it if the resistance Roy said to measure checks out OK.  Since they're the 3 ohm coils, you might consider an ohm or two in series to cut down on heating.  Even one ohm makes a big difference.  I have a thread around here somewhere that details some of the testing I did on my Mille.

[mtiberio]

Sure it wasn't there since new?

[double.d]

They look exactly like the Black Dyna coils I bought for mine. If they are not Dyna and you want to replace them, replace them with Dyna and not those crappy tin can coils.

[Triple Jim]

Those crappy tin can coils are the good oil-filled self-healing ones.  Agreed that not that all of them are the highest quality though.  I wasn't happy with the Emgo version when I tried them.

[bigbikerrick]

I measured the resistance with one lead of the multimeter in the terminal where the plug wire goes, and the primary terminals and got zero reading. I tried swapping the pos. and negative lead, and the 2 different primary terminals, still nothing. Hmmm...... I re checked between the 2 primary terminals and got 3.4-3.5 ohms again. The bike fired right up after putting everything back together, its just a tad too advanced at 5000-6000 rpms, and I plan to adjust it,but I was happy to find both cylinders were evenly too advanced to  about 36 degrees. I put a degree wheel on the front of the crank, and  i am pretty sure I got the timing marks right where they should be. There were no  factory marks on the flywheel at 34 degrees DTDC, so I centerpunched a dot, and applied a bit of white paint, to make it easier to check with the strobe, especially now that I bought a decent timing light!
Rick.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Perhaps the other end of the High Tension coil is connected the the iron core and not the primary.
 It will be many thousands of Ohms so start at the highest range, I will measure the Dyna coils I have.
Not the same colour though.

Couldn't find the spare set so I measured the green ones on the Cali II

One measured 14.3k the other one is open, still runs ok though

[Wayne Orwig]

Perhaps the other end of the High Tension coil is connected the the iron core and not the primary.
 It will be many thousands of Ohms so start at the highest range, I will measure the Dyna coils I have.
Not the same colour though.

This. It is probably to the frame ground. They sometimes are like that.

What leaked out is probably paraffin. It likely just got hot, but still works fine.

[bigbikerrick]

This. It is probably to the frame ground. They sometimes are like that.

What leaked out is probably paraffin. It likely just got hot, but still works fine.

.

Thanks, OMG, I think you are correct re the paraffin, I scraped it off, and it felt like paraffin, not epoxy.
Thank you,
Rick