TOPIC:

Done and secure. The back side first, third the face.

Once on the bike I will check for clearances from the tank, as they are a bit bigger than the OEM resistors pack, and perhaps angle the main bracket to increase the distance, as suggested by Neville in his excellent write up before. It's good enough for now to mount and connect all the wires, while the gas tank is being painted.

This is my take on the resistors mounting along with the AW82-TR1 coils. It is solid and didn't take much time to make. A bit of a steam punk approach, but works and gave me an idea of how I'd make a clean cut one if doing it again with proper tools. But this one works, so why would I want to make another one, unless bored in the future some day! I might just go for it though because I am already seeing ways to improve this!



A couple of notches for a bit of top tension.

Stan, can I ask a (potentially silly) question about these coils and their internal resistances vs. external dropper resistors... in other words go over thousand year old discussions?!?!

I'd understood many months ago that the AW82-TR1 coils can run without external resistors, and indeed was considered a good upgrade as doing so could produce a stronger spark as well as remove the failure points of the extra wiring and resistors and their associated heat in service.

Now first I'll have to figure out where I read that (!) to ensure I'm not talking rubbish... but I also know that various folks have commented that their AW82s are measuring at the lower limit of the total resistance required to protect the igniter circuitry, so have added external resistors back in as a protection / insurance measure, aiming to hit a total resistance figure somewhere just inside the recommended limit?

Is this how you've ended up with AW82s and resistors, or was your understanding that they always require resistors too not matter what?

I guess a secondary question then, to any owners reading this, is whether they run AW82s without resistors and without bad results?!



Reason for asking is that my coils were badly split and one open circuit, so I've bought AW82 TR1s, and yep they also measure a bit low, but I was also very keen on the principle of not running a triple pack of space heaters under my tank, hence..... ; )
(bike no where near running yet, so this is all setup / prep stage still)


I did read a whole bunch of articles on this a while back (as we all have I'm sure) and may have to recap on some of that...

RChaloner, I think this is a good question as long as anyone needs to sort this out!
I am not an authority of any kind On electrics and electronics, and what I settled for is simply my personal choice based on reading.
Here is the logic I followed..

The original coils show 1.6 Ohm, the original resistors show 1.7 Ohms. (on mine and many others anyway) Combined 3.3 Ohm.
According to the manual, the lowest 'approved' combined resistance is 2.7 Ohm, the highest 3.8 Ohm.
The OLD AW82-TR1 coils or NOS replacements seem to show different resistance. Sometimes 2.4, sometimes 2.5, and often lower.
Mine, those I will use, show 2.3 Ohm.

It's been suggested to use 2.5 reading coils without resistors. Also, it's been reported that such used coils failed. It's been said many times that used alone at this resistance worked well. And another suggestion I read was that any coils should be used with some external resistance for protection of the circuit.

My conclusion was, for my 2.3 Ohm coils, to use them with a 0.5 Ohm resistors and have 'the best of all worlds'. I couldn't find those, so I got 0.4 Ohm resistors. So, now I am still within the 'safe' range, have resistors for that supposed protective buffer, and if even lower resistance of 2.5 coils worked for people, these combine sets of 2.7 will equally give that strong spark!
That's all in my bucket of knowledge on this and all the reasoning behind my choice.

These resistors stacked as in the photo are a bit larger than the original resistors unit. I've seen Neville calculated some numbers, but in general, these or the original ones will create heat, so not much difference there. There is so much heat coming from the engine anyway, would this really add that much? Personally, I wish the overall design would be different, different resistors placement, but I'm not going to get into too much modifications. Not at the moment at least. My common sense is telling me there should be no problem and perhaps a good thing if riding in cold weather!

Just looking at your pic Stan and noticed 2 of the resistors are "012 718" and the one in the middle is "012 657" What's up with that?

Right KB, I had it all 'written' in my head and forgot to put it on 'paper' knowing it needs a word or two.Thank you for pointing this out!

The story is I got all from eBay, advertised as the same thing, but from two different vendors. I was going to get all three from one, but he had only two left. So the 'odd' one came from another seller. I was surprised with the numbers, which I have no clue what they mean. The brackets had a bit different colors as well, and while Beru have a 'made in Ireland' print from what I've seen on the web, these 'Beru' came as Bosh and made in Germany. I can settle for that, based on the BMW, Bosh and Germany connection.
I of course tested all three and they all test stable 0.4 Ohm after a few jumps from 0.3 to 0.5. Other than the numbers and that slight difference in the blue, they all look identical. I have no clue what those numbers mean, and at this point don't really care as they show the same numbers. But it is puzzling indeed. I have a few theories bouncing around my skull about this, and I have a plan to actually investigate it. There has to be a rationale behind this, and it could be just as simple as they came from a different plant, different batch, different specific destination as per these go for the this and those for that car model. No clue really... but a mystery indeed.

They read exactly the same, look exactly the same, I am turning a blind eye on the numbers as long as they perform. Now I have to shop for the little screws to attach the cables... Wouldn't you think they should be included? Damn cheepos! haha

Maybe you answered for yourself quite some time ago about the decision to use this type of coil and therefore the necessity to have to use a resistor and all the complication that comes with it. In view of much easier options . Just wondering.