Hitchcocks Forum

Ah well, it had to happen - glorious day decided to head off to Inverary, and then Oban, which is a run of nearly 100 miles. Bike - 2004 Classic with 4 speed box, electric start - going fine. However, on departure noticed rear left indicator (after market 70s style jobbie) was wobbling and the bracket had fractured due to vibration. So I applied duck tape and a cable tie. All fine, pulled in for fuel after 5 miles. Set off, 200 yards on, cough splutter more splutter - aarrgh, in outside lane - pulled into turning gap on A82 conveniently opposite the garage near Dumbarton once owned by Jackie Stewart. Guys let me park the bike. Press starter, fiddle with choke, check plug (spark), remove by now hanging indicator, insulate exposed wire. Give up. Call rescue. Take bike to pal. Initial indications suggest coil was failing and has now completely failed. The good news is I could have been in Inverary, miles away, so the pain was not too bad, and the other good news is I was planning a 1000 mile trip at the end of June. So fortunately this has happened now! Anyone else experienced coil problems?

Ah coil problems!!!!!!!
I have had those as well as carb probs. My coil broke down also over time. When hot the machine would die ,cool down and I could go home (quickly). It did take a while to fathom out but once a coil was fitted everything was fine. I fitted our hosts standard coil because it fitted the bracket but I did notice that they do a German one but its smaller and doesn't fit the bracket which I thought was a bit awkward to change . Has anyone any thoughts on which coil is best or are they equal in quality?
David w

These coils are an old design back from the dark old days and they used to fail back then so they will continue to fail now. Not that often but it will always catch you out when you least expect it. Doesn't hurt to have a spare taped up under the seat

Why wait for something to fail that you know will fail? ..... had the same problem, temporarily fitted a VW Polo coil taht just happened to be on the shelf. .... it was many years before i got round to replacing it with one of Hitchcocks finest

Bryan,
In the old days it was fairly standard procedure when doing a tune up you automatically replaced coil, points, condensor and plugs and then things started to get more reliable and people started forgetting to replace the coil

Never had coil problems myself. Never mind, your breakdown could have been worse. I mean, you could have been passed by 2 or more fat-assed HD boys giving you the finger......

I reinforced the indicators with a strip of aluminium, Supaglue on the back and two screws. I still have the original coil, thirteen-years-old. I have pasted one photo, but it is from the new Photobucket set-up, so I don`t know what is going to appear on here.

On my crossbred machine I have a spare coil and TCI unit taped up under the seat because as long as I carry these items I will never need them

Last year I was on a 5-day trip from South Wales to the Lake District, including a day's biking around the Lakes. I did thrash it a bit (most people were on more "conventional" bikes. Coil just suddenly died about 25 miles from home. Just put one of those small modern dual-output coils on my Norton -- they certainly "feel" as though they should be better and more reliable, but I have no evidence whatsoever for that statement.

Norm is right - the assumption is that coils today are reliable and should last for years - the coil on my 52 Sunbeam is fine, for example, so I tend to ride with little other than a few basic tools. Having had a throttle cable snap, fractured indicator bracket and now a failed coil - it is shaping up to need a small shopping basket of spare parts for any significant journey. Interesting point about HD riders, fat or not, plenty of them went past. 20 years ago people would have stopped - not today. So rather than giving them the finger, I found myself waving goodbye to the HD brotherhood as they carried on their merry way.