fun and games with my spark

[lingeringstin...]

I've done most of my wiring and have opted for the AC fired CDI setup against my better judgment. My mind says go with the DC setup, and I might eventually anyway, but for now I've got a self igniting ignition separate from the battery circuit. I think I just wanted to try it and see. At the moment I'm using some standard AC Chinese CDI box that is probably used on loads of things.

Anyway, I got to the stage where I can turn the motor over with it's starter and observe the spark.

Initially I'd used a Yamaha Banshee 350 twin lead coil for easier wiring and the fact that it comes with really long spark plug leads so it's easy to hide away somewhere.

It sparked turning the engine over on the starter but I didn't really think it was sparking so good. So I connected up a Chinese CA250 coil, which is probably standard issue on a wide variety of these things, and turning the engine over on the starter the spark seemed a bit better better.

Then for shits and grins I hooked up the old Lucas bean tin coil I've been using for the past 25 years on my MZ engines and to my astonishment it threw the best spark of all even though it was only powering from the pitiful little alternator coil on the Chinese stator. I couldn't believe it even worked!

Now I'm again having weird thoughts of trying to run two spark plugs from one coil. I haven't actually spliced two plug wires together yet mainly because I don't think that will work but I did get sidetracked on tinternet and found some magneto waffle about "pass through coils" and shit here:

https://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23018

It's got me thinking. So I'm currently in mad scientist mode thinking of "it'll never work" ways to power two spark plugs from one old Lucas coil.


PART TWO - MORE FUN!


So just for the hell of it I wired up two of those old car coils in series. That's the hot wire from the stator coil to the positive on the first ignition coil, then off the other terminal to the positive on the second coil and then the last wire to ground. I plugged in two spark plugs and grounded them and turned the motor over on the starter to see what happened and to my amazement both plugs were sparking away.

Now it all gets complicated because I'm wondering about Ohms and inductances and loads and ritual sacrifice all that other electrical shit I don't really have a grasp of.

Basically, the best set of coils I've got at the moment are a pair of 30 year old car coils that apparently work happily off the wee little igniter coil on the Chinese stator. Would this be a problem? Am I in danger of burning out my stator coil or my CDI box or something running like this? And what would be the difference between wiring the coils up in parallel instead of series? How does that impact the ignition system and it's components?

I'm bewildered.