Is there an "insulator" that goes down the length of the stick? I didn't have the seals in place, as I didn't want to cut them until I knew the sticks would work. I put the OEM coils back on and it fired right up.I don't know about an "insulator", but mine did have thin, metal "bands" (for lack of a better word) around them. They ran most of the length of the coil. (They'd look like a "C" if you took them off and looked down the length.) But since they were metal, I don't really see how they'd stop any arcing.
Also, all four seem to seat loosely on the plugs compared to the "zip" seating of the OEM boots. But, I can feel them engage and seat. The sticks will wiggle around in the well, but that should be taken care of once the seals are are on them. Is that "looseness" normal for the sticks?Mine wiggled, but the rubber grommets that were on them fit nicely into the top of the Connie's valve cover, snugging them up nicely and keeping water out.
Yes, they do have the rubber boots that go over the spark plugs. The arcing is about halfway between the top of that boot and the top of the coil, through the "C" shaped bands. Those bands are all there and are black and either thin metal or plastic. They don't wrap completely around the coil. There's a 1 mm gap where the two edges come together, but the arcing is not coming through the gap, but through the band.Well, that sounds like all the parts of the coil that should be there, are. I can't imagine what might cause that arcing, though.
... Hopefully he won't ask you why you didn't just buy the stick coils from him but maybe not.
Many people do not even use the rubber seal that your talking about as that is all it is; it is not an insulator. Some have used nothing more than a simple o-ring to seal the well from water...
Sounds like a wiring issue to me. Are you sure that you connected (in series) the black into 1 and out to 4 as well as connected (in series) the green into 2 and out to 3 as well as paralleled the red to coils 3 & 4 ? Polarity of the stick coils is not important as long as you follow the same suit... The black with yellow is a ground wire and is no longer utilized.
I think I went backwards from what you describe which is just switching polarity, which doesn't matter. I did: Red to 1(+), 1(-) to 4(+), and 4(-) to black. Red to 2(+), 2(-) to 3(+), and 3(-) to green.
Red____(1)____(4)____Black
Red____(2)_____(3)____Green
As drawn above "should" have worked too...
I got another set of stick coils and installed them today. The bike fired right up and ran fine. Side by side, the old sticks and new sticks are identical, so I have no clue why the first set was arcing. Thanks for the help guys, especially, Tony.
If you care to burn the postage send them to me as I'd love to test them out to see if I can ascertain why the issue....