81 coils on a 76 F1

[Daren]

Hello everyone,
I am new as a registered member but have been using the wealth of knowledge on this site to assist with my build for the last 6 months. I bought a 76 F1 from some guy off FleaBay which claimed it was a "daily rider".....well it wasn't. It had been sitting neglected in the west LA sun and salt air for years. The bike ran, I made sure I bought a running bike as I am not setup to rebuild an engine where I live, but everything else needed attention. Good thing I trucked the bike rather than trying to ride it home, I never would have made it. So I won't waste too much of your time but I do have a question.

I have a set of coils from an 81 DOHC and I've noticed they have polarity where as the 76 coils are not stamped with + or - symbols. I know on the SOHC the black and white wires come from the kill switch which is sending power to the colis and the blue and yellow come from the points. And generally coils do not have polarity (am I correct?). I would love to put the 81 coils on the 76 as they allow for plug wires to be changed and the plug wires on the coils the bike came with are in pretty bad shape. I know I will have to make a custom mount as they are not a direct swap. So....can anyone tell me on the 81 coils does it matter if the wires from the kill switch go to the positive or negative terminal? Just trying to be logical it would seem they go to the positive but I would hate to ruin a good set of coils....or possibly ruin the condensers on the points plate (if that is even a possibility).
thanks,
Daren

 

[losttravlyr]

yes you can use the dohc coils on earlier models. as for the kill switch i cannot answer,,i have never looked at a stock one. i always rewire these bikes to a simplified thing and connect a toggle into the hot wire from the ign switch to the coils using that as a kil switch.

 

[Daren]

Thanks,
I'm assuming the only reason the coils for the 81 DOHC have polarity is the 81 has spark units, since the 76 SOHC does not the polarity on the coils does not matter.
Can anyone confirm?

 

[losttravlyr]

you will have to change the connectors, twist the wires together or something but they will plug up just like your others. yellow and blue to the corresponding points wires and the black/white that goes from one coil to the other then becomes one wire goes to the kill or ign switch..

on igniters,if you look around on u tube there should be something about replacing them with g.m. elec ign modules.the early ones that went into the distibutor..it would be a good lo cost alternative if yours quit working. i dunno about the mounting but worth the effort to make a bracket if wanna save money and have easy to get replacements.