The whole motivation of developing the Dyna kit was the discovery that the Nology coils wouldn't work with the "black" ignition boxes found on Ms and SSs starting around 1994 or 1995. As copied from my aftermarket page, the Ducati factory changed the ignition modules used to drive the coils at some point near 1995. Previous units had a midnight blue potting (or expoxy or filler). These units have black potting. The ignition modules with the black potting are not compatible with Nology Pro Fire coils. The "Blue" boxes were of high quality using a Dwell type of excitation. The newer ones I believe are simpler transistor type that run the primary current through the coil at higher values. This causes the Nology coil to get very hot then begin to break down. Continued running will melt out the red potting of the coil and the ignition module will soon follow! It is possible that the factory went back to the blue boxes around 1997 or 1998.

The Dyna coils do not readily bolt on to the stock coil mounting bracket. I also read about folks that had problems with them hitting the gas tank as well as other folks drilling holes in the airbox so the coils "core" could pass down into the airbox. Some folks cut the coils, etc, but no one was truly happy with the install.

Step in the aggro machinist whose bike just blew up some Nology coils and stock ignition modules and some R&D is gonna happen. We came up with mounting brackets or adaptor plates that the coils would bolt to, which would then bolt right on to the stock coil bracket. We, too, found the clearance issue, so we saw off the extra unneeded hole in the coils' cores.

To make the kit a proper bolt on, all of the necessary hardware is included. Also, brand new NGK silicon wires are cut to length with the proper connectors for the coils installed. New terminal lugs are included so that there is no splicing required. Unclip the connectors from the stock coils and they go right on the clips included in the kit.

Instructions are included. There's 5 pages, printed front and back with a lot of grainy pictures.

Zina's bike was the first true testbed and she noticed that while riding in the canyons, the bike would not stumble anymore when it would in the past. Mostly at lower rpm with high throttle/load. Also, I didn't "cheat" with her kit by installing new plugs. I really wanted to see if she'd notice - and she did!

Among the first batches of kits to be sold went to the UK. Here's actual customer e-mail:

From: Nick Harms nick.harms@marchFIRST.com
To: Chris Kelley
Subject: RE: Dyna coils kit
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 12:56:51 +0100 

Chris

Hi the kit was waiting for me at home on Wednesday evening and was on the
bike by 6:30 Thursday morning - thanks to a curry which kept me awake for
most of the night.

The kit was great - the instructions were detailed and easy to follow. It
was dead easy to take the old coils off and plug the new ones in.

As for their performance. Hard to tell on the commute into work - what I
have noticed is the absence of any misfires and the whole machine feels a
lot more willing. Throttle response is also a bit better, the bike used to
bog down a little on the overrun into a corner (there is one on my journey
to work), this doesn't happen now, so when you get back on the gas to drive
through the bend theirs plenty of oomph available. 

The best thing about them tho is that the bike starts a whole lot easier. It
had become a real bitch after I put the nicholls flywheel on, now is starts
second or third go. That in itself is worth the cash - and will certainly
cheer the neighbours up.

Have a good one.

Thanks, Nick... I will!

I build these kits in relatively small batches, 5 to 10 at a time. I'd do more, but there's too much cash outlay to have a lot of them on the shelf at once.

On a related note to Nick's mail, Zina's bike was down for a while because her Pro Italia clutch slave cylinder failed and I had to wait for a loaner cylinder from a friend before she could ride again. (In the interim, she has become infected with the fruit of the 4 valver!) Anyhow, I installed the loaner and started her bike up after having been sitting for almost 3 weeks and it was so crisp on start up that I couldn't believe it. We've got the Yoyodyne unit now, so it's all good.

How about some more feedback:

From: Mking2365@aol.com
To: Chris Kelley
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 6:59 PM
Subject: Dyna Coils!!!

Chris,

I got the Dyna-coil kit installed this weekend on my 900ss, and I'm super
impressed with the performance/driveability improvement.  I do my own
tuning work and can usually notice slight differences in performance based on
minor changes.  Subtle improvement is what I was expecting from this coil kit,
but this is way more than subtle.  It cleaned up the low end sloppiness and
sharpened throttle response.  My Borlas are booming deeper too!!  The NGK
racing plug wires and fist size coils look kickass and have my biker-wrench
head friends drooling (even the Harley guys).  And to top it off, the hardware
and instructions are outstanding. In and out in less than an hour with no 
problems.

Considering the whimpiness of the stock coils and the low cost of the
kit, this has got to go on the "must have" list. 

Thanks for your dedication to Ducati!
-Scott

Thanks for your kind words, Scott. =)

The Dyna coils kit is available at California Cycleworks