Dyna S reliability?

[Tom108]

For those of you that have installed Dyna S's how have they held up? how many miles/years have you had them? I'm just curious to know, am installing one this week just wondering if they hold up, getting tired of buying used/fried ignitor boxes.

[focus frenzy]

well my 1100E had one on it when I bought it a couple years ago and it is still working.

the only complaint I can make about it is that it fires the plugs when you turn off the key.

say you turn on the key but don't hit the starter button then remember you forgot something and turn the key back off and there happens to be a cylinder with gas fumes in it and a open exhaust valve, or intake valve. well the plugs will fire when the key is turned off and BLAAAMMM!!!! you will jump a mile!

[earlfor]

I have installed a Dyna S on the 7 GS's I have owned and none have ever failed. I put 52K on one, 38K on another and averaged 10-15k miles on the other five.

Earl

[salty_monk]

Focus... Surely only if you have the kill switch turned on. I've never had that happen to me.

Dan

[Big T]

Mine's only 24 years old.

I'll let you know if there's a problem

[Tom108]

troubleshooting

Thanks for the replies!! 24 years, Okay then. I guess there's not going to be a problem with reliability.
I did read one thread where someone got a bad one right out of the box, but Dyna replaced it no problem, so that's good news.
For the one that backfires with the ignition off, Focus Frenzy it sounds like maybe an ignition switch issue where you still have 12 volts to the unit with the key off.

It's funny but there are a lot of posts when people have problems, but very few follow ups to find out what worked and what didn't, I guess once you get your bike running no one wants to play on the computer......it's more fun to get out and ride!! Still it would be nice to know what worked with the millions of suggestions/fixes being thrown around on here.

Maybe we could set up some kind of poll and take a tally of years/models/issues and known fixes.......could save a lot of needless posts and replies and grief when troubleshooting? Instead of searching through thousands of posts.

[n1elkyfan]

My guess is that Focus doesn't turn his kill switch off.

[tkent02]

My guess is that Focus doesn't turn his kill switch off.

It will fire off a spark whenever power is applied or removed to it, whichever switch you use.
I got zapped a few times while doing some spark troubleshooting until I learned this.
Strong spark too it felt like.

P.S. The problem was poorly crimped spark plug wires, the ignition unit itself was fine.

[Tom108]

Dyna S installation complete

Just finished installing the Dyna S kit (DS3-2) on my 1982 GS550LZ. The aluminum spacer provided in the kit is too thick, it measures .125" which will clamp the rotor and advance mechanism preventing it from advancing and returning properly. It needs to be .080" thick or less to work correctly. I made a spacer that size and it works beautifully. If anyone needs a washer turned to that size let me know I can make you one. Needless to say the old 550 is sparking again and back on the road!!! Thanks for your responses!

[Nessism]

Noticed the same thing about the washer on my 550. Kind of a pain to find the proper one, or shave down the stock washer like I did.

Did you have to skew the adjustment to the far side of the slot when setting the timing? My 550 is most of the way to one side but seems to work just fine.

[onchiman]

On my 550 I took the easy way out and sanded down the top of the Dyna aluminum rotor a few thousandths, until it didn't bind anymore. It worked beautifully. I think there are two slightly different sized rotors available in the Dyna S series, one for KD ignitions (DS3-1) and one for ND ignitions (DS3-2). Suzuki used both types in the 550. Well I ordered the wrong one of course but it was an easy fix.

[Tom108]

Noticed the same thing about the washer on my 550. Kind of a pain to find the proper one, or shave down the stock washer like I did.

Did you have to skew the adjustment to the far side of the slot when setting the timing? My 550 is most of the way to one side but seems to work just fine.

Well I have a machine shop and a Lathe so I just made a new one .080" thick. I just eyeballed the timing, I could not get a 12 volt test bulb to light using their procedure, I also tried using my multimeter but that didn't work either, so I just lined up the timing marks and advanced the rotor fully clockwise and lined the dimple on the side of the rotor up with the raised bump on the inside of the pickup. It wound up about one quarter of the way from the end of the slots but not all the way to the end. She fired right up and idled and and accelerates fine, but I will still throw a timing light on while it's running at 3000 rpm (fully advanced) just to be sure the timing is right.

[Tom108]

On my 550 I took the easy way out and sanded down the top of the Dyna aluminum rotor a few thousandths, until it didn't bind anymore. It worked beautifully. I think there are two slightly different sized rotors available in the Dyna S series, one for KD ignitions (DS3-1) and one for ND ignitions (DS3-2). Suzuki used both types in the 550. Well I ordered the wrong one of course but it was an easy fix.

I wrote to Dynatek, they should just put both washers in the kit, they're cheap enough if you order them in quantity. I couldn't tell which ignition I have I wasn't sure how to identify which one it is.

[Zook]

Dynas have a good record for reliability, but over on the Guzzi board there are some who swear by Dyna and som who swera at Dyna.
One person said they had noticed some bad boxes lately.
Dyna seems to stand behind their product.

[80GS750]

i know the dyna s is in my box of future mods.....