Howdy do everyone,

I have looked around, but... sadly, I am not an expert on what exchanges with what, so ... I thought I might ask you.  Is there an electronic igntion kit available that'll also fit on the LT2?  Like.. I saw one for a MX100, but can't say for sure.  

Thank you,

-Nero

Greetings from Tennessee  
  

Can I ask why you don’t want the stock magneto points setup they are very reliable 

Are you asking me because you don't have the answer to my question?  Or do you think i'm just anti-points?  

Points ignitions are amazing.  I can build a good one, out of materials in my junk drawer and at my kitchen table.  When I say good, I mean choice contact shapes, springs, capacitor to reduce points wear, a cam and if I'm real industrious, even both the magneto coil and the ignition coil.  There's magic there.  Also, the progressive failure mode can be thought of as a benifit.  Points rarely just "fail" but they start to provide a less hot spark, less consistant spark, timing can drift...   While the thing still runs, it can be infuriating to deal with.  

But there are real reasons why every street rodder, and every OEM has gone to at least breakerless, if not contact-less ignitions entirely.  In 1980, every bike ended up with electronic ignition, for one real reason.  If your ignition timing is off, so are your emissions.  But.. if your emissions are off, so is your power, starting performance, how clean your plug stays....  So while it cost a bit more for the manufactuers, we, as consumers, all benfiited from contact-less ignitions. 

The benifits of electronic ignition are so great, even the horifficaly stodgy General Aviation field has gone to breakerless ignitions.  These are guys who won't even automate startup enrichment, and have to have a mechanic replace a throttle cable!  

I want electronic ignition so I can just forget about the ignition system.  I won't need to worry about replacing a capacitor every couple years, touching up the points if they start to corrode a little, adjusting for cam wear, or even making sure I get sure points dwell is right.  Electronic ignitions are also essentially waterproof, so if something gets in the timing cover, i'm.. fine.  And I can forget I own a crank puller.  

Yeah, I've got reasons. Consistant, perfect, timing.  Zero fooling around.  Water and weather resistance.  I also have my crank puller, a set of points, a condensor, and the skills to do the job.  

So, is there a kit?  If there isn't... that's cool too.  It's not world ending, I just wasn't able to find one easily, so I thought I'd ask the people I thought would know.  

I'm in NZ & our Yamy AG100 farm bike which is really an LT2 they just kept on making with not a lot of differences through the years.
Can still see the resemblance. So i'm thinking 'that system' might swap over. Good reliable cdi system even though i like points lol.
www.ascomotorsvanuatu.com/ag100/
So googling i can't find one for sale but found this interesting video using a source coil only with no trigger coil.
I made a similar system on my old RT2 360, same year as your LT2 as it happens.
This guy in the video has what looks the same secondary coil/cdi box combined as mine which i used from a Suzy RG50 or almost any small Suzuki.
Seems to just trigger as the magnets go past a certain point But i strobed my RT2 360 & timing was good.with the "74 flywheel still on the crank key & using source coil & stator plate from the "74 DT360.
Trigger was stuffed from screw falling out & bought it like that 'with a plan' & yay it worked.
I did the same 20 years ago on a DT125LC i bought with screws fallen out & similar damage.
So--forgotten where i'm going with this--might find a system at a 'not great cost' in Thailand or somewhere for a similar motor.
May need to be 100cc as 125's i think got 'fatter' & likely bigger crank shaft with taper & possibly bigger stator plate but not sure.
125's can be stretched to 175 but 100's are stuck at 'that. Well--115 & 135's in Asia. So that's enough bull shite for now. Too much to proof reed, hope it's legible
ps lost my video link, i'll find it.
Found it & put in new post. Your LT2 stator likely has 3 coils [two lighting] so not sure if  there's a shorter cdi stator coil you can buy to fit on your plate. But stator in the vid only has one lighting & the cdi source coil.
 

Well those are two good leads. Thank you.

Nice rant. One thing not mentioned is an LT2 is unlikely to see enough miles in its lifetime to even come close to wearing out a set of quality points.  This is not the same as points in a multi-cylinder vehicle that easily triggered 10 times the sparks in a month of commuting than the ET magneto on most of these bikes will in decades.  And when electronics fail, you're stuck.  These original magnetos are more forgiving in that respect. 

I get it though.  You prefer electronic ignition.  Nothing wrong with that.

Two major suppliers are VAPE and HPI.  Not sure they would have anything for an LT2.  Your stator is likely 130mm diameter like the CT...  I'm not sure if flywheel taper is the same though.  If it is, a CT kit should fit. 

You might also check suppliers in Asia as the smaller bikes are popular there...  challenge is that Yamaha went to a 120mm stator on most of the smaller models in 1974.  But maybe someplace like Ohtokc might have something. 

It seemed that they were thinking I didn't know how to handle a points based ignition, and or were really convinced points were superior.

I do prefer electronic ignition, but it feels like that's not necessarily an ok position to have. The pushback here feels really weird.

I ran into VAPE, HPI, and Ohtokc too. The first two are shockingly expensive. I was thinking maybe the MX100 kit would work? The flywheel information is really useful, thank you.

The AG100 stuff is... like $500 in parts plus shipping. That's a non starter as well. $500 covers a lot of time messing under the ignition cover.


The answers here seem to range from "eh, not really" to "that's the cost of a new bike", and.. that just means the fun really begins. I end up poking at weird corners of hobbies from time to time. Like... re-discovering the formula for putting GS650 top end on a GS550.

So... I think the way forward might just be picking up a honda c50/90/110, or Tomos ignition/lighting system in it's entirety. I suspect those ignition modules don't have advance curves. Making a backing plate, and running with that. The biggest question there, I think, will be the crank taper. Thankfully I'm one of those "have lathe, will make chips" folk. That said, I should see if I can pick up a spare rotor on ebay.

Worst case, I'll report back with some useful numbers and a "this plan didn't work". Best case, I'll drop you all a formula for getting reasonably priced modern ignition.

What you may be feeling is simply people with actual experience with the reliability and low maintenance requirements of the original Yamaha ET points magneto and who understand them only trying to save you from spending a bunch of time and money for basically zero real life benefit. 

If there was a good modern inexpensive replacement electronic ignition available that made sense it would have been recommended.  No need to read "criticism" or "push back" into anyone's questions or comments..

It's your time and money...  if you do come up with something inexpensive and reliable many will be interested and supportive.  

RT325 has described what might be the best course of action...  finding a CDI box that triggers off the original source coil.  There was a guy in a remote town in South America I corresponded with years ago who did exactly that with help from his electronics repairman uncle. (Parts were hard to come by and more expensive than he could afford so they built a CDI trigger box from spare parts his uncle had)  OEM's did it in some models and Rex's in the UK also uses the "source coil trigger" concept on their systems.